Getting2Work

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!

Yesterday was my Friday, so the mood driving home was relaxed.  Left work after 4:30pm and traffic had it’s usual late drive slowness at Western Ave.  But no big deal because I was expecting it.  Speed picked up a bit again until we got to LAX area.  Everyone jogged into place and eventually settled down.  After the traffic settled down, I switch from blasting songs to my audio book and time to kick back.  As I listened, I like looking around at my fellow drivers.  You could see the driver behind pretty clearly since we were going so slow (crawling really).  OMG … it’s Tom Cruise!!!! NOT!!!  Of course not … what’s the chance.  Besides he was driving an old red car where most of it had faded to more of a grey than red.  But I swear … that guy looked A LOT like Tom Cruise.  So I got to drive most of the way with good looking Tom behind me.  Another plus … he was not tail gating!!!!

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.

Many had asked me why I am doing this … driving so far to work everyday. Am I crazy? Maybe … I am not sure. As much as we don’t like it, there are bills to pay, little mouths to feed. Got to go where the job is. Well, why not move? Thought about that … but housing price was a lot higher where I work when I started this crazy commute. Even if I throw all my equity into the down payment for the new house it would still be 3 times higher than my present mortgage. My husband and I really didn’t want to start the mortgage all over again. How about finding a job closer? Not much available when I started the long commute. There are more now but I do like my company and maybe I have gotten in a comfort zone and starting all over seems to be a tougher choice.
Whatever the reasons and however the decision was made, this is the situation I’m in at least for now. Interestingly, I am finding more and more people who commute a pretty long distance to work too. How long is long? Well, everyone has a different yard stick!