71.875 Days

Along with such things as trying to cancel our broadband Internet service, I also won't miss the time I spend commuting. Daily, if I drive, I spend an hour or so on the way to work, and about an hour and a half on the way home for two and a half hours on the road. If I take the train, then it is an hour and a half each way to and from work, a three hour daily commute. Melody's is also bad, at about half that.

It must be done though, because we can't just stop going to work...people might notice.

But, through the miracle of podcasts and a great invention called the iPod (perhaps you've heard of it...it is a popular little box shaped device that allows you to put songs and other audio on it. Pretty cool), I'm not missing much of my sanity, although Melody may vigorously debate that point.

In a retrospective mood lately, I've been wondering how much time my commute has translated into over the past three years. Here's what I came up with. I had to wrestle my old nemesis, Math, to come up with this, but I think I won. We'll break it down step by step (for you West Pointers who may be reading this, I am preparing to "Take Boards.").

Work:

(52 weeks) - (4 weeks leave/holiday) = 48 weeks

(48 weeks) - (3 weeks business trips) = 45 weeks

(45 weeks) x (5 days) = 225 days of work per year (not too bad, come to think of it)

Commute:

(225 days) x (3 years) = 675 days commuting

(675 days) - (75 days taking train) = 600 days driving

(600 Days) x (2.5 hours driving per day) = 1500 hours in a car

(75 days on train) x (3 hours riding) = 225 hours on train

(1500 hours in a car) + (225 hours in train) = 1725 hours commuting

(1725 hours) / (24 hours per day) = 71.875 days

(1725 hours) / (8 hour "work day") = 215.625 "work days", very nearly a year's worth of work days (see computations above).

Ouch. No wonder my rear end hurts.

But(t) - sorry, I couldn't resist - I'm doing it all in the name of Freedom.

Our new home will be about 12 minutes from work, depending on traffic. While I won't miss the time on the road, I will miss the time spent listening to different podcasts...I now feel like Rush Limbaugh is a good friend of mine, seeing as he's been on the road with me for nearly 24 straight days. Not to mention the guys at Pajamas Media, The Sanity Squad, Ben at Mysterious Universe, the other Ben at Popular Mechanics, Betty and her Suitcase, Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, and Steve Gibson from TWiT (This Week in Tech). I've relished the chance to spend that much time on such diverse topics ranging from politics and current events to computers and technology to the existence of Bigfoot (apparently true, in case anyone is wondering).

Before we came overseas, we both had easy commutes for the Washington DC area. Guess I shouldn't have laughed at my friends who had bad commutes...Karma's a, well, I think you know.

And now, it's time for me to go to work. See you in an hour or so...