24 June 2009

Commuting Misery

This week my carpool buddy is in California for work. She only found out on Friday that she would be gone all week. That meant I only found out on Friday that I would be driving myself to work all week. In a car without air conditioning. Had this work event come up a little less suddenly I would have had Eric take the car in to get the air conditioning working, but it didn't happen that way.

Usually Karina and I leave Provo at about 9. We arrive at our building in downtown Salt Lake City at about 10. Then we leave work at 6:30. Going into Salt Lake and coming back home to Provo we pretty much miss all the traffic by leaving so late. Even if there is a bit of traffic we can usually side-step it by hopping in the HOV lane. Oh, how we both adore the HOV lane.

I find carpooling to work ideal. I have no stress. I read to Karina, I talk to Karina, and I do not worry about which lane is best or why the person in front of us is going 60 mph in the HOV lane.

I miss Karina.

I do not like not being able to drive in the carpool lane.

I do not like my "bright" idea of missing rush hour by going earlier instead of later. I tried that today. It worked quite well on my north-bound trip. I left my flat about about 7:25 and walked in the doors of the Family History Library at about 8:30. Perfect.

But then came the drive home. I left the office at 4:30. I figured that was early enough to miss the worst part of traffic although I'd probably encounter some. It was actually pretty miserable. I arrived at Eric's parents' house at 5:40, and Eric's parents live about 20 minutes north of us, so had I gone all the way home it would have been a 90-minute drive for what can usually be done in 45-60 minutes.

And don't forget that I have no air conditioning in my car and it was 90 degrees (that's 32 degrees celsius). I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never been sweatier in my life.

But anyway, how's your commute?

4 comments:

Bart said...

Sorry to hear you're missing your commuting buddy. Generally, as long as we schedule around the really bad traffic times, it's not too bad. There are certainly exceptions to that, but careful planning makes it work for us most of the time.

Strange that there are no car pool lanes here. They could have helped us a bunch last year.

Science Teacher Mommy said...

In our whole marriage, we had four months when my work commute was a two-hour round trip.
We've vowed never again. When Plantboy's new office is finished, he will be about a 15 minute BIKE RIDE from his office.

Now THAT is commuting.

John said...

My commute: 16.1 miles from south of Jackson over the Snake River and to Teton Village with mostly uninterrupted views of the Tetons, must be the best commute in the world. It takes 25 to 35 minutes depending on the traffic and time of day, but it really is a delightful trip. My Texas commute was 9 miles, took 30 minutes via freeway in the morning and 45 in the evening. It lasted 19 long months and we didn't have A/C.

Ana said...

I am smiling because I noticed that you said "flat" instead of "apartment". I like that :)