Downside to the long commute
Even though I have a new car that seems to get an average of about 35 mpg, I still drive 50 miles a day. The gain of 10 mpg from getting a new car only gave me one extra day between trips to the gas station.
This will drastically improve my daily commute
Today I’m driving home in my new car. It’s the newest car I’ve ever owned at the time of purchase (out of three!), and it’s definitely the nicest.
I have a thirty-five minute commute to work each way. I spend three hundred and fifty minutes a week just driving to and from work, and I probably spend a total of four hundred minutes each week in the car. For those of you without a calculator, that’s nearly 21,000 minutes a year in the car, or about fourteen days.
Those fourteen days will be immeasurably improved by a nice, newish Civic versus the beatup, loud, and faltering Subaru.
The only question is whether the Bug will like the new car as well as she liked the old one. The old car had baby charm: its shaking, rattling, and low engine rumbling was baby nap heaven. The new car will be smooth and quiet and had better not shake or rattle.
My first baby-filled trip home will arrive in about an hour and a half, and I’m caught between excitement and trepidation. At least she’ll be safe now, even if she isn’t as happy.
The baby is asleep 30 minutes before closing time
Great. The child who refused to sleep all day is now fast asleep in my lap, and it’s thirty minutes before closing time.
My great fear when this happens is that she will get a good nap and then be awake and fussy for the +30 minute commute. I’d almost rather wake her now and leave work early, hoping she’ll fall back asleep once in the car.
Of course the best case scenario would be 30 minutes of sleep now followed by 30 minutes of sleep in the car, with just a brief interlude in the middle.
But experience tells me that’s unlikely.
Joy.
