random thoughts – Day 1,268 – (Wednesday) – road angst

School is back in session and the city is turned upside down. My preferred route avoids the University and the High School, because it is really congested in those two areas. Not even counting the buses, the volume of traffic this morning was doubled (or worse) and clouds of stupidity seemed to have parked over every intersection. It took 30 minutes to get to the parking garage, a distance of 2.5 miles covering three completely clusterf*cked intersections, crossing over one bridge, and a bit of swearing. It was not pleasant.

I have joked (griped?) that I could walk faster. Tonight, I seriously investigated this option. The walking route to the office is shorter than the driving route to the garage (1.7 miles versus 2.5) and according to Google maps, it would take 36 minutes to walk. It would certainly be less frustrating. I think. I usually only traverse that sort of distance in the woods or hills or while sightseeing and not when on any sort of timetable. 

Realistically, walking TO work might go well, but returning at the end of the day might be generally less appealing and the forecasted temps in the 90s this week could make it even less so. But, on the bright side, the Fall Steps Challenge at work starts next week, so maybe it’s worth a shot. We’ll see. Maybe. Also, maybe I'll wake up and discover I'm suddenly a millionaire. 

At the office, we trickled in looking harried and stressed and with similar tales of traffic angst and road rage. There was some comfort in the commiserating.

After work, I hung around late at the office chatting with a colleague and avoiding the 5:00 traffic. When I finally left, the vehicular traffic wasn’t too awful, but the pedestrian traffic around the University close to home was horrible. Students filled the sidewalks and were mostly orderly, but there were a couple who decided to boldly jaywalk into moving traffic to cross the street as if they owned the road. That’s how angels are made, dipsticks.

The part of the day in between the traffic segments was pretty good, by comparison. There was a major delay from a vendor with a regular morning function (eight hours, give or take) which affected multiple departments, so that was a lot of super happy fun time crap. About 70% of my work list is still out for approval, which is also delightful.

There was one bright shining spot to the day in the form of Snack and Share. There were beautifully bright fresh veggies with dip and some chocolates. It got us through the afternoon. There is something quite satisfying about chomping into a bright orange pepper slice with a dab of dip.