Friday Notes #28 — Remembering Commute Rides

Last Saturday, I went to the Apple Store downtown Montreal to an appointment with the Genius Bar for a MacBook Pro repair. The Apple Store is a thirty-five minutes bike ride from home but is a five-minute walk from my office. The appointment was early in the morning, It was a sunny day, and the temperature was perfect for a bike ride.

To get to the Apple Store, I chose to go downtown using the same bike lane to commute to the office. The feeling of riding on my way to work was special, strange even. It was the first time in more than a year and a half. So much has changed, yet it felt so familiar. Downtown Montreal is such a nice place, but there is a lot of construction happening: high-rises are popping up everywhere, road work brings a lot of small detours. The pandemic forced many small businesses to close, leaving many empty offices along the way—all of this transforming what I remember of this urban landscape on my way to the office.

This bike ride was a great reminder of how much I used to love commuting by bike during summer. That’s something that working from home is taking away from me, and I miss that a lot. This third five minutes ride was a way to get ready to work on my way to the office or to leave work behind on my way home. I’m not returning full time at the office when we return to the new normal, but when I go to the office once a week, I’ll make sure I do it by bike to keep my memories alive and well.