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July 31, 2007
Mental Log-Jam
I'm normally pretty good at making decisions - so my total lack of ability to move forward on the "to move or not to move" question is incredibly frustrating.
On the one hand, I love where I live - I'm more attached to this place than any place I've lived before. We have a great house, in a nice neighborhood, with terrific neighbors, and the island is just a beautiful and serene place to live.
Sure, there are relatively few places to eat, and yea they roll up the sidewalks at night, but that's livable.
And during these summer months, when the days are long, temperate and dry, my commute doesn't really bother me all that much. It's long, but as long as I don't look at my watch, it's easy to ignore that. I've been reading on the boat, and traffic at its worst in Seattle is only about a normal day commuting into LA.
But I'm dreading the winter. When daylight is precious, the weather colder and wetter, and each ride into work becomes another chance for the elements, or the oblivious idiot in the lane next to me, to make my day way less than good.
Last winter was - according to everyone around - really rare. Only every 10 years. Which is the same as they said the winter before - so I'm taking that assurance with a grain of salt.
Which leaves me stuck.
I don't want to move, I certainly don't want to leave my job - which remains the best I've had since OpenMarket - but I need to fix my commute.
I think I get to pick two.
You'd think it would be easy - moving "back to civilization" has a bunch of side benefits - like eliminating the aforementioned dirth of restaurants and evening activities, the potential of reconstructing our withered social lives, easier access to services that are scarce on "our side of the water" (just taking the car in for it's regular service becomes an all-day ordeal), not to mention that when the weather turns crappy, Dawnise can drop me off at work and not spend an entire day doing it.
So why the hell am I still so conflicted?
Posted by dberger at July 31, 2007 11:50 AM
Comments
can a bike be both a RoadKing and a Hypermotard?
There must be a factor to tip the scales.... Hmmm ... it'll come to you
gg (soon to be dad)
Posted by: grant at July 31, 2007 2:35 PM
Maybe I'm missing the attachment to the motorcycle, but maybe just driving into work like the rest of us 4-wheeled-folk is the cure for those days when the weather isn't cooperating.
Posted by: Steve S. at July 31, 2007 9:09 PM
The problem is car + ferry == long and unpredictable commute. On the motorcycle, if I'm in the lot before the boat leaves, I can squeeze on it. In a car, that's not the case - so you have to arrive 20-30 minutes early, and in heavy traffic that can translate into sitting in the ferry dock for 90 minutes - through one sailing. On a really bad night, with the boats running behind and heavy due to weather, sitting through two sailings isn't unheard of.
So the car isn't an option.
Posted by: Dan at August 1, 2007 6:21 AM