Commuting Stinks!

Commuting is getting to be a real bother. For reasons that are much too long to go into right now, I commute two hours one way (85 miles on state highways) to work five days a week. I work 7:00 am to 5:00 pm most days. My day goes something like this:

4:30 am - The alarm goes off and I'm in no mood to get out of bed.

4:45 am - I finally drag myself out of bed to start the day.

5:15 am - I hit the road on my long morning commute. This time of year, it's still quite dark out.

7:00 am - I arrive at work to start the day.

7:00 am to 5:00 pm - I deal with customer issues, employee issues, inventory issues, pricing issues, merchandising issues, theft issues, building issues, and any other issue that comes up throughout the day.

5:00 pm - I do my best to leave work on time.

5:15 pm - I finally make it to my car to start the long commute home.

7:00 pm - Home at last! If I'm lucky, my wife has dinner waiting on me.

7:30 pm - Dinner is over, and it's time to spend some time playing with my son.

8:00 pm - My son's bed time.

8:30 pm - We finally get my son to bed, after he and I both protest for half an hour. I spend the next ninety minutes or so reading email, maintaining my blogs, reading a book, etc.

10:00 pm - Tomorrow's an early day, so I like to get to bed at a reasonable time.

10:30 pm - I finally make it to bed.

As you can see, it can be a long, hectic day. There isn't much time for anything else. This morning I was talking with my wife on the phone at 8:30 when my son woke up calling, "Dada." When she told him I was at work, he started crying. It broke my heart!

I don't know how much longer I can keep making this commute.

Joe