Getting2Work

It’s been over a month since I posted.  Why?  No more long commutes?  No, not really … but maybe some day and hopefully it’s will be by choice.

So the reason for not posted was because of a lot of overtime at work.  Instead of a 4/10 workweek, it was more like a 6/10.  So that was a bit tiring but at least for our team it was only for a short period.  Other teams had been working the same overtime hours for months and had just recently stopped.

Then I took a couple of weeks off and spent about a week up in San Francisco with friends and family.  We really took it easy partly because my Mom was with us and she really can’t do a lot of walking anymore.  After the first day I could really tell that she was too tired out.  So we did the San Francisco 49 Miles Scenic drive and stopped at various spots and walk a bit and took lots of pictures.

We didn’t stopped at all the places recommended.  But it was actually quite a nice and relaxing time.  Here’s the link to the map of the Sf 49 Miles Scenic Drive I downloaded (Scroll down to the bottom of the linked page and there is the download button for the pdf file.

We also spent time with friends at their place up in the wine country.

While we were there, my friend’s husband and her brother was making a market run and asked if anyone else wanted to go along.  We all figured it’s just to the super market and we all declined except for my Mom.  She went along just to hang out with them.  They were gone for a good long time and we were starting to wonder what happened to them.  We found out that they had taken a side trip of wine tasting.  My Mom who does not drink actually sampled a few.  From the way she was talking about her first wine tasting experience, I think she really enjoyed herself.  I am sure it helped because she had gone with 2 people who know and enjoy wine.  If she had gone with us who do not drink and know nothing about wine, she would not be that excited after she came back.

So right after my 2 weeks of vacation, I had to go on jury duty.  My first experience as a juror and I have to say it was quite interesting.  I know a lot of people really try hard to get out of it for whatever the reason.  I can see financial hardship or a true extremest being a couple good reasons to be excused.  But some of them you can really tell that they were making things up.  The one that I thought was unreasonable was the lady who had been here for 20 years and used English as her second language as the excuse.  I am not saying that the length of time being in this country automatically made it a bad excuse.  She was chatting just fine while we were waiting to get into the court room.  One good thing about working for a bigger corporations is that they do pay for the jury duty.  So I really did not have minded it so much.  After answering a standard list of questions which included occupation (engineer) and few of the other questions that the prosecutor posted regarding what I do (testing), I can tell that the prosecutor did not want me on the panel.  It’s one thing seeing it on TV how the lawyer “set the stage” to sway the jurors to see things their way but seeing it done in a real court is something else.  It made me feel that I should be more careful not to be bias.  I thought I could do a pretty good job.  Whatever the reasons and they don’t tell you that and sure enough, the prosecutor lady dismissed me right away.  The juror selection had dragged out to 2 days.

So this week’s commute was only 1 day.  Yippee … until next week.  But really should not complain with this economy, budget cuts everywhere and all the layoffs.  I am glad I still have a job to go to.  We’ve had layoffs in our area too.  Missed being cut last round but I hear there is more coming.  Yikes!!!!

It’s been quite a while since the last entry.  I was able to work 4/10 for a while but then I got on loan to another team and had been working 6/10 instead.  I am back to my own team now for a couple of weeks and was able to go back to my 4/10 for one week.  Then I was at work last Friday and Saturday (yesterday).  The drive to work at 6:00am yesterday was great but paid for it when I left at 4:00pm.  Once at Lakewood where there was suppose to be a brush fire.  But then that was on the blvd what does that had to do with the freeway clogging up I have no idea.  Then the East bound 710 was closed and another clog!  Of course there was the usual airport area clog!!!!!  Drive home SUCKED!!!!!!  But I remind myself that I am lucky to still have a job.  I know time are tough and we are going through a layoff period.  If I don’t get notice this month, I am safe till the next round.  Not sure when that will be …

I save the link to this article, Left-lane slowpokes drive you cracy? that I read a couple of days ago because I was wondering how slow a slowpoke are we talking about!  Is driving at the speed limit slow enough to get a ticket or at yelled at?  Obviously so, at least right here is So CA. Well, I have yet to see tickets but definitely getting yelled at!!!!

I was going down on the 405 South during one of my morning commutes.   It was early and traffic was moving and we were a couple of exits before the 10 freeway interchange.  We’ve all done this … we all slowed down to or close to speed limit when there is a police car within sight.  So this one car was no different even though he was on the fast (or the 1st) lane.  This cop car was riding right up behind it and of course it just seemed to make thing worse because this guy started to slow down just below the speed limit.  But it wasn’t like he was driving 10, 20 mph below.  He was hovering about the speed limit.  The cop behind him finally couldn’t stand it anymore and got to his bull horn and yelled at the guy to MOVE!!!!!  It was obvious that the cop wasn’t in a hurry or anything because if not he would have had his sirens on and everyone would have moved out of his way.  I felt bad for the poor guy.

So how slow is too slow … in the cop’s eyes vs the fellow drivers’ eyes?

I know from experience that even if you are on the 2nd lane and is driving 5 mph above the speed limit, it can be considered too slow for the fellow drivers.  But it seemed to be acceptable to the cops.  But if you are driving in the 1st lane, you can be going 80mph and is not be fast enough for some of your fellow drivers.  Now I am not sure if it’s acceptable to the cops (at least in practice and not on the books) because no one was stupid enough that I have seen to stay at that speed if there are cops around.  Of course this is what I have seen mostly during the early commute when traffic is light enough for drivers to be going at that speed.

One other thing about my fellow drivers is that even after you had passed the car on your right, you really have to be very careful about moving over.  I have seen it too often that the guy riding up your behind has no patience to wait till you have safely moved over before speeding up.  And I am not talking about passing someone at speed limit either.

I know some people love the Adrenalin rush with the speed and the zipping around but I just want to get to my destination in one piece … thank you very much!

It’s been a while since the last entry.  So a quick word about why the absence.

The 3rd week of January (week of the 18th) was spent in New York.  It was a cold greeting from New York.  I arrived at NY and as soon as I settled into the cab, my phone beeped telling me that I had voice mail.  It was from my brother telling me to head over to my parents’ apartment to meet up with my Mom then head over to the hospital.  Dad was admitted into ICU the night before.  That trip to NY was meant to help out taking care of my Dad who just got out of the hospital the week before.

Machines beeping and IVs dripping but he was stable.  My Mom and I stayed till 7:30pm when visiting hours was over.  It snowed that first night!

Home from Downtown Hospital.

My brother went back at 8:30pm to stay with Dad over night.  So that was the schedule every day.  My Mom and I were there during the day and my brother the night.  The hospital was just around the corner, so we just had at walk to get there.  So it was a very short daily commute.

Second trip to New York on the 24th of Jan.  I took 2 weeks off from work so I don’t have to keep flying back every week.  Similar kind of schedule as the first trip was planned even after Dad was transferred back to Mt. Sinai Hospital where he was discharged from the first time.  It was a longer commute and in the subway.  I had mixed feelings whether I could handle this kind of daily commute.  Private or public commute?  Which is better?  Both have it’s pro’s and con’s.  A couple of the ICU nurses had told me that they would never pick CA over NY.  Surprised me a bit since so many people seemed to be migrating to CA all the time.  But then maybe it was just that CA superior feeling because we have better weather.  Hard not to feel that way … it was freezing in NY.

View from Mt. Sinai Waiting Room

Dad’s condition did not seem to be getting better and he was eating less.  We were all very concerned.  My brother called around 3:00am Feb 3rd.  My Mom and I got ready ASAP and took a cab to the hospital.  By morning, we called my other brother to come.  We were all there with him.  Dad passed away last afternoon.

Leaving Mt. Sinai

It was snowing on the way to the subway when we left the hospital.  The snow … strange conincidence … Leaving the hospital that night was hard … felt like I was abandoning him.  I have always understood why people needed religion.  I think I understand.

Note:  Just noticed that I had started this post last week.  Finally finished it.

Break was great!  I had one of those best ones where we just stayed home and relaxed.  We ate and caught up with a lot of movies that were interesting but really didn’t want to pay to watch in the movie theater.

So last week was back to the normal commuting routine.  Traffic wasn’t bad over all but man … what’s up with the high beams?  Three days in a roll I was followed by some driver who thought that the LA freeway was not bright enough with just his/her normal lights.  Okay I was only attacted by 5 high beams because one of the cars only had the high beam on for one side.   I flipped (snapped) my rear view mirror up and turned my right side mirror out so the high beam wouldn’t be in my eyes.  I am sure my snapping my rear view mirror did not sent any message to the driver behind me.  I am sure he/she was not even paying attention to what the person in front was doing.  I am a conservative driver and certainly don’t want to the cause of any accidents but I really wish I was able to angle the side mirror just so that his/her high beam would reflect right back to blind him/her.  Maybe then it will be like a slap on the forehead and dawn on him/her to check their lights.  Although I highly doubt it.  Or maybe a big neon sign on the rear window where you can send a message to the driver behind would work too.  TURN OFF YOUR HIGH BEAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turned in my finals yesterday and I have time off work till next year so no reason not to write something.  But there won’t be any commuting stories to write because I won’t be doing any daily commuting for the rest of the year.  Yipee!!!!

Well, I got my car back for a week.  Got back into the hang of my own car.  I do like my Civi Hybrid and the auto place really did a good job on my bumper and the trunk.  Looks brand new again!  With daily commutes especially on the freeway, you can’t help but get hit with flying rocks (small ones thank goodness) and your wind shield get some little dings (that is if you are lucky).  The first week of my long commute, I got a pretty big pop on my wind shield.  Let me tell you it was loud.  Scared the crap out of me.  Thought I was shot at.  Driving on the LA freeway, it could happen!  That was when I was driving my stick shift Honda CRV.  I heard that if a rock hit low on the wind shield (i.e. close to the hood), the crack is more likely to spead.  Sure enough that first hit was low and it did spread fast.  Well, I was also pretty paranoid when I first started commuting.  I was freaked out that my whole wind shield would shattered while I am flying down the freeway one morning.  I know I sounded like a pretty uneducated person.  Anyway, I had my wind shield replaced right away.  Not cheap!

My hybrid’s wind shield was not spared of course and I have accummulated 3 chips as of last week.  The weather took a big dive last week.  I know it’s nothing compared to east coast winter but it was pretty cold for sunny So CA!  A couple of mornings when I got out to go to work, there was frost on the wind shield.  The first morning when there was frost, I didn’t notice anything different on the wind shield.  But when I got out from the office to head home, I saw one of the chips had started to spread.  It was of course the one that’s lowest or closest to the hood.  The next morning with the frost again, I noticed the crack had spread a bit more.  Well, this time I think I will wait till it’s really bad before I replace it.  It’s not cheat to replace the wind shield.

Anyway … no work … no commute … time for some serious R-and-R!

So I’ve been driving this rental that the insurance company is paying for a week now.  The car is ok but like any rental, it has this strange smell that is really bothersome.  The interior was not the cleanest either.  Strange how we are ok with our own filth but when it’s someone else’s, it just seems so much more yicky!  Also I swear I got the car with 3/4 tank full.  But I drove one day and the tank was less than 1/4 left.  Also the tires air pressure light was on.  I didn’t even noticed it, but thought I better check.  My hubby checked and filled all the tires up and the light did go off.  If not, I would have taken it back to them and have a different car.

At first I thought it was no big deal and was really thinking of not bringing it in.  Believe it or not for a small thing that I thought it was, it would cost a grant total of $2000.  Beside the bumper, the inner lining of the trunk was bent so that needed replacing as well.

In a way I am glad I did even though it was a pain with the stream of calls back and forth with the insurance companies both mine and the other party’s.  Hate to say that their insurance company was a lot easier to deal with and seemed to be more competent!  I thought it was just a scratch on the bumper and didn’t even noticed that the trunk was actually misaligned.  It is a relieved to know that the car will be in good shape again.

I am suppose to get my car back this coming Friday.  Can’t wait!!!!

If you drive, the odds are against you in getting involved in an accident.  Last Monday, after my now normal 2 hours commute, I got off the freeway and coasted down the off ramp.  Almost home I thought with a sigh of relief.  The off ramp that I always take spreads out to 2 lanes.  I stay on the right lane since I have to make a right turn on the first cross road which comes up pretty quickly.  On the left lane was a big white SUV and was blocking my view of any oncoming cars.  I inched out to see if I could see around the big SUV.  Well, no luck there!  Sometimes I am not sure if people are mean or just a natural reaction.  I swear as I inched out, so did that SUV.  Sitting up so high and being on the left lane, it really didn’t need to get out that far to see oncoming traffic.  But … whatever … I guess I’ll just have to wait till it moved out of the way.  I am almost done with my commute, I could wait another minute or so until a big bang sounded and I felt something slammed into my car.  I was shocked but realized that the car behind me had just hit me.  We pulled over to the parking lot right next to the off ramp.

The young lady that hit me, thought that since the big SUV was moving out, assumed that I would do the same thing.  Well …. BAD ASSUMPTION!!!! One never assumes anything.  I guess she had never heard of what “assume” stands for!!!  The only situation when one would consider pulling because another vehicle is blocking the oncoming traffic is if that vehicle was a semi-truck.  The time it takes for a semi to pull out into street traffic is a lot longer than it will take for a regular car to pull out.

I called my husband and he had showed up as we were finishing up exchanging information.  There was no injury and no major damages to the cars.  The young lady’s car did hit me hard enough and left an imprint of her license plate and it’s 4 bolts on my rear bumper.  There were also some slight stress marks on my bumper.  Typical of many young people who are equipped with phones with camera, this young lady was no different.  So she took some photos of my bumper with her phone camera.  Not really sure if the photos would show enough details because it was very dark in that parking lot and the flash really was not much help.  Anyway, I suppose she’s figured that in case I would claim more damage than there really was or that I would add other damages (which I had none and keeping my fingers crossed that I won’t have any others) that was not caused by her incident.  I don’t blame her.  After all she doesn’t know me, nor do I her.  As we were leaving, a guy from one of the business told us that that is a horrible ramp and I was the second incident that day.

So I called my insurance company the next day to report the incident.  The gentleman that answered my call was very good and took all the information I had and reassured me that there’s nothing to worry because any other information that I do not have, they will be able to find.  I must had taken down more than he needed because I had asked him, “I have this info and that info, don’t you need that?”  So I gave him all that I took down and described the events to him.  He gave me my claim number, adjuster name, appraiser etc. and what to do and expected.  I thought so far not too bad.  The next day I got a call from a lady who said she was my adjuster.  I thought it was interesting since that was not the name the gentleman gave me.  No problem … I called this other person and just let her know what info I had already given and see what else she needed.  Well, she was out to lunch when I called but her co-worker looked at my claim and said all the information was there.  When I got home that night, I found that Lizzy (my new adjuster) had left a message again.  What the $#%@?  Didn’t her co-worker left her a note?

I called again the next day and again another co-worker answered instead of Lizzy.  This lady told me that if Lizzy was already on the line with another person, her phone would be transferred.  So I took the opportunity to ask this lady more about the deductible and the process.  This is what I found out from her … if I had wanted to go with my own insurance company, I would have to pay the deductible while my insurance company would pay for the difference.  My insurance will refund my deductible only if the other party’s insurance company accept the liability.  But if I don’t want to pay out of my own pocket, I was to contact the other party’s insurance and deal with them myself.  Oh and of course the other insurance company will want to use their own appraiser.  Also if the other party’s insurance company does not accept liability, I (myself) can take them to small claims court.

So I can’t help but think and did ask the little lady on the phone … I pay the insurance company all this money and I have to do all the work?  Oh no, my insurance company will handle things if the other party is uninsured.  Wow, glad to hear that they will actually do something other than raising the rates.

I guess everyone else knows all the details about what to do after any accident and all the claim processes.  I am the only one on this earth that did not know this.  If I had not decided to call again AND AGAIN even though the first and the second person I had talked to told me that they had all the information and told me what I had to do, I would not have known these other details.  Then I got in my mail all these forms from my assigned adjuster, Lizzy to fill out because she hadn’t been able to reach me!!!!!!  SHE HADN’T BEEN ABLE TO REACH ME?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How about the other way around!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Call me an impatient person or whatever.  I expect my insurance company to give me all the details and lay out the steps and processes the first time I call them instead of a little more detail each time I call them back.  Give the information to the person as if that person does not know any of the process and it’s their first time.  Let the person tell you that they know this part or that part of the process.  Or how about doing the work dealing with the other party’s insurance.  I guess I’ve been lucky that I’ve driven so long that this is the first time I actually have to go through this.  Just think this is a very minor incident, can’t imagine if this is a major one.

Of course this is still not over.  Let me count my blessings so I can continue to deal with this …

1. no personal injuries
2. it did not happen ON the freeway going 70 mph
3. my car was not sandwiched so there’s only damage in the rear
4. my car was not pushed hard enough into oncoming traffic and possibly got broad sided beside rear-ended
5. did not have another accident the rest of the way home!

Didn’t write anything over the weekend.  I was having too much fun with my new toy, Wacom pen tablet and also doing homework.  Anyway, this is not a commuting story but it definitely has something to do with why I am commuting … WORK!

We’ve all done it, pulling on someone’s leg or harmlessly kidding around and giving each other grief.  But somehow you can tell when someone was really being mean and hiding behind their “kidding” around front.  I don’t know if I have “sucker” written on my forehead or what, I’ve had my share of people doing that to me.  Unfortunately I am usually so stunned that I don’t know who to react or have any smart come back.  Afterwards I would think of all kinds of things that I could have said.  I would tell myself to be ready for the next time.  Of course when that happens, I am caught by surprised AGAIN.

So I offically changed to working 4/40.  Of course that’s between me, my boss and my team mates.  I get in early  at 5:30am and my lunches are just continue working at my desk.  Okay I do have to go heat up my lunch.  I hardly ever go out for lunch and when I do, I always make up my time.  But when I leave each day, I still feel guilty.  I’ve heard stories about Catholics and their guilt trip.  I’m not Catholic but my upbringing sure drilled that guilt trip in me.

I was leaving last Wednesday when I ran into this one guy who said, “Leaving already!”  This guy had done this to me before and like I said I was so stunned that I didn’t know what to say.  Well, I thought I was a little bit more ready this time.  Unfortunately I was no match to this kind of people because even though I was able to respond once, I was not ready for a second round.

I was quite unhappy with that person but I was just a unhappy with myself.

Good thing I was able to calm down after I got on the road.

Would I be happier if I am like that kind of people?  I don’t think I can or ever want be like that.  Thanks for that guilt full upbringing!  And I am not being sarcastic!

I don’t usually write during the weekday because  I am just too wiped out in the evening.  But after I was done with making a quick dinner for the family, I turned on my computer to go through my emails.  Of course opening up a web browser also brought up the headline news.  Well, this one caught my eyes, Gunman on 101 Freeway overpass in Santa Barbara is arrested.  The gunman was an Army veteran who served in Iraq.  It was a pretty drastic way of making a statement.  The news article also mentioned that he had a gun but it was not loaded.  That was pretty scary considering that if he should even raise his gun like he was going to do something, the police or SWAT might had opened fire.  His younger sister said that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.  I can’t even imagine what it must be like for these service men and women.  I am glad to read that no one was hurt.

That overpass story reminded me of some other people that were making a statement on one of the overpasses along the 405 north.  It was at the slower part of the drive and there was certainly plenty of time to notice and read their signs.  These two people were holding signs indicating that they were against Prop 8.  Not sure how many minds they had changed but I am sure a lot of people read their signs.

I was trying out 4/10 or 4/40 work schedule during the summer months.  It’s way pass summer and a few weeks back management mentioned that if we wanted to flex our work hours we need to be approved on an individual basis.  So yesterday I finally formally request my work schedule change and was approved.  Well, the schedule is 4/40 until there is a need to work OT, then it’s work till the job is done!

I am glad that I now offically don’t work Fridays.  Particularly glad for this Friday (or today) because it’s Halloween!  Hate to get back in the dark with all the candy crazy kids running all over the streets.  We are armed with a BIG bowl filled with candy.  We don’t have decorations outside but we do have the porch lights on so the kids know to approach.  We used to carve pumpkins and put them out.  I actually enjoyed them maybe even more than the kids.  Most of the time my son answered the door but I would go and see what costumes they have on.  It’s especially fun to see the really little ones.  So cute!

Wonder if there are any dark chocolates … I always separate those out!  Maybe I should go do that now!!!!