It's Only Time

It's almost 4:30 am and again I cannot sleep. I went down to read a technical book around 9:00 pm and promptly fell asleep, only to awake around 1:15 when my wife came to bed. I have been having athsma or allergy problems the past few days. I was doing so well, then something happened - not sure what. I think it began when I choked on some water (you'd think after 43 years, I'd learn how to swallow properly). Then I cleaned out the litter box for the cats, did some general sweeping and vacuuming around the house, and generally stirred up dust. Then I went to a dinner party a couple nights ago at a house that was pretty much completely rebuilt - the guy who owns it is a contractor and bought the house at a foreclosure auction and it was pretty much rotted and gutted out when he got it. Lots of mold and crap. So, who knows if I was exposed to anything there.

But my lungs are full of crap and my nose is running and I'm sneezing a lot. I really hate when that happens. I'm just glad I don't have to go to work tomorrow. uh....today.

Speaking of work, my job is only 5 miles from home! That's quite a difference from the 30 miles that it used to be. But here's the kicker. When I worked 30 miles from home, it took me nearly 40 minutes to get there. 7 minutes to the freeway, 20 minutes on the freeway, 10 minutes to the office. Yet, now that I work 5 miles from home, it takes 14 minutes to get there.

14 minutes.

That's like 20 miles per hour when you average it all out. I had to laugh when I read a post somewhere from someone claiming to have lived in New York and San Francisco and other places, complaining about how the traffic lights in Tucson were unsynchronized. Now, wait a minute - I grew up in Tucson, and although the occasional red light was perhaps a bit inconvenient, it certainly wasn't unexpected when travelling across town, and the red lights only lasted for maybe a minute. I have to wonder if this complainer has actually ever so much as set foot - much less imagined it - anywhere in California.

I swear all the lights in this state - all of them - are perfectly synchronized so that each and every single one of them on any given route is RED when you get there. Then, you have to deal with the first-come, first-served nature of their...uh...design and try to guess which arrow is going to turn green, which direction of traffic will get to go next, and half the time wonder why seven of the eight possible directions of travel are red at any given time while you're sitting there for 2 or 3 minutes trying to figure out which light is actually green. Even at 2:00 in the morning. Then, if any traffic comes along in the lane that has a green light or a green arrow, it will turn red just in time to make them stop. Then the light for the next empty lane will turn green (and it might be empty because the traffic previously waiting there got tired of waiting and blew the light - though that is highly dangerous, since you never know what light is going to be green as you pass on through).

Unsynchronized traffic lights in Tucson? GIVE ME A FREAKIN' BREAK!!!

I went to visit Tucson not too long ago, and I thought I was in heaven. Relatively speaking. As far as driving goes, anyway. Although, the whole driving culture is very different. Although you can't get anywhere in any reasonable amount of time on California streets (at least not in any part of California I have ever been in), at least I don't feel like some mindless numbskull with a boomer stereo system and a pneumatic suspension system is going to cream me in an intersection at 60MPH while making a left turn. So, I guess there are trade-offs. But I sure miss being able to actually get around town. As spread out at Tucson was, it seemed like the longest it ever took to get anywhere was 15 minutes. And that certainly covered more than 5 miles. Hell, I could be out in the desert in 15 minutes!

Ah, well. You take it as it comes to you, I guess. One mile at a time. I guess I'm spoiled from the days when it only took me 6 minutes to get to work. A short jaunt to Grant Rd. Zip on down to Campbell. Shuttle on down a couple blocks and pull into the parking garage. I think it was like 3 miles. That makes it about 30 MPH on average. Well, in Tucson, you could actually go 40 MPH. Out here in California where I live, I don't think I've seen a sign for anything over 30 MPH. The streets are barely wide enough to walk on, much less drive on, so I guess that is sort of understandable. But being forced to listen to an entire song on the radio from beginning to end while sitting at a single red light is a clear indication that something is wrong.

Enough of my ranting. I could write a book about driving (and have even considered it). I may even one day start my "Jerk Alert" web site that I have always thought would be a hit, but I guess that is for another time. We'll see.

Take care - and drive safely out there!