The weather today was beautiful again–beautiful clear skies, a little on the warm side but nothing out of the ordinary, and a wonderful summer breeze (which in fact, did makes me feel fine).

I got out of the house really, really late this morning, mainly because for the past few days I’ve been waking up at ridiculously early hours and going home late. Since we have summer Fridays, I figured instead of starting early and ending early, I’d come in late, stay to the regular time, and go to Uncle Jack’s Steakhouse with my wife (who’s driving into the City tonight).

There were plenty of bikes in the dock on Eighth and 33th which is always full, one of the perks of coming in late.

I decided to go up Eighth, which wasn’t all that bad this time of day. I crossed over on 40th, which as usual was hit or miss, and today was miss. Again, cars squeezed in within an inch of my life to the point where I was forced to go and walk my bike on the sidewalk.

I went left on Madison, which again wasn’t horrible, still an elevated stress level as you constantly need to stay alert for trucks who want to squeeze as close to you as they can.

I decided as usual to forego 52nd and 5th, and try my luck at 51st and Lexington. As I rode in there were four docks left. Then there were three as someone coming from the East side took the first one (no hard feelings, first come, first served). The first dock had a red light. The second dock didn’t. I put my bike in. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing.

Okay, on to the last one. No red light. I put the bike in. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. YELLOW AND NOTHING. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing.

I’m not just being cute in my writing here. I really did try this many times. There was no way I was biking all the way to the next bike station.

Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing. YELLOW AND NOTHING. YELLOW AND NOTHING. YELLOW AND NOTHING. Yellow and nothing. Yellow and nothing.

So, I got on the bike and biked my way to the next station at 47th and Park. Only I lost my bearings and ended up going to the 47th and 2nd station, and then had to walk 15 minutes to the office. You know, the 15 minutes that it would have taken me to walk halfway to the office from Penn Station. That 15 minutes. But I guess it was consolation when I walked past the 47th and Park docks to see they were all filled up. Although had I checked my phone I would have seen that there were plenty of open spaces at 52nd and 5th.

I read in the news that Citi Bike may be receiving a “bailout” infusion of several million dollars, which they’ll presumably use to open up new bike stations uptown and in the outer boroughs. So help me, if they add more docks to those places and don’t add new docks to the ones in midtown AND fix the broken ones, they’re going to be throwing money at the total collapse of this whole idea.

Here’s the long road I traveled.

I decided to walk to dinner. Had there still been a station at 49th and 5th it would have made sense for me to bike there, but with 52nd and 5th empty and no other stations on the way it was just easier for me to walk, sadly enough.

Cost per ride: $95/25.5=$3.73

Stress level: 2 of 10

Aggravation level: 7 of 10