Thursday, April 3, 2008

The 100 Mile Commute

It's been a while since I have posted.  A new baby in the house tends to take up quite a bit of time.  Minor things are taking a back seat to the major things.  


One of the things that is taking a lot of my time is the 100 mile round trip to school each day.  In order to help my wife and the new baby adjust to being at home, I agreed to take the other two kids to day care for two weeks.  We live almost half-way between our two schools.  My wife teaches 18 miles due west and I teach 15 miles due east.  The girls' day care is across the street from my wife's school.

Now, I am waking up at 5:30 so I can leave at 6:30 and make it to school by 8:00.  This time in the car does have it upside.  I have been able to introduce my girls to the finer aspects of Morrissey and Jack Johnson.  I am well on my way to listening to almost two years worth of Grammar Girl's podcasts.

Even so, if I hated driving before, I hate it even more now.  I am spending three hours a day in the car.  This week alone, I spent more in gas than I spent in all of March.   That's $100 I could not spend on beer.  

I wonder if the guy in the yellow Ford Escape realizes that, after all of his lane changes, speeding, tailgating, and unsafe driving, I have passed him every day about 30 miles down the road?  Do you think people will ever realize that following too closely and constantly tapping the brakes is what causes traffic backups?  When traffic is heavy, why don't other drivers let people merge?  

There is just one more week of this.  After that, I will be back on the bike.  I have to.  Driving gives me a headache.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Ouch!! Well I know what it feels like to be trapped in this metal monster but choices are limited when I have a 70km ride to work, one way. Luckily you can go back to the bike.

Jamie said...

Nope. They'll never learn. Even if you don't use these exact words, telling people "you're a bad driver" seems to be one of the biggest affronts that you can make to a person.