I travel from far NW suburbs of Chicago to near NW suburbs of Chicago, year round, though in Chicago winters that's gonna drop the commutes to 1-2 days a week, on average. But from April to November, it's nearly 5 days/week.
I have a home, wife, and kids, so I'm not a freak :). Biking is a way of life. When I first had kids, my previous biking routines (riding in the evening after work) were thrown out the window. That's when I discovered I could continue my hobby by just going to work! How cool is that???
With well over a thousand commutes, I've had some animal encounters that are a little uncommon in suburban Chicago. I've come across a pair of coyotes, a horse trotting down the street with no human around, brushed up against a live racoon (I think ... it was dark), herds of deer almost daily (biggest count was 28-30 in one herd), swooped by red-winged black birds, saw some black angus cows climb a decent-sized gravel hill on their farm (hilarious sight), and killed a chipmunk, to name a few things. When a German Shepard started chasing me on a regular basis, I took the owner to court and won (he had to put up an electrical dog fence).