A Surprising Silver Lining
Originally published at Irene Smith. You can comment here or there.
So, after I complained to everybody I could think to complain to, I received two phone calls. One from Aileen Gunther, and the other from John Bonacic. Both politicans went to Sloatsburg on the day I wrote the last blog post to try to get New Jersey Transit to provide some sort of transportation to people between Port Jervis and Harriman.
The first solution provided was a bus to Beacon, NY where we were to catch a train to Grand Central station. This smooth move changed my two and a half hour commute to over three hours going in and, because of the difficulty in making connections between bus and train, four hours or more coming home. In addition to the extended length of the trip, it cost more because I had to take the subway instead of the PATH train. Not fun!
After two weeks of that unpleasantness, there was an announcement that we would now have train service to Harriman, NY where we would get on buses and go to Ramsey Route 17 to get back on a train to Hoboken. This was somewhat better in that it was closer to the trip that I’m used to, but it still takes me three to three and a half hours each way and, because of having to change from train to bus to train, I can’t get any sleep while traveling. That seems like a minor complaint, but when you leave home at 5:10 AM and don’t get back until nearly 8:00 PM, it leaves you with a big sleep debt.
By the time I was getting home from work and having dinner, I wasn’t getting to bed before 11:00 PM or even later and then getting up at 4:00 AM to start it all over again. You can do that for a while, but the sleep deficit gets to you more quickly than you would expect. I ended up too sick to do any work at all for two days last week.
Now here is the silver lining part…
When I met with my boss this past Monday, she suggested that I would be better off working at home until the train troubles are resolved. This has multiple benefits:
- I don’t have to spend so much money on travel. I can cancel my monthly ticket until the trains are repaired and, since I’ll only be going to the office once or twice a month, we can put the money in our savings account.
- Because I don’t have to spend four to six hours or more traveling, I can make better use of that time to write, program, or just relax and watch a movie with my family.
- Because I am home, I can get a realiable amount of sleep. I go to bed at 10:30 PM and get up at 6:30 AM.
- Because I am less tired, I’m getting more work done during my work day.
- Finally, because I am getting up on a realiable schedule, I am devoting the first half hour to hour of my day exercising, taking a shower, and having a good breakfast.
Will wonders never cease? By the time I have to start making the commute on a regular basis again, I will be rejuvenated, will probably have lost some weight, and will most likely not have to take so many medications for ailments like high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol.
That all sounds good, but I’ve made plans before and flopped. So I’ll just have to keep you “posted” on my progress.