Getting2Work

I have been working 4/10 weeks since summer.  But last Friday I had a 4 hours class at work from 8:00am till noon.  So I could have slept in but I really didn’t want to hit any traffic so I went into work at my regular hour.  Ride was easy like most early mornings.  Since I was one of the few that got there early before most people were in and my office was at the end of the ailse, I got time to send out a few emails (work emails not personal stuff) and read up for the class.  It was a virtual class and this was a class taken on my own time.   Our computers (well, most of our computers) were setup that our IM was signed on when we logged in.  Some people at work knew that I would be in on my own time for the class but since I showed up as being there, all is fair game.  I got a few work questions and discussions.  But I really didn’t mind.  I kinda like that virtual class because I could multi-task.

By mid-morning I was feeling pretty crappy.  I think I was just getting too tired.  Class was pretty good … learned a few new things.  But I was ready to head home when the class was over.  I signed off and packed up and got out by 12:30pm.  Since it was a Friday, a lot of people went out for lunch.  Those who went out were already at wherever they were stuffing their faces and most Friday lunches were longer.  So the surface road was pretty empty, which was great!  Freeway was pretty smooth riding too.  Had a few slow downs but no biggie.

I was able to make it all the way pass the LAX, the Sepulveda Pass and onto the 101 in 1 hour.  That was so great!  Unfortunately spoke too soon and the free ride was over.  There they were … those endless lines of cars … AGAIN!  Man … had the same thing just Wednesday.  It was crawling and whatever was causing the traffic jam was too far ahead to see.  Funny how the mind tried to evaluate the situation … : )  Well, I could get off the freeway at the next exit and take the surface road.  But it was still too far away and with the traffic lights, it will still take me 25 minutes to get home.  So I decided to keep going on the freeway till I get closer before getting off the freeway and take surface road the rest of the way.

So it still took me 1.5 hours to get home last Friday.  Hey, I guess for a Friday afternoon commute, that was pretty good time compared to 2+ hour.  Well, I had to think that way to keep myself from going nuts.  I got home and crashed flopped on the courch and was out.

Thursday commute ended up on an annoying note!

With a 4/10 schedule, my Thursday is like others’ Friday.  So I was really ready to mentally wind down.  Morning commute was pretty uneventful.  The work day was going along it’s usual pace … trying to get things done … ran into problems … solved problems (myself and/or with others) … and the cycle goes on.  Since I was not planning on going into work today, I stayed a little longer than usual to get things going and send out emails so other team members can continue on tomorrow so we won’t lose as much time.

Since I left late, I expected to run into more traffic.  I reminded myself not to get anxious of the time.  After all it was the end of the work week for me.  Sure enough, there were more spots where traffic slowed, and the LAX dead stop started way before we actually got to LAX.  But no problem, I was mentally prepared and I have my audio books that I subscribe to at Freebooks.com (see it on my list of “Commuters’ Boredom Busters”).  After we reached to persistent slow stretch, I called my daughter to relay the message to rest of the family not to be alarmed that I was getting home late.

It was getting dark half way through the Sepulveda Pass.  I had to join the rest of the commuters and turned my head lights on.  That’s one of the reasons why I might go back to driving 5 days.  I don’t think I want to drive both ways in the dark.  It just has this negative psychological effort on me!

It had been a long day and I was feeling it.  After 2 hours on the freeway, I finally reached my exit and got off the freeway.  It’s either the change of speed or knowing that I was almost home gave me a feeling as if a heavy load was lifted off my shoulders. But I still had a stretch on the surface road before actually reaching home.

Somewhere on one of the surface roads, a big pick up was waiting to turn left onto the road.  This was one of the samll streets and there was one car in front of me close by.  The pick up thought it had time to pull out in front of the car ahead of me.  But instead of going straight,  the car in front of me moved over for a left turn.  The pick up couldn’t make it and stopped in our right lane.  But It did managed to stop in time without hitting the car that was ahead of me.  Unfortunately instead of waiting till I passed, he decided to make the rest of his left turn in front of me.  I can understand that sitting in lane is not a good thing for him.  But there is no one else coming and it’s wasn’t like I had stopped in the middle of my lane either.  I hadn’t expected him to go.  I had to brake hard and pulled right to avoid it.  I swear it was just like in the movie as I watched the side of the pick up zooming up to me.  I just missed the left tail corner of his pick up.  I was very lucky that there were no other cars to my right or close behind.

My heart was pounding.  Good thing I only had a few more blocks to go and the rest of the way traffic was light and uneventful.  Freeway driving can be bad, but I swear surface road can be as bad if not worse.

Four days off … it made going to work that much harder this morning.  But thank goodness traffic was pretty good.   So that made up for it.  As a matter of fact most drivers were driving a bit slower than most early mornings.  I was a bit tired and feeling no rush either.  So I went along with the slower flow and still made it into work right at 6:00am.

Mid-afternoon I remembered to email my daughter to make sure she finished her summer homework today.  First day of school is tomorrow.  It never fails … kids wait till the last minute.  (Don’t even dare ask if I had reminded them!!!)  Good thing I emailed her.  She asked me what time I was coming home and that reminded me that even though Monday was a holiday.  It was only good for 8 hours.  I have to make up the 2 hours since I have been doing 4/10 this summer.  2 hours do seem much.  I figured I’ll work one hour extra today.  Do my usual 10 hours tomorrow and another 11 hours on Thursday.  I know some people work a lot longer hours per day.  Unfortunately the commute gets worse every minute you delay.  I swear the amount of traffic increases exponentially.

Maybe a lot of people took extra day off or just good old Tuesday traffic.  Even though I left at five, it only took me one and a half hour to get home.  Not too bad!  I know some of you think that I am crazy to say that an hour and a half commute time is not bad.  But trust me … it is not bad for an LA commute!