Thus Concludes the Workweek

Normally you would expect the week to fly when starting a new job. Such was not the case with my week. It seems like a month has passed since I started on Monday. Well, technically a month has passed since it's now February. I think one problem was that I had very little work to do on Monday & Tuesday. Wednesday was a slight improvement and then the last two days actually went by fairly quickly.

Yesterday's commute home was by far the worst of the week. I was so annoyed by the time I got out of downtown Austin I stopped at a liquor store on the way home for some tequila. After 45 minutes I was still just walking distance from my office! If that doesn't justify a stiff drink then I don't know what would qualify.

After five days of trying different routes to and from work, and there certainly is no ideal route, I have this to say about Americans and their cars: it's just stupid. Austin desperately needs mass transit in the form of light rail. It's in the works, thankfully. One problem in this burg is that many of the major streets were designed for a city with a metro population of about 300,000 rather than the 1.3 million we currently have. And many people seem to take major streets into the downtown area rather than the packed freeways which creates a huge congestion problem. After attempting several routes this week, I have decided the freeways make about as much sense as any other route.

Our house is 13 miles from the office where I work downtown. In light traffic I can make the trip in about 20 minutes. During morning and evening rush, it can take a minimum of 30-35 minutes which isn't bad considering how long it seems I'm sitting in slow traffic. I can handle 45 minutes. Anything approaching an hour just makes me want to blow a gasket.

We do have an express bus service I'm going to try one day next week. The park & ride is less than 4 miles from the house and I would be dropped off about 1/2 mile from my office which isn't bad considering I currently walk a bit more than that from the parking garage to the office. A monthly bus pass is $17 and I'd probably save a considerable amount on gas and far more wear on tear on my nerves if I didn't have to deal with driving. I'm hoping that is the solution to my problem. We shall see.

Meanwhile, I just want to relish every moment of the weekend.