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Thursday, May 23, 2013

The Morning Commute

  It's been raining on Mackinac Island for the past four days. We've had light rain, heavy downpours, and  rains that have lasted all day and all night.

This morning I rode to work in a light rain; more than a sprinkle but not much. As I rode I noticed what looked like small twigs all over the road. Lots and lots of little twigs. It must have rained pretty hard, I thought. But then I looked closer. They weren't twigs.


My entire one mile bike ride to work was like that - worms everywhere: long ones, short ones, skinny ones, fat ones, and squished ones - lots and lots of squished ones. And riding around them wasn't really an option.


By the time I left school at about 4:00, they were gone. We must have some of the best fed birds in the entire state of Michigan...

5 comments:

  1. Living on the rainy west coast, we see this a lot. I've always wondered about it, seems counter-intuitive. I get coming out of the saturated ground, but why always on the pavement?

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  2. I'm surprised I haven't thought to ask this before, but I work in a school as an interventionist, and I'm curious -- do teachers on Mackinac Island have to get dressed up for work? We aren't supposed to wear casual clothes, but I don't have to walk/bike through the rain and snow to get to work. It seems like it'd be a pain to do that in dress pants or a dress!

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  3. We've had lots of rain, but I haven't noticed the worms.

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  4. Hi Emily, I hesitate to say that we dress “casually” at school, but compared to the way most other teachers dress we probably do. A typical day for me is dress pants or khakis a shirt and a blazer, sweater or fleece. Shoes are very practical – tennis shoes or something a bit dressier but without a heel. I’m probably the only staff member who wears dresses and then usually only in September and May – when it is warm enough for bare legs! You’re right in that whatever we wear has to work for riding a bicycle or a snowmobile. My “commute” is one mile, so if I’m wearing a skirt I often fold it carefully and put it in my backpack until I get to school. It’s warmer that way and riding a bike in a pencil skirt is pretty much impossible. However, I have learned over the years that one can ride a snowmobile sidesaddle!

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  5. OMG! Do all these worms appear every time it rains?

    I commute by bike too because I can dress casual clothes at work! It's fantastic!

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