Friday, April 21, 2006

Wouldn't Happen To Me

I read an interesting article today that almost made me fell out of my chair.  Midas, the muffler people, held a nationwide contest looking for person with the longest commute to work.  The winner was a guy in California that drives 370 miles to work and back every day.  The guy said he considers his seven-hour commute the best answer to balancing his work with his personal life.  Ohhhhhkay.

The guy said it's the way to keep the home and job he loves - an electrical engineer.  "I have the balance right now," the winner said. "I could do similar jobs closer, but not with the work reward and job satisfaction I have. And I could live closer, but I wouldn't have the lifestyle that I desire. To me, this is not that long a commute -  it's just something I do to go to work."  The guy added that he spends almost $200 a week in gas.  I don't doubt that one bit. 

I cannot imagine driving a total of 7 hours to and from work every day.  It wouldn't happen here. On most days, I'm not real thrilled with my 8 mile commute that takes me only 15 minutes; 20 tops if the traffic is bad.  If I were that guy that travels 370 miles roundtrip to and from work, I think I'd rent one of those apartments for the week and come home on the weekends.  Because I can't imagine that he has that much of a life during the week.   Let's break this down:  he probably gets up at 4:00, leaves for the daily trip at 5:00, gets to work at 8:30, gets off from work at 5:00 and starts the trip home, and arrives home at 8:30.  He barely has time to eat something, check his mail and email, and get a bath before he has to go to bed and start it all over.  He must be knocking back some major bucks at his gig, that's all I can say.

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