My Iowa Commute

[SteveDallas]

I'll have to do it again in February.

[Sundae]

Okay, this isn't technically a commute, but it is the same trip I take every time I go to and from my parents' house.

Nothing particularly exiting happens, it's just a new perspective for you. Most of the Tube journeys I take are underground. It's only once you get out onto the further reaches of the map that you travel through houses and then countryside. It's certainly not the Tube that most tourists see. Reviewing it I see the sheer bounciness of the journey doesn't come across. Shame - it's a wonderful rackety ride at some points.

Two clips - one close to Amersham and quite green, the other cloer to London and more urban.

[DanaC]

Yey! That was great

I love that on train journeys: watching for the break in the trees. You go hurtling along through this green tunnel of foliage and every so often it opens up and you get a fleeting glimpse of countryside rolling out to the horizon. I like the reminder that much of england is still substantively green:P

[glatt]

I took some commute pictures today, because it was all pretty with the snow. I'm going to post them next to the same locations I took pictures of in the late Spring a couple years ago. Just for fun.

Originally Posted by glatt

I like seeing everyone's commutes, so I thought I'd join in as well. These are all on my Flickr page, so you can see larger versions there if you like. My commute will look a little different, because I walk. It's about 1.5 miles of total walking each way.

We start off at my house, where I just took out the recycling:

Originally Posted by glatt

Then I go down the street. There's a mixture of small older houses, and silly enormous McMansions. See the tall building in the distance? I'm walking about three blocks past that to enter the MetroRail system:

Originally Posted by glatt

I cut through the playground of this elementary school, but it's OK since no kids are here this early:

Boots are very helpful here.

Originally Posted by glatt

This street of older houses hasn't seen any new McMansions pop up because the houses are all duplexes. To tear one down, you would have to buy out two families, and I guess the developers think it's too much effort:

Originally Posted by glatt

I walk along this bike path for a short distance. You can see I'm starting to get into a built up area around the metro station:

I'm loving the boots.

Originally Posted by glatt

It looks like I'm in the city here, but I'm still in the suburbs, just a few blocks from my house. The metro station is three blocks ahead:

You can see the bollards they finally installed to keep cars from driving on the sidewalk. I was tilting at windmills to get them to install those, and they finally did. Don't know if I had anything to do with it.

Originally Posted by glatt

Here's the elevator down into the ground to catch a train:

Originally Posted by glatt

This is my Metrorail station. I just missed a train, so the platform is pretty empty. It will be packed like sardines in just a minute or two. The glowing sign on the left says the next train will be here in 4 minutes:


The train! You can see it's become more crowded on the platform:


I know where to stand on the train so I'm one of the first off and through the gates. This is coming up out of the ground in downtown Washington D.C. There's a huge mob of people right on my tail, so I take a quick picture and head up the escalator:


Have any of you seen one of these R2-D2 mailboxes for the Star Wars 30 year anniversary?

I didn't take any pictures in the Metro this time because it was a clusterfuck down there with the bad weather, and I didn't want to call attention to myself. And the R2D2 mailbox sticker is gone.

More in the next post.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by glatt

I cut through Franklin Square Park:

Originally Posted by glatt

Go past this old stone church and a new construction site. There's construction everywhere in this city.

...

Originally Posted by glatt

And here's my building! I actually went across the street to take this shot. I don't normally arrive from this direction. I normally come in a back way and sneak through the loading dock:

[jinx]

Heh, that's cool glatt.

[Happy Monkey]

It really is a beautiful snowfall. Last night, it was snowing everywhere except under the trees, and this morning it was snowing only under the trees. A picture perfect winter wonderland. And the snow is so light that "shoveling" is more like mopping. Slide the shovel along the ground, and the snow offers little resistance.

[glatt]

Looking back at these pictures, one of the most interesting things is the way the wires jump out when there is snow on them. These two shots are from slightly different angles, so that explains some of it, but in the Summer shot, you don't see the wires at all. In the Winter shot, it's almost all you see.

[jinx]

Yeah the wires caught my eye. Almost looks unsafe they're so cluttered.
They've been talking about burying ours (just in the historic district) since we moved in here, I hope they get to it eventually...

[Clodfobble]

Did they actually move that one playscape at the school? The one on the right, sticking halfway into the frame? It looks like it's 50 feet farther away from the building now. I mean, they couldn't have, and the other piece between the playscape and the building is still there... but the depth of field is so different.

[glatt]

I think in the old summer picture, I was farther away, and zoomed in, which compresses everything. And in the newer winter one, I was fairly close and zoomed out.

[glatt]

My commute this morning. I had to show a business card to a soldier to get to my building.

This is the view out the back, the checkpoint here is the second checkpoint, so there's nobody around on the sidewalks.

After you get past this second checkpoint, you come to the fences. The huge building in the background is the convention center, and it's like a ghost town over there right now. Should get busy soon though.

[glatt]

The view out the front. I bet motorcades will be coming through here.

[Sundae]

Thanks x 2 Glatt.
For the update (always interesting) and for the chance to review my previous vid. Yes, I think I will go blue (hair colour) again. I likey!

[The CIA]

Glatt,

We will be by in a few moments to confiscate the computer you're using and your digital camera. No heroics, please. Come down to the lobby and take us to your terminal, and we'll keep this on the QT.