Yeah, it’s been… oh, more than a month since my last installment of this weakly weekly series. I’m sorry. It’s beyond my control. You could paypal me though. I’m not above bribery for writing more.

Riding the bus

If you’ve been following my tweets or utterz, like I told you to, you’d know I started riding the bus to work when I can. I’m targeting 4 days per week because there are always those times when errands or schedules mandate mobility.

My initial impetus is cash savings. You see, I’m a greedy white male conservative that only cares about the green in my wallet, right? The greener my wallet, the happier I am. If the earth is green, I’m fine with that, but it’s not like I’m going to mess up my day to save the earth. My electric bill at home shot up over the last few months from low $200’s to mid $400s. I needz mah dough, yo. I’ve been riding about two weeks and I definitely noticed NOT filling up the car.

What am I saving? Well, according to Google, the most efficient route from home to work is exactly 10.0 miles. Times two makes it 20 miles. My car gets 15-18 mpg (I think, I should check that out, but according to my calculations of miles driven per tank, that’s about right), so at $4/gallon, I would spend about $5 a day in gas. However, that “most efficient route” is full of traffic, and there’s way too much stop-n-go idling. Not only does it take forever, it decreases the usable gas mileage. There’s another route that’s 12 miles that is a little better. The fastest way to work is to use the toll road, but it jumps up to 18 miles one-way, which effectively doubles my usage of gas (estimating). 36 miles at 15mpg is > 2 gallons per day. I’m guessing right now that I’m actually saving somewhere between $80-120 a month by riding the bus. The bus costs $1 per day for unlimited riding, less if I buy a monthly pass.

There have been other benefits, such as additional “quiet time” or “organizing time”. I can work on my blackberry or my laptop while someone else takes care of the driving, the signaling, the cutting people off, and yelling at other drivers. Since the actual time it takes to get to work is longer, I have plenty of time to go over the previous day’s missed emails, catch up on blogs, write a blog if I feel extra sparky, or (gasp) even do something that might be called work. But although commute time increases, productivity increases with it.

When I drive to work, about the only thing I do with my time is call into utterz. Don’t get me wrong – I love utterz and still make time to call in, but I want to be able to do more. About the only thing that would optimize my time on the bus even more would be fold-out desks or table surfaces. A laptop on a lap isn’t that comfortable.

Another benefit is the adoption of patience. Yes, patience. I’ll let that idea sink in for a little bit. Ya done yet? WHY NOT! DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND PATIENCE!?!?!? COME ON, NOW! TELL ME YOU UNDERSTAND PATIENCE! I AIN’T GOT ALL DAY!

There’s something about being on someone else’s schedule, having to be there early (5-10mins is the recommended window), and taking things s-l-o-w. You get more time for YOU. You notice the weather, the other citizens milling about, the trash on the ground, (pick it up, please), and you get to explore your thoughts. You reflect on the day so far. You have time to plan for the day ahead. The interruptions lessen because it’s just you and the bench. Or you and the bus seat. If I need some calm meditation time, I can close my eyes and center my thoughts. I drive out the low hum of the bus and the high whine of the engines. I halt my incessant wondering of “where’s he going when he gets off the bus?” and “does she have kids?” and “what’s his greatest accomplishment in life so far?” I open my mind for the Universe to send me signals and answers to the subconscious questions I’ve built up over the previous 24 hours.

So far, the Universe hasn’t answered back with the winning lottery numbers. But I’ll keep listening.

I’ll be there’s an 11 in there somewhere, too.

Best of LOLcats

I have one reader who mainly comes here just for the LOLcats. I think we all know who she is, but I’m too lazy to do an intervention. My favorite this week is a tie between the zombies one and the OMG LOLcat dog.

(btw, send your mycoke codes to Avi)

There’s something about being on someone else’s schedule, having to be there early (5-10mins is the recommended window), and taking things s-l-o-w. You get more time for YOU. You notice the weather, the other citizens milling about, the trash on the ground, (pick it up, please), and you get to explore your thoughts.

You’re a crazy, crazy bastard.

Avitables last blog post..Fucking hurricane pussies cocksucking shitburger

The Coke Rewards LOL cat was funny.

Your bus only costs $1 per day for unlimited riding? That’s fricking awesome. It’s $4 a day here in Salt Lake. When I rode Trax to work daily back in the early 2000’s, my work paid for the unlimited annual pass. It was nice and I miss it, although I get to ride my scooter to work now, so there’s some fun in that.

But I liked being able to sit and ride and read and text… all while someone else drove.

But, but.. I like the the driving, the signaling, the cutting people off, and yelling at other drivers.

I need to adopt some patience of my own today. Everyone at work is bugging the bejeezez out of me. Grrrrr.

I’d been missing the LOLcats! The hugging lion is my favourite.
Dragons last blog post..Tuscan Shrimp with White Beans

I never knew how exostential a ride on the bus can be, but then I realized I have those same thoughts on the many, MANY bus rides I’ve taken over the past year. And I have to agree with you on the ‘clearing your head’ part of riding the bus. It’s so easy to unfocus your mind and let it run wild when riding the bus. Something about the constant motion and the hum of the engines. Then the driver stops and lowers the bus which kinda kills my moment of zen. That beeping is just downright annoying.

“The bus costs $1 per day for unlimited riding…”

WTF?! Are you serious? Here, it costs $2.75 (one-way) and you can only transfer a maximum of 3 times, I think.

Right now it takes me 10min to get to work (I’m not sure how much that costs me in gas, though). Taking the bus equates to about 40-45min for me because I do have to transfer at one particular intersection.

So that’s a daily total of $5.50 and an additional hour of my time, which I can pretty much guarantee would not be as productive. Toronto buses are usually CRAMMED with people so you’d be lucky to scratch your nose, let alone use a laptop (and you’d be lucky if that didn’t get jacked).

Bonus? The buses are not air conditioned so, in summer, it becomes a somewhat smelly adventure.

I will say, though, that before getting a car, my only mode of transportation was the TTC and I can understand the appeal of “quiet time” & letting someone else do the driving… but I really think it’s only a PLEASANT experiece in cities that are not as congested as Toronto.

Capital Metro comes nowhere near my neighborhood.My commute is about 11 1/2 miles each way (on Parmer, not the tollway, which is slightly longer and only slightly faster). Now that Neenah goes through, the Park & Ride at Lakeline is only 5 miles from my house. From there, it’s either about an hour bus ride (including 20 minutes waiting at the Arboretum on a transfer) to have a mile walk to work. Alternatively, I could take an hour and a half ride (with a 13 minute transfer) to have basically no walk to work.

I think I’ll stick with my 45 minute bike ride when I don’t need to drive. It would be nice to have the bus alternative for when I’m carrying my laptop — it’s just not practical. I know, I know… it’s my own fault for buying a house that isn’t near the bus route.

Rens last blog post..Headaches

Wow! LOL Cats! I’d ride the bus to work but it would increase my commute time 100%.

marilyns last blog post..Correctness In Speaking

I wish my city was a bit more metropolitan. They do have a transpo bus, but it mainly caters to Notre Dame students and people who are going to the mall. There just aren’t nearly enough busses or enough stops along the way to allow most people to utilize it. Wouldn’t you think the city would DO something about that, try to switch things up a bit to help us all use less gas? Nah. That’d be too proactive.

Evil Geniuss last blog post..On 09/25/2008, You Know Where I’ll Be…

WOO HOO, LOL Cats.
I’m proud to be a fanatic

I love the autograph one!
Thanks for making me week once again Wayne, you da man!

The bus costs $3 here according to Motley. Our kittens do that with the empty 12 pack cartons. (I told you I had photos for making into LOL cats!) Oh, and I live a half mile from work. It takes me 3 minutes to get there in the car. I have a 3.5 liter 6 cylinder gas hog of a Dodge Intrepid and I put about $20-$30 of gas in it… every 2 weeks on payday.

Winters last blog post..My Bitch Mary

That’s one of the reasons I couldn’t do the train/subway anymore. I hated having to wait for it or run for it. I hated not being able to be on my own schedule and having to wait at all. I don’t wait well.

When I rode the BART all that time in San Fran, I loved it. You KNOW how much I hate to drive. I got a lot done, or I could sit there and meditate, or whatever.

Of course, the BART is really fast. I get really confused by bus routes. Then again, I work from home, so I don’t drive all that much. I love that. Save a ton on gas.

Problem with Dallas is it takes 100 years to get anywhere, because we are so spread out. Of course, we have toll roads. When I worked at that evil place, my tolls every month were $150, and I used a tank of gas a week. I could afford it easily, but you are right; I felt badly about being the only one in my car.

In Dallas, everyone drives by themselves. A lot of people are now using DART, but I wish that they would make DART go farther out and go to different places.

Remember when they were going to build those high speed trains between Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio and it got shot down? I wish it hadn’t. We would have it now, and wouldn’t have to drive or fly. It would actually be faster since we wouldn’t be waiting at airports, paying for parking, etc.

I love BART. Only small, compact cities build them though. DART is great, but it really needs to come out to more areas. I hope that they consider building it, but of course, since we have to build a new f’ing stadium for the cowboys, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

Whoops. And on the patience thing, I have noticed that my patience level has increased dramatically too. Not because of public transportation though. More because I have forced myself to slow my life down and stop hurrying around. I have found that I get a lot more done when I am more patient and go slowly than trying to hurry everything.

Am I the only one who thinks that painting on the back of the bus looks like giant pink butt cheeks?

Jannas last blog post..Hi, honey, I’m HOME!!!

Avi, It’s a mad, mad, mad (etc)… world. And you keep reminding me to write that plugin that will auto-obfuscate profanity…

martymankins, I’m glad to get some perspective - I never thought of the Austin metro bus system as “awesome” but I’m learning day by day.

Dragon yeah, driving can be it’s own stress inducer AND reducer

Alex, did you see eXistenZ? that’s what *my* bus rides are like…

sourpuss, I am serious and I’m ever more thankful. What would be cool, though, is some kind of blog banner or hosting service where you could put in your preferences (commute miles, cost of bus, etc) and then just specify which days you ride the bus, and the banner would show a calendar with red/green days marked and $ saved that day/week/month/year/todate.

Ren, if we had a shower at work, I’d be more tempted to ride the bike. I rode 21.5 miles one-way at least 10 times in my 4 years at Motorola Oak Hill (I lived in Leander). And that’s your fault too.

Marilyn, yup, LOLcats are a weekly feature here at the blog of whall. And I would say my commute time does increase 100% on average. But I can use 70% of my bus-commute-time and 0% of the car-commute-time so I net a higher rate of productivity, no?

Evil Genius, Tell Rudy I said “hi”

Raganator, it’s about time you came back. Awww, I made you week? Week in the knees?

Winter, I’ll take a look at the LOLcat fodder.

Robin, there’s a new service that has cars planted around the city - you buy an access card and swipe it and can use the car for however you want and just pay by the hour. When you get to where you’re going, leave the car there.

Abs, yup, I was taken by complete surprise at how fast BART was, taking it to an A’s game once from Pleasanton.

Janna, with a digital readout, too!