12/30/2008

Last Drive Of 2008

Another year down. Another year ahead, hopefully.

See you in 2009.


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Departure Time: 7:05
Arrival Time: 7:33
Weather as I call it: Sunny, a light dusting of snow on the ground. 30s
Shady Gas Price: $1.57
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 1
Feared for my life: Nah

12/29/2008

I Wish I Had Taken More Time Off

That's the thing. I don't have time to take off. If that is the one thing about changing jobs, the amount of vacation time doesn't accumulate all that much.

Then you are stuck driving to work when most people are sleeping off their holiday cheer.

At least the roads were empty. I probably could have taken the highway.

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Departure Time: 7:03
Arrival Time: 7:31
Weather as I call it: Partly sunny. Mid 30s.
Shady Gas Price: $1.59
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 1
Feared for my life: No

12/24/2008

Another Holiday Season

I can't believe Christmas is tomorrow. Why the eff am I driving to work?

I have tomorrow and Friday off so I can't complain. I am splitting at 1 today.

Hope you are off too. See you on the roads next Monday.


P.S. My "BRAKE" light was not on today. It's a Festivus Miracle.


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Departure Time: 6:57
Arrival Time: 7:17 - Highway driving - oh yeah!
Weather as I call it: Rainy. Gray. High 30s
Shady Gas Price: $1.63
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nope

12/23/2008

Bad Signs

I looked down at my dashboard and noticed my "Brake" light was on...rather, the word BRAKE illuminated in red on my dashboard. I engaged and disengaged my parking/emergency brake a number of times to try and make it go away...but it didn't.

My brakes seem to work fine. I think I may need to get them replaced.

Oh, and I think I have scratches on my windshield from when I was scraping the ice and snow this weekend.

Happy holidays!


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Departure Time: 7:01
Arrival Time: 7:35
Weather as I call it: Cold, sunny.
Shady Gas Price: $1.63
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 4
Feared for my life: Brakes not working could be bad.

12/22/2008

Not Just One But Two

We got some snow all right. I think it snowed from 1:30 on Friday until 8:00 PM Sunday night. There may have been a short break in between the two storms but not much.

My ride was ok. Some of the side streets in my neighborhood have not been plowed all that well, but the main roads were pretty clean.

Lots of high snow banks. I am glad I didn't have many intersections to navigate. I couldn't see over many of the banks. I made for pulling into traffic an adventure.

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Departure Time: 7:00
Arrival Time: 7:31
Weather as I call it: Cold, windy. Snowbound!
Shady Gas Price: $1.65
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: A little nervous at stop signs.

12/19/2008

Is It An Emergency?

Everybody was cancelling Christmas in preparation for the storm. I know I am going to get out of work at about 12:30. I can't get away with "working from home" if the streets are ok in the morning.

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Departure Time: 7:05
Arrival Time: 7:37
Weather as I call it: Cold and calm
Shady Gas Price: $1.67
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: No

12/18/2008

In Between

The calm before the storm. I hope I have a half day tomorrow.

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Departure Time: 7:05
Arrival Time: 7:37
Weather as I call it: Clear and cool, mid 30s
Shady Gas Price: $1.67
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10):2
Feared for my life: Nah

12/17/2008

First Snow Drive

Yeah, this is more like it. I would rather have some snow slow me up than ice.

I spent a good amount of time brushing snow off of the car just to get it road ready.

The snow was coming down at a pretty good clip. I had to brush off my windshield a couple of times.

Made it to work ok. People were driving sensibly. No one was going fast. It was the way to do it.



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Departure Time: 7:12
Arrival Time: 7:54
Weather as I call it: Snow!
Shady Gas Price: $1.67
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 3
Feared for my life: No

12/16/2008

Reverse To Drive

I pulled out of my driveway to find that there were two SUVs heading up my road - straight at me.

Quick as a bunny, I made the switch from Reverse to Drive and got on my way without having an accident.

School was still out of session in my town. No Buses, no problem.

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Departure Time: 7:04
Arrival Time: 7:36
Weather as I call it: Cloudy, high 30s
Shady Gas Price: $1.69 - Bring the price down!
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: No

12/15/2008

A Little Calmer Today

Pretty balmy and breezing when I left the house. The ice and damage seems like a distant memory...at least for me. I know there are lots of people around with no power...hopefully they fix that soon.

No school in a bunch of places too...

The shady gas price needs to come down. It should be $1.60 by now.

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Departure Time: 7:10
Arrival Time: 7:44
Weather as I call it: Cloudy but 40s
Shady Gas Price: $1.69
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: No

12/12/2008

Ice and The Smell of Pine

I woke up to see the trees coated with ice. Heavy rain was pouring down from the sky, so I had a good feeling about the roads.

The roads weren't icy, just wet...but wettness in some places was terrible. Avoiding huge puddles became a sport.

Many signal lights were not working on my commute. The Drum Hill Rotary went old school and had stop signs up.

Somewhere along my route, there were all these pine tree branches down and my car began to smell of pine. It was quite Christmasy.

Anyway, I got here in one piece...hope you are safe too.

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Departure Time: 7:06
Arrival Time: 7:38
Weather as I call it: Hard rain, high 30s, lots of branches down.
Shady Gas Price: $1.69
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 3
Feared for my life: A bit

12/11/2008

Soft Cold Rain

Although I was seeing things yesterday, today I was just trying to get through the rain. I have a meeting in the 'Ham (Framingham that is) later on in the morning, but I dropped into the office before I went.

They say that the rain will continue into tomorrow. Might be some icy conditions. Perfect.

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Departure Time: 7:02
Arrival Time: 7:38
Weather as I call it: Rain, 40s
Shady Gas Price: $1.69
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah

12/10/2008

Seeing Things

Well you walk out of your house and it is 60+ degrees. The wind is pushing you back. You wonder how many people will blame this temperature fluctuation on their next cold.

Bags were flying. Tarps were rippling. Everywhere I turned I saw something weird and something I thought was something else. I thought the bags were wild animals; the tarp a long python.

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Departure Time: 7:02
Arrival Time: 7:36
Weather as I call it: Light rain, windy, 60s
Shady Gas Price: $1.69
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah

12/09/2008

New England Weathered

Was it just as cold as it was yesterday? I walked outside and I was imagining that it would be just like yesterday but I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as cold. Maybe I am just used to it.

The car started up with no problem, but it took some time to warm up.

The traffic was light today. The trip went well. I was happy to get to work without any problems.


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Departure Time: 7:01
Arrival Time: 7:33
Weather as I call it: Cold, but not so cold.
Shady Gas Price: $1.71 – Down doobie doo down down
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 1
Feared for my life: No

12/08/2008

Lots Of Cars

This morning had to be the coldest in a while. It was 15 degrees outside my house. The car took a little while to turn over. I let it warm up for a good 10 minutes.

The roads to work were filled with cars. The usual places where things tend to slow up were much slower. The line of cars extended further; where there usually would be 4 cars, there were 12. I couldn’t see an accident. I couldn’t see a school bus. More people were on the road. Just riding along with me.

More people didn’t slow me down much. Once I got going, I made up some time.

Sometimes you just need to keep working at it, and the roads clear.

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Departure Time: 7:08
Arrival Time: 7:41
Weather as I call it: Cold, very cold
Shady Gas Price: $1.75
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah

12/05/2008

More Grooming

At the same stop light where I saw some dude combing his hair, today there was a woman who was donning her eyes with mascara. I can't believe I just typed 'donning'. I don't know if I even used that verb correctly. Screw it. I am going with it. Anyway, once she was done with her make-up application, she looked back at me...or at least I think she did...and she made me feel like I was invading her privacy. I think I am really going crazy. There's just no way she felt that way. It wasn't as if I was doing anything unusual; I was looking forward waiting for the light to change. She just happened to be there in front of me. I think I need the weekend to rest. My mind is fried. How's yours? Have fun. Be safe.


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Departure Time: 7:07
Arrival Time: 7:38
Weather as I call it: Sunny, Colder, 30s
Shady Gas Price: $1.79
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah...feared for my sanity.

12/04/2008

McMorning

Stopped at the golden arches to get a little breakfast...for no other reason outside of the fact that I had a few dollar bills in my pocket. I wish I put money away or something rather than just feel them burning into my leg and need to spend them on some food.

I was pretty hungry. I didn't eat breakfast at home. I got an egg mcmuffin and a medium coffee. The Newman's Own cup still talks about Paul in the present tense. Sad.


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Departure Time: 7:04
Arrival Time: 7:42
Weather as I call it: Sunny, a little windy. 30s
Shady Gas Price: $1.79
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: no

12/03/2008

Combing Your Hair

There was this guy in a car in front of me who was combing his hair over and over again. He was checking himself out in his rear view mirror, not sure if he was happy with his results.

The shady gas price is really low. Not sure when I saw the price this low.

Left the house early…but had to scrape the frost off all the windows of my car. So, it wasn’t as early as I thought.


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Departure Time: 7:00
Arrival Time: 7:36
Weather as I call it: Sunny and cool, 40s
Shady Gas Price: $1.79
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah

12/02/2008

Credit Card Prices

I learned that there are still some gas stations out there that charge a different price for people using a credit/debit card. One of the stations was boasting a $1.75per gallon price along my trip to work. This price only applies if you paid in cash.

The price for plastic payers is $1.81, the same as the shady gas price.

Foiled again!

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Departure Time: 7:06
Arrival Time: 7:42
Weather as I call it: Sunny cool 40s
Shady Gas Price: $1.81
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah

12/01/2008

Getting Back To The Drive

I took some time off...but now I am back.

The gas price has dropped even more. The shady price is $1.83 but I saw $1.75 in my travels.

There was a dead skunk on the side of the road near Chelmsford Center. It was fresh.

Rain and clouds made things very dark...and made for tough driving.

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Departure Time: 7:01
Arrival Time: 7:36
Weather as I call it: Rainy, dark and cold.
Shady Gas Price: $1.83
Level of commute annoyance (scale of 1 to 10): 2
Feared for my life: Nah