128/365: I Hate 270

I spent the day in St. Charles today.  That means my commute included a major portion of I-270.  That highway is never fun at rush hour.  I travel about 2 miles in 20 minutes.  It was the stretch between Gravios and I-44.  It's just insane.  And it frustrates me immensely.  All you see for miles in the distance is the red, beaty glow of stopped car taillights.  I know we don't have as bad of traffic as Chicago or New York or Los Angeles, but that doesn't comfort me as I waste valueable time sitting.  It's days like today that I wish St. Louis' mass transit infrastructure was better.  If I have to just sit, I would rather it be on a train where I could read or do something else productive rather than back talk the people on the radio who can't hear me.

59/365: Still Sitting

I know I live a long way from where I work. I typically don't complain about my commute because it was my choice to move to the right side of the river and it was my choice to take a job nearly across a second river. Today, however, was ridiculous. I'm typically prepared for a 60 to 75 minute commute on days with rain or snow. It's St. Louis, people don't drive well in adverse conditions and get their panties in a bunch trying to get to the store to get bread and milk before the impending doom strikes. But today, as you can see, was clear--albeit very cold. There was a mega nasty wreck, on another highway that may have had some effect on my drive. And then add in two wrecks directly on the highway which I had chosen to travel and we're talking 90 minutes in the car. I listen to the traffic report when I drive. I hadn't heard anything before I had committed myself to taking this route. And then I made a fatal mistake of getting in the left lane. So when traffic absolutely stopped dead a half mile past this shot, I was stuck. I tried to spend the time productively. I put the car in park, checked Facebook and Twitter, emailed people and still sat and sat and sat. After 30 minutes of sitting still, I finally called work and got a suggestion to "just work from home today." Really? I'm sitting, stuck. If I could actually move, I would be at work. Finally it was like the dam broke and traffic flowed. Note to self: do not finish large coffee and large diet coke in a traffic jam. It could have been really, really ugly.