Commuting, part deux

So as you know, I have a new job.  The commute is nearly the same, just 1.5 miles longer.  I had been in Burlington, but am now in Bedford.  I live southwest of Worcester.  Mass pike to 128 to route 3.  I know, you’re jealous of those clogged highways!  It’s 51 miles each way, but I was able to keep the same schedule I had before – 7 to 3:30 or 4.  Traffic is pretty light in the morning, and is manageable in the afternoon.  Last week, it seemed NO ONE was on vacation.  It took 1.5 to nearly 2 hours to get home.  This week, it takes 50 minutes and there isn’t much traffic at all.  Currently, I drive into the sunrise, which might sound awesome, and I guess it is, but that’s 38 miles (east on the pike) of driving directly into the blazing sun.  Oddly enough, I smile when there’s a cloudy morning.  Less solar slowdowns, no need for smudgy sun glasses and that moment when I’m almost in the building at work and realize I still have prescription sunglasses on.

How do I deal with the boredom of commuting?  Well, I’m pretty used to it by now.  I leave home at 6 and get to work at 7.  I rarely realize how long I’ve actually been in the car because I’ve done it for so long and try not to measure it by time, but instead by what milestones I’ve gone by.  On the pike, these are usually exits or rest stops.  On 95/128, it’s turns in the road and construction progress.  I’m only one route 3 for 2 miles, and by then I’m in the work zone.  Once you’ve gotten used to subconsciously recognizing milestones, you start to acknowledge when and where typical slowdowns occur.  Usually, these are by exits the closer to Boston you get, but there are still some that seem random.  You slowly begin to accept these areas and prepare for them, backing off of the person in front of you or switching lanes if you’re getting off soon.  You get used to it so it doesn’t stress you out…it’s all part of the experience and the routine. 

I used to listen to playlists on my mp3 player or iPhone.  That can get kind of isolating.  Now, I listen to the morning shows and know what times they go to commercial and who isn’t at a commercial so I can switch over.  There are some stations that have great little skits or features I wait for.  I’m starting to branch out, as sometimes the radio personalities get annoying.  Today, I happened to tune in as Mayor Manino  called in to talk about Chik-Fil-A.  That was cool, and who can resist his Boston charm?

Anyways, commuting isn’t bad.  Even if you’re driving over 500 miles a week, it doesn’t really feel it.  If you end up having to commute, don’t fret!

Solar Slowdown Season

Tis the season for solar slowdowns. ...if you drive east in the morning and west in the evening. Due to the time change and rotation of the earth, there are four times a year that one can encounter the solar slowdown, assuming you keep the same schedule. For days before the onset, you see the sun creeping up, nearer and nearer to the horizon directly in front of you in the morning. Currently, this is the time when I encounter the fiery, blinding beast that halts traffic. Sunglasses don't help.

Similar to the onset of the blinding sun, you can see the cars slowing down and stopping a half mile away. You near them and start to see the culprit: sun shrapnel bouncing off of cars. You watch as people try to get behind big trucks or tailgate vehicles taller than their own to use the other person as a shield. You are often left in the desert and surrounded only by other vehicles your size. Vast gaps emerge between cars without shields because it's so hard to see if the person in front of them has stopped, so the more room, the less likely an accident will happen. It feels like years that you're driving blind, creeping at a slow pace. And suddenly, a break! The sun goes behind a patch of trees or a building. Everyone speeds up, trying to get as far as they can before the inevitable sun reappears.

When there is no solar slowdown in the morning, there is often a time of solar slowdown after work. When this happens at the beginning of your commute, you long for the sun to go down so that you don't have to creep all the way home, however you realize it will be dark when you get home. Bittersweet.

During the winter, there is about two weeks where you find yourself driving into the sun both on the way into work and on the way home. This is an all-out war on your corneas. You may find yourself adjusting the seat higher up so that you are shaded by your visor, though you lose a lot of visibility and in reality, the visor creates more glare.

Beware of the solar slowdown season, but know that it won't last long. Within a week or two, you'll be driving either in already sunny skies (after sunrise and before sunset) or darkness.

Frozen Friday

It's Friday again. Yay! There's an off phenomenon that occurs every Friday at work...it's what I like to call "Frozen Friday." Time seems to freeze, as do the conversations in the office. Everyone is chugging away in their own private worlds to get home as soon as possible. Fridays also have a skeleton crew. Many people either work at home or they simply don't work on Fridays. The commute, however, suggests the opposite. Yet another frozen aspect of Friday...the roads. Everyone is jetting out early (my normal leaving time) to start the weekend and we all meet on the road. For long stretches of going 5mph.

Here are my tips for making it through a Frozen Friday.

• Work at home, if possible. Avoid the commute woes and not have that time-slowing feeling that you want to be home...because you will be home.
• Similarly, if you can leave early and/or finish the day at home, do so.
• Take breaks at work. Work consistently for awhile to get things done, but if you're running low on work, take it slow. There's nothing worse than sitting at your cube with 5 hours left without work. You feel like you've seen all of the internet already and time has stopped. Break up your work so it fills the day at a steady pace.
• Talk with your coworkers. Get some face-time in and pass particularly slow parts of the day (for everyone--don't interrupt someone if he or she is busy) with conversation.
• Do NOT take your lunch early. Try to eat a little later than usual, too, so that the time you have left after lunch until leaving is shorter.
• Sort through your email. Delete messages that you don't need, organize your inbox, and tidy up your folders. This is the stuff you are too busy to do during the week.
• If you use a time-tracking system, update your hours, etc. It's a tedious task, but it can really pass the time.
• Clean your cube. Dust, reorganize, rearrange (quietly), and anything else to improve your work space.
• Email old professors or friends to catch up with them.
• Try not to check the time frequently. I know it's hard since the clock is on your toolbar, but use some self-restraint!

Trucks are tricky, or are tricks trucky?

Today's commute was enhanced by the brigade of 18-wheelers and work vans. Coming up over a hill was like looking out across a river packed with (trucks) logs. They always seem to creep a good foot into your lane, too. And then you hit the rumble strip and look like a drunkard! These trucks must have gotten an early start because there weren't nearly as many sleeping trucks on the side of the highways or at the pike rest stops. Revenge of the trucks!

You know you're a yuppie when...

• You have to make the daily choice of making breakfast or making lunch and then fending for vittles at work. Today was lunch...breakfast was a protein bar at the Natick rest stop on the pike.
• You begin to understand the value of meal-replacement bars.
• You begin to despise the price of meal-replacement bars.
• You get excited by the thought of writing in your Yuppie blog.
• You fondly remember Thirsty Thursdays as you wake up at the crack of dawn and go to bed at sunset.
• Your new version of Thirsty Thursdays is having a nightcap...at 8PM.
• Anyone who is still in college is a "kid."
• You realize that you don't really know anything, at least not nearly as much as you thought you knew in college.
• You used to be addicted to your computer. Now you don't even want to turn it on when you get home from a day of staring at a computer for 8 hours.

You know you're a PWTC yuppie when...

• You appreciate the work that editors do. Raw documents are ATROCIOUS.
• You get happy and sad depending on a doc's usability.
• You learn to give up perfectionism when the UI is crap and have to just go with the bad flow of the software.
• You know what a UI is and find it hard to believe you didn't know what it was a few months ago.
• You daily find yourself doing something that you learned in PWTC.
• You can't wait to go back to UMass to see the Toominator, Solberglar, and Pulverizer and give talks about your job to new PWTC kids.

A day in the life

It wouldn't be a day in the life without having to rush back to doing something... kind of. But here's the first post!

Tess and I are going to have some fun with this blog so buckle up on the pike or hold on tight to the subway car...it's going to be a heavy commute!