Thursday, July 26, 2007

Human Adaptation

A co-worker of mine is leaving to go work in the government, and I promised him I would bring in a music album for him to listen to, but it meant I had to run upstairs, boot the computer, and copy it to my thumb drive, when I should have been leaving to catch the bus. My wife suggested I drive to work so that I didn't have to rush. Fair enough.

So I drove to work today for the first time in about 3 weeks, and its the funniest thing; I didn't enjoy it. I actually found myself longing for a seat on the 95. Over the past 3 weeks I've spent every morning with a good book, and some new and interesting music on my iPod, and I missed it.

Instead, I was faced with stop and go traffic, idiots on the road, construction and all of the internal rage that I remember feeling every day I drove. I can tell you that I'm not looking forward to the drive home. This just adds fuel to the fire. Now when someone asks me why I take the bus, I can tell them:
1. I'm trying my best to be green.
2. I don't want to deal with the idiots on the road.

The primary arguments people use for not taking the bus is time and convenience. It takes too much time to get to where I'm going. Its not convenient for me. It begs the question: What do you do with all of the time you save by driving? Watch t.v? Gotta rush home to catch the latest episode of Big Brother 100? People always complain that they never have time to themselves, they're always rushing. My advice is to slow down! Take the bus. You'll pollute less, and also lower your blood pressure.

2 comments:

Malva said...

Nice blog, keep it up! I love reading local green content. I found you from a link from the Green Living Ottawa blog.

I agree with you on the car thing. Since we got rid of our only car last year, everytime I drive somewhere I feel a bit of annoyance at the traffic, the other drivers and the confinement. I look at cyclists passing me in traffic and can't help wishing I was on my bike instead. I just can't find it all that enjoyable anymore.

Aggie said...

Great blog. Keep going. We need you!