I Love to Bike! (When it's convenient, anyway)

At what point does one cross over from a fair-weather bike commuter to a hardcore cyclist? Perhaps the question is rhetorical, but one thing is for sure: I'm still fair-weather.

This afternoon I need to meet my wife and kids at the dentist office, which is a mere 7 miles from my work. The options to pull this off were:

1. Bike to work, bike to dentist and back, bike home.
2. Bike to work, borrow a car to dentist and back, bike home.
3. Drive to work, drive to dentist and back, drive home.

You probably already know I elected to exercise option 3, and I feel sort of scummy about it. Option 1 would've been ideal, but a 14 mile ride would've taken serious time out of my work day, not to mention I'm not exactly a fit cyclist yet, so commuting home after throwing in a random 14 mile ride in the middle of the day would've been rather painful. Option 2 would've been nice, but I'd hate to have to borrow someone's car. That just feels weird.

As I increase my commuting frequency I'll have to figure out what to do in these cases. I know I've read somewhere about a guy who drives to various locations during his workday, so he leaves his car at work. I could've driven the car to work Sunday afternoon and biked home, I guess.