Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I've parked in the same city neighborhood nearly every day for the last 704 days. I follow a methodical route which prioritizes the areas statistically more likely of securing an empty parking spot. When I find one, I compute a formula in my brain which weighs the benefit of taking it and the risk associated with trying to find one better. Yet rest assured that if someone happens to be in my passenger seat I will hear some variation of the phrase, "you can find a spot over here." And God forbid it's a tough parking day and I actually drive the fourteen miles my route dictates I take before I pass the mentioned area and there's a spot there. That's when the imaginary friends in my car get real cocky.

There's a lot of things I think I know about parking in this city. I know that two hour parking will last you about four and a half hours. I know they don't ticket load/unload spots, but if they happen to be loading or unloading at that time, you're hosed. I know that with minimal effort you're more likely to pay less per month in tickets then you would if you purchased your own spot. I think I have parking pretty well figured out: figured out that it's a pain.

I'm tired of parking. I'm also tired of driving 25 miles to and from work everyday, tired of sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, and especially tired of paying to fill my gas tank once a week. Add it all up and that's quite a force coming at me. I've been fighting this battle defensively for too long, and its time for a counter-attack. I'm taking the bus.

That means more the just sitting on the bus everyday. There's no convenient route from home to work, so I've had to leave the car overnight at the park and ride two miles away from work. I then take the bus out of the city to the P & R which saves me forty minutes and two extra buses over actually getting dropped off at work. But I'm confident this will be a good thing. It allows me to nap, or read, or even write. It also means dealing with the people on the bus, but that should add some more interesting stories. In the meantime, I could use some good book suggestions.