Tag: commute

Long Day Alert

Wow… Wednesday… am I right or am I right?

It’s a work-in-the-office day. I woke up nice and early, though about half an hour later than I was hoping. I had a lot of meetings on my work calendar today, the first of them being very early in the day. I wanted to make sure I could get through my whole morning routine, including 45 minutes of jogging (pronounced yogging) in place and making lunch and packing emergency protein snacks and all of that stuff while still leaving enough time for me to get to work a little early.

Unfortunately when I got out of bed I saw that we got a dusting of snow overnight. Not a lot, but enough to cover everything and guarantee a terrible morning commute. I was hoping to get out onto the road by 7:15. I made it by 7:20, but I had to cut my exercise in half to pull off that feat. That means I am going to have to yog tonight when I get home and I really do not want to do that. I wasn’t late to work, but it did take me an hour and a half to drive the 40 miles. 

Now that it’s about 2:30 in the afternoon, I have survived two big meetings and I have a third coming up in half an hour. I’m stressing out, big time, but once I get through today I will not have to worry about this sort of thing for a while and I am happy about that idea.

Tomorrow and Friday I will be working from home. I am optimistic that I will be able to get a lot of music done before work both days. Fingers crossed for some guitar playing and car vocals and fun stuff like that. I’m also thinking it would be nice to mix a song or two over the weekend. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

For now though, I am really tired and can’t wait to get through my next meeting so that I can relax a little. Maybe if I can get my exercise finished right after dinner tonight I might be able to go to bed early and enjoy not having to stress over a work project for the first time in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed, right?

Commute Fun

After a few inches of snow followed by a layer of ice last night, the commute this morning is going to be rough. Hopefully most of Massachusetts will just stay home and I’ll have routes 93 and 128 to myself.

Not likely.

I’m running a bit late this morning but I did manage to sneak in a picture for the photo a day thing. Granted it’s basically the same as the last two days. What’s a red head to do?

Desks

When I work at home I have a work desk in the cellar, and a work desk in my step son’s room. I also have a personal computer desk that doubles as my music nook in the cellar.

That’s a lot of desks.

Last year I had to give up my desk in the office. They told us that if we wanted to keep our permanently assigned desks we had to commit to working three days in the office. Nope. I was committed to one, but that was all I wanted to do. A couple of months from now that one day requirement is being bumped up to two days. Along with the two day rule is the option to have a desk assignment. I signed up for a desk with the caveat that if they go back to requiring three days I will un-sign up. My boss agreed.

While my new office desk won’t go into effect until next week sometime, I am actually sitting at “my” desk today. We are living in a screwy world, I tells ya.

The commute in this morning was a bit rough. Lots and lots of accidents and break downs, and one cop who was pulling people over in the middle of a traffic jam. Not sure what he was doing, other than purposefully making the gridlock worse? Who knows.

It is supposed to rain all day today, but the blue sky broke through a few times during the drive.

132/365
132/365

Okay, back to work with you, Mr. Robert. 

Home

I did it. Three days in the office. Not only that but three days in the 2nd farthest office from my house.

Tomorrow is Friday and tomorrow I’ll be working from home… finally.

Next week our Wednesday in the office day happens on Tuesday because reasons. I’m not thinking about that tonight though. I am just happy that I can work from home tomorrow. Insert the sound of a super emphatic sigh of relief right here.

As much as I am looking forward to not driving 73 miles to Foxborough tomorrow morning, I am even more looking forward to getting past the work day and getting to the weekend. There will be much xmas gift wrapping this weekend. Also… guitar playing… it’s a moral imperative.

I Didn’t Quite Make It

I didn’t make it all the way home.

My Foxborough meeting let out at 2:00. I headed North toward home, but the traffic was building up. I have a 3:00 conference call I need to attend and I was going to be super late for it. I gave up on my dream of working from home for the last couple of hours of the day and pulled into my regular office. I am going to make the 3:00, which is good, but I am still in the office, which is not as good.

Fail. Oh well.

The Blinding

Remember the entire past Spring and Summer when I was constantly bitching about how the sun was always buried behind rain clouds every single time I had a chance to go outside and take pictures?

Remember the last few days where I was constantly bitching about having to drive in to the office 70+ miles away from home for three straight days this week?

Is there a connection between these two remembrances?

All three morning commutes have been accompanied by the blinding sun shining so brightly, directly into my eyes that it literally burned the retinas out of my eye sockets and melted what little brain I have in my skull. Literally. 

Like… is that irony, or is it mother nature getting some payback for all the bitching and moaning I’ve been doing? We may never know.

105/365
105/365

Two Down, One to Go

Tuesday in the office? Check.

Wednesday in the office? Check.

Thursday in the office? Still to come.

I drove the 70+ miles to Foxborough this morning. I attended a couple of meetings, one of which was in person and the whole reason I made the commute. When it was over I packed up my stuff and drove home and finished the day here. Literally right here at this desk that I am sitting at as I type this masterpiece of a blog post right now.

Tomorrow might be different. The in person meeting I am driving the 70+ miles for runs from 12-2:00. Is that too late in the day for me to drive a little more than an hour to work from home for the last couple of hours of the day? I’m definitely not staying in Foxborough, but I could drive to my actual office building in Westwood and finish the day there. I don’t want to do that, but from a self guilt stand point that might be the way to go. I will see if I can bring myself to run the two options (home or Westwood) past my boss and see if he even cares which choice I make.

All of this means that I have one more day this week where I have to get up extremely early so that I can get my morning exercise in before I leave, and still leave early enough to drive the hour and a half it takes to get to where I need to be. It is stressing me out big time, but at least I should be back to one day in the office each week for the next few months. Come March though… mandatory two days. Shit.

Okay then, it’s 8:00pm. I finished dinner about half an hour ago. I am still feeling pretty full in my little tiny faux stomach gastric bypassed pouch. Today is supposed to be national ice cream day. I can’t eat real ice cream anymore, but I have a sugar free ice cream-esque thing in the freezer that I can have. That will allow me to get in on the ice creamy celebration, and it also has five grams of protein! Bonus!

I think I’ll watch an episode of Deep Space Nine and then see if I am hungry enough for a snack. I probably will be. What I should do is try to write some music, but I don’t think I have it in me tonight. It was a long day in what is amounting to a very long week.

I’ll survive… somehow… day by day.

One Down, Two to Go

I am home after a long day at work in the office. I drove the 13513533752 miles to our Foxborough building this morning (actually, it’s 73 miles, it just feels like a zillion and a half) for our group’s holiday party/meeting. Yankee swap and then lunch. After that I drove about half way home and finished the day in my regular building in Westwood.

Tomorrow is day two of three straight Foxborough days. This time it’s for my manager’s monthly meeting with his staff. Since I only have to be in the office one day each week, when this meeting ends at around noon I will probably be able to drive home and finish the day here. That only works if nothing pressing comes up tomorrow morning. Finger crossed.

Thursday brings me back to Foxborough for a third straight day. This time for a training in the morning, followed by my manager taking his direct reports out to lunch. I didn’t check everyone’s calendars to see if there was a reason why the group meeting and the group lunch aren’t both happening on the same day, because I am sure there is something going on to keep everyone from being available. It’s not a big deal, really. I have three long morning commutes in a row, but that’s still better than going in to my usual, closer to home, office five days a week, right? Again, if nothing goes wrong I will be able to head home for the second half of the day following the group lunch. Fingers crossed again.

In reference to a post from yesterday, the collared shirt I wore to the office today has been washed and hung up to dry. It should be ready to go on Thursday. That will do for today.

I Don’t Wanna

Sorry, gentle readers, but this is going to be a running theme over the next few days.

I don’t wanna go to the office tomorrow… or the next day… or the next day. I just want to work from home. Even worse, all three in the office days require me to work in a building that is 70-something miles from home, instead of the usual 40 miles.

I said it before and I will say it again (and again and again)…

I. Don’t. Wanna!!!

One Hour to Go

It’s 4:30. I have one hour left in the work day. It feels like an eternity.

This has been a long one. I am in the office today and I really wish I had been able to work from home. I really miss Jen today. I always miss Jen when I am not near her, but today has felt so much worse. I just want to go home and have dinner with her and relax a little. She has a computer hardware project she wants to do tonight. I can help out a little. It will be fun.

I am not sure what the problem was today. It has just felt like an endless grind of a day. That happens sometimes. It’s actually been quiet and calm, but it’s not at home and somehow that makes quiet and calm feel stressful. Weird, eh?

53 minutes until quittin’ time. I can make it. Who knows how long the commute will be. It’s pitch dark outside already (stupid non-daylight savings time). It’s 34 degrees out. It will probably be below freezing by the time I leave. I really don’t like this time of year. Blah.

Okay, let’s make that last hour of the work day productive. What do you say. Get some work done and then go home to where you belong.

ADDENDUM: Almost immediately after publishing this post we got pulled into an escalated issue for one of our biggest customers. So much for calm and quiet.