I'm seriously thinking about...

...buying a bicycle and riding it to work. Okay so I won't be riding much this or next month, maybe on weekends when Hubby is home to watch the kids. I just don't see me taking 4 kiddies to the daycare all of us riding bikes for 4.5 miles. That's too scary of an idea for my little brain to wrap around. I am thinking about getting one to ride the approx. 5 miles to my place of employement. It's a fairly flat area (the worst hills I have to ride on are on my own driveway). It's a four lane road (two on each side with a big meridian in the middle). Most of it is a 45mph zone (okay so everyone drives about 60mph but there are wide shoulders on each side of the road). Occasionally you do see someone else riding a bike or running so it's not like the motorists have never seen someone on the shoulders. I only have two intersections to worry about. One is a busy 4-way intersection. The other I just have to cross a street that's not too, too busy and then I'm in the parking lot of the nursing home I work at. I've been reading online and it seems a lot of people do ride a 5mile commute. It should take anywhere from 15-45minutes depending on traffic and personal strength. For me, at first anyways, it'll probably take around 30 minutes.
Only cons I can think of are: High traffic on the highway to the street I work; Stupid drivers; Chance of being sweaty and tired when I get to work.
Really that's it. There are more pros: I'll be in great shape fairly quickly; Gas is 3.77-3.81 a gallon and rising. Not getting caught behind slow motorists; Being able to go and ride bikes with the kids on days off. contributing to the good health of others(if I start riding a bike it may start a trend around here, a lot of people walk short distances to work, not so many ride bikes).

The cons I can work with I just follow traffic safety rules and should have little or no problems there. Get me a small backpack to carry a change of clothes in and some wipies and I can be refreshed enough to work. I can't do anything about stupid drivers except to watch out for them, I do that anyway when driving. I think I'll do this, I'll buy a decent bike (and a helmet) in a few weeks and at least make trial runs to see how long it takes me to get there. I'm bound to get a lot of questions from friends, neighbors and coworkers. With gas prices they are bound to agree.