Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Not a happy camper

The commute has stopped being a pass through Purgatory and has now moved into Hell.

I went looking for current images, but there doesn't seem to be any. Usually, I would provide my own but it's a trade off between driving and photography, so probably won't happen. Geaux Wider has an interactive map showing where the issues are. I take the I-12 corridor since it is the most direct route between my house and the paying job.

Yesterday, it took me two hours to reach the paying job and the day never recovered after that. Plus dodging out of the way when a semi decided to cross the yellow line into my lane once I was past the construction zone mess and should have been free and clear. Today it took an hour. I'm used to the evening commute taking that long but the morning commute has always been lighter and finished around 45 minutes, provided there are no accidents. So clearly now everyone is getting up with me to beat the awful construction traffic and they are slowing down to watch the work.

I finally got a schedule that works for me and now I have to adjust it AGAIN. And during daylight savings time when it is nearly impossible to go to sleep because it's not dark enough outside! Annoyed doesn't come close to describing it.

Options: I don't have many. If I leave later to avoid the traffic snarls, that means I need to change what time I start the paying job and when I leave the paying job. I'm saving that headache for shifting to a 4-10s schedule. (A day without driving! Setting a leaving hour late enough to miss the crappy evening commute!)

After filing the above under "not likely to happen unless the state government shift to open for four days a week in an effort to save money," I'm left with leaving home earlier. Right now, I'm aiming between 5:45am and 6am. So if I move it up by thirty minutes, that means leaving between 5:15am and 5:30am.

*GLARES at the daily schedule*

Doing that without changing my wake-up or bedtimes effectively wipes out my entire reason for getting up so goddamn early in the morning: doing the frakking chores while I still have energy to do them.

Shifting everything up so I don't have to remove anything from the schedule, I need to wake-up at 3:09am and goto bed at 7pm.

*headdesk* Great I already have no social life and no television show watching time because I turn into a pumpkin at 8pm. IT ISN'T EVEN DARK YET AT 7 P.M.!!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked about going to 4-10s. Won't fly, our division is too short-staffed right now. *headdesk*

No money for a housekeeper. And no time for chores. Clearly I need a TARDIS for my commute. That would solve everything. And apparently would stop attracting other vehicles to my front grill. I took the surface streets to avoid most of the snarled-up Interstate and a dude started driving his bicycle straight at me! And he wasn't wearing a helmet! He dodged because I had the right away and collusion was avoided but STILL. The last thing I need right now is a wreck.

So yeah, I'm looking for a slightly used TARDIS. Hyper-active Time Lord doesn't have to be included but of course I wouldn't send him away either.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

2 comments:

bek said...

I completely sympathise on getting something worked out and then having to change it because something completely out of any way of affecting it goes pear shaped and affects you.

You've probably already looked (assuming you have time to do anything other than what you're already doing) but don't suppose there's a decent paying job closer to home?

KLCtheBookWorm said...

The only other major state employer is SLU and they're laying people off for budget cuts too. Private sector doesn't seem to be hiring in my area either.