Posts Tagged ‘commuting’
Barely Here
Compared to my time on the ranch when Cyndie was working and I was home every day, it now feels like I am barely here. Not only have my days transitioned back to spending over 2-hours a day in a commute, but there has been a somewhat traumatic shift of attention from the tasks on our property, to the demands of industrial manufacturing and customer requests. Oh, how I love to please a customer, to a fault.
Today, the day before our national holiday celebrating independence from all countries that boasted claim on this land, most businesses have closed. I am home, have slept in a little bit, and will soon be getting after the perpetual summer task of mowing grass.
Everywhere around us, it seems the farmers are cutting hay. The weather clearly dictates activity, and when a window of dry weather arrives, people all jump into action. Except for us. We currently rely on our neighbor, and he is traveling to visit family for the holiday. Our next chance will be next week, about the time the next batch of precipitation is predicted to arrive.
Tough times for my wee little brain. I mentally strive to get things to go just right, but weather, and day-jobs, and circumstances have a way of going any old direction they please.
Guess there’s a lesson in there for me. Just maybe, I’ll relax and let it soak in today, while I have a chance to be home, mowing and poking along at our country pace. While I’m here, I want to be thoroughly here…
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Commuting Again
I’m going to take a little sabbatical from the full-time ranch management gig and go back to the old day-job for a couple of weeks to help them process a large volume of orders they have received. I wonder if I remember how.
I expect the change of environment might reveal how precious my work on the ranch is to me. Being able to spend every day, all day, tending to projects and caring for our animals is a very rewarding experience. Just like everything that becomes routine, it gets easy to lose perspective of just how special that routine can be.
Even though I am often bothered throughout my day with responding to the constant demands Delilah puts on me, I expect that she may be one of the things (that doesn’t sound right, she’s not a ‘thing’) I miss while being away at the work-place.
Yesterday, I needed to make a run to pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy, and I decided to bring her along for the ride. She doesn’t usually ride in the car with us, unless on a trip to the vet. To keep from putting her in the kennel (since unbeknownst to her she will have some day-long stints there starting today), I chose to give her an opportunity to ride in the car when it didn’t end up with a vet visit. She got a bonus when the pharmacist tossed a couple of dog treats in with the drugs.
Here’s hoping I am able to help the work-place get caught up, our animals will do okay with me being gone again, I manage to stay awake while driving to and from work, and that I discover how unconscious of my exceptional situation I have grown in the time since I first made the transition back in July.
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Contrasting Commutes
Cyndie’s home, and the squirrels are happy again!
We are just a week away from the vernal equinox and the precipitation has been in classic form for this period. Yesterday morning, I arose in the darkness of the 5 o’clock hour, and immediately perceived that something was happening outside.
I approached the door to the deck outside our bedroom and pulled the trigger on our powerful LED spotlight. Wowza!
It was coming down fast and furious, and there was already a couple of inches accumulated on the railing. I felt like I was in a Star Wars movie and we had just engaged the hyperdrive, with the blowing snow so intense, it was the only thing illuminated.
I was not aware that we might be getting snow, so wasn’t mentally prepared for this. My reaction was to hustle up and start my drive as early as possible, allowing plenty of time to arrive at work, and hopefully getting ahead of the majority of other people that were thinking the same thing as me.
I was the first person on the two roads closest to our house, and struggled to discern where the edges of the pavement were, with the “hyperdrive-effect” still wildly limiting visibility. When I finally reached the main road, I was happy to see two cars pass by, giving me a beacon to follow. It was one of those situations where I would have followed them right into the ditch, if they drove off the road.
We caught up to a long train of vehicles following one extremely cautious driver. It’s unfair that all of us behind this first driver were able to see pretty well, with our train of headlights, and were eager to speed up, yet that person had nothing but darkness and snowflakes out his windshield. Fortunately, it seemed as though everyone was sensitive to that driver’s plight, and we safely held positions and crept along together.
As roads got bigger, and traffic heavier, we passed several cars that had lost control and were now buried in the ditches. The snow continued to come down with incredible intensity. On the main expressway, I approached the first of many sets of flashing red and blue lights of an emergency vehicle that I would encounter on this trip. He was parked behind an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rig, and in front of that truck’s headlights rested a vehicle tipped up off its wheels, resting precariously on the driver’s side doors.
Farther on, an overhead sign flashed a warning of a crash in the tunnel: “expect delays.” I plotted my escape from the freeway, and exited downtown to navigate city streets in a route around the tunnel. It was an incredible ordeal to finally arrive at work.
Then, in the classic form of late-winter weather, which I referred to above, I departed the office in the afternoon under sunny skies and above-freezing temperatures. It always amazes me how quickly things change. Roads were almost all dry. Southern facing hills were clear of snow. All of the earlier accumulation of snow, and all the drama from the morning commute, were completely gone. The drive home was trouble-free.
It feels like spring can’t be far off.
Worthwhile Commute
Yesterday was filled with a dizzying number of email exchanges between Cyndie & me, our realtor, the lender, and multiple contractors, as we strive to address the many inter-related issues being simultaneously addressed, to resolve concerns discovered during the two respective house inspections. As much of a hassle as this could be perceived to be, we are finding it easy to tolerate, because it is all related to acquiring that precious property of our dreams. The closing date has undergone its first adjustment, moving into October now. That came as no surprise to us.
We left my car parked next to the barn all weekend, and on Monday, on our way home from the lake, we once again had our impressions confirmed about how wonderful the location and environment are for us. It thrills us to the core to drive in this region and realize it will soon become our home base. Arriving at the property to pick up my car was a great hint of what it will be like to have that be our home destination when returning from the lake. The subsequent drive to our current home provided another glimpse of the commute that we will face for business in the Twin Cities, most importantly for me, my current day-job. There is no denying it will be extremely long, compared to what I am familiar with, but everything about the property and its location is making the long distance seem bearable for some period of transition.
Traffic congestion will be the key feature defining how irritating the drive can become. It will take some time to learn the nuances and timing of each of several optional routes, after which I hope to hone my skills of interpreting traffic maps to determine my daily choices. I will gain a whole new respect for the concerns of hazardous winter driving conditions. With my current short distance, and my 4-wheel drive Subaru, I barely glance at weather warnings for information on poor driving conditions. That will need to change this coming year.
Thinking about moving in October made me wonder how many trick-or-treat visitors we might expect to make the trek up our long driveway on a Wednesday night Halloween. If we get any, I will be very surprised. I will count that as one more perk making the long commute well worthwhile. That, and the fact that I will no longer suffer the sound of neighbors using their infernal leaf blowing machines! B’bye suburbs.
Relative Something 