This is the first day of the rest of someone's life...

[hawkwing_lb]

...The first day of the rest of my life, in this case.

University=Good.
Commuting=Bad.

This is the math that will dominate the rest of my year. And probably next year, as well. I'm wrecked with a capital W. Concentration is shot. Will not be working on novel-project tonight. Maybe not until the weekend.

Good news: more words (approx 650) on short story 'The Names of God'. Which is much weirdness, since I don't know what it's about. (Change? Nah. Freedom? Nope. Divinity? Probably not.) Now it only needs an ending. (Train tomorrow. Or maybe the library. After I do assigned ancient history work, of course.)

And I'll stop babbling now.

Comments

Commuting is always bad..

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

How far do you have to go? I haven't ridden Irish trains, or busses, except within cities, so I am not familiar with the ups and downs, as it were.

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Oh, it wasn't how far I had to go. Yesterday I got in to college in about 40 minutes by train. Today...

Bah.

Train delayed. Me, I decide that instead of waiting half an hour or perhaps a bit more in the rain for a train that'd be sardine-jammed crowded when it arrived, I'll go for the bus, which is due in ten minutes and will have seats.

So. Bus arrives. I get on the bus.

The bus takes two hours (plus change) to cover what's normally, even at rush hour, an hour and a half's travel.

I missed my 0900 lecture. Completely. Transport system:1, Me:0

/rant.

Sorry about that. I think I've been psychologically scarred by the experience... :-)

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

The above rant, as it were, actually covers today, the day succeeding this post. I'm afraid anybody who asks me about transport in the next month will probably hear the full story.

Transport system is usually fairly good, trains-wise (which is my normal method of transpo to Dublin), except between 0700 and 0900, and 1615 and 1815, when getting a seat (often simply getting standing room: there are people fainting in the carriages, sometimes) is damn near impossible. I can get from my local station (I'm lucky: it's less than 15 minutes down the road) to the city centre in 40 minutes to an hour, provided I time my departure to the not-always-handily-scheduled train. :-)

Buses are ok, too, but they're subject to traffic. At off-peak, about 40 minutes to city centre by a fast bus. At peak... Well, see above.

What's your experience of the transport system where you are? If I may ask :-).

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[otakuloki.livejournal.com]

I used to live in the NYC area. I was working in Queens, and lived in Jersey City. Since I doubt this means much to you - it translated to about a two hour commute. One way.

The good news was that since I was doing shift work, and preferred to work the later shifts, I rarely had to deal with rush hour. The bad news is that I'm borderline claustrophobic. Avoiding rush hour wasn't just a good idea. Two hours of life as an undead sardine in the can was a good definition of Hell to my mind.

Now I just use a the local buses. They aren't very convenient or all that cheap here, unless I'm trying to get to the center of the city. A ten minute drive by car takes an hour and a half with bus transfers. My sympathies on the long and annoying commute (especially during rush hours).

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I am extraordinarily fortunate in being able to commute by train. The ranting was largely yesterday's bad experience, and the day before at rush hour.

Trains are cool, when you get a seat.

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Ah..public transportation exists in the Washington DC area, but..it's not nearly as good as the Dublin system. No, really. I took a bus from Portmarnock to downtown Dublin on the weekend, and took the train as well during the week. The DC Metro is not large enough to properly serve all the suburbs. However, more people are using the existing Metro and are overcrowding the trains. The bus system is adequate as long as you aren't in a huge hurry, or if you give yourself enough time to catch the connecting bus. I can take the bus from the house to the bus transfer point and catch the next bus and then be at work in about an hour..or I can drive on the beltway and be there in 20 minutes, with heavy traffic going 30 mph. I'd ride a bike but we have no bike trails that connect in the right directions for me.

It's disappointing as I grew up in/just outside of New York City, which has an old and well-established train/bus system. From North of NYC, the train into Grand Central takes about an hour to 1.5 hours, then a bus downtown or walk crosstown and I'm where I want to be. Or used to want to be. ;-)

I did notice that traffic into Dublin on Friday morning (as we were headed out of Dublin to Cavan) was not as heavy as we experience on the East Coast. The metro Boston-New Haven-New York-Philadelphia-Washington DC area is very congested and has lots of people who are more important than you, so you'd better get out of their way. Now. Drivers are very aggressive and stupid, and if more people would just take the damned bus/train there'd be enough room on the roads to drive. But, since not enough ("enough"..don't get me started on that) people ride the busses/trains, the transportation authorities don't buy enough busses/trains to suport the ridership, so everything is either overcrowded or underserved.

Oy. I'm ranting. It's a catch-22 situation.

I wish I could work from home, but there's something about having patients who need hand-on care.

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I did notice that traffic into Dublin on Friday morning (as we were headed out of Dublin to Cavan) was not as heavy as we experience on the East Coast. The metro Boston-New Haven-New York-Philadelphia-Washington DC area is very congested and has lots of people who are more important than you, so you'd better get out of their way

Well, y'know, the whole of Ireland doesn't have as many people as Washington, I don't think, so of course traffic's lighter here *g*.

Query: Patients?
(Don't mind me, I'm nosy)

And rant as much as you like :-)

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[(Anonymous)]

Well, y'know, the whole of Ireland doesn't have as many people as Washington

And a good thing it is, too! It's not just the numbers of drivers, although that makes a very big difference on the road; it's also the courtesy of the drivers. Outside the metro-East Coast madness, drivers are much more polite to each other (and to pedestrians); the whole of Ireland is polite and well-behaved on the road. Well, I drove us from Dublin to Killeshandra to Enniskillen to Castlebar, around Achill Island, and back to Dublin (with assorted stops in various other locales), and never met a rude person. (Not all at once, over 12 days.)

Patients: I'm a veterinarian. Nose around all you like. ;-)

I work for the National Eye Institute, helping researchers with their work on animal models for human diseases (all eye diseases). I'm happy to answer veterinary-type questions for all and sundry, and even the occasional medical-type question.

Ah, I could rant for hours on traffic and rude drivers and poor planning on the part of the regional managers and so on. At 25 or 30 miles per hour (which is what - 45-60kph?), it's a slow crawl home and I have plenty of time to notice where exactly I'd put the light-rail train along the road. The only "blessing" is at that slow speed no one can go weaving in and out of traffic, as it's too crowded for that nonsense -- but I've still had angry drivers tailgating me at 20 mph. As if I were the only one in the way.

When I get home I really need that cuppa. It's my only vice. I've managed to make a decent cuppa in the Caribbean, Canada, and the South / Western states in US. Everything else is frosting on the cake. ;-)

Well, that and a good book, but I can have a cuppa any time every day, and I've got to wait for those books.

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Hm. I didn't realize I was "anon" when I replied.

Re: Commuting is always bad..

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

S'alright. I guessed who it was :-)