9/17/04

Now that I’ve made the decision to ride the bus to work instead of driving and parking in the garage, I can’t wait to start. But wait I must. If I had decided this a week ago I would have been able to start in October, but now I have to wait until November. I have to place my order for either a monthly parking pass or bus pass on the 10th of the month before I’ll be using it because they need time to process the changes to my payroll deduction.

I sat down and figured out how much it’s really costing me and I wish I had done this sooner. I pay $115/mo for my parking card for the company’s parking garage, and a monthly bus pass is only $44. That’s the obvious savings, but then there’s the cost of driving that distance every day. By taking the bus I’ll be saving myself 600 miles per month. My car will be happy and so will my wallet. At the average 30mpg I normally get and the current $2/gal for gas, that’s $40/mo. Plus there’s the more frequent maintenance such as oil changes. That will be 7800 miles per year that I won’t be putting on the car. And as an added bonus, I get lots more time to read!!!!!!!! That’s what I really can’t wait for! I suppose it’s better for the environment too, but those buses belch out some filty exhuast! I guess those emissions would still be less than all of those people driving their own cars – especially if they’re driving old pieces of… well, old vehicles like my `66 Ford pickup that probably chokes every bird in the neighborhood when I fire it up.

I’m thinking about sticking to Math and Science (or History) majors now. I know I’m flip-flopping a lot, but this online Literature class is what is starting to help my decision. Surprise, surprise: I can’t stand my classmates. I was happy at first that they were referencing and responding to my posts, but now that’s all gone wrong. They’re doing it because they’re misreading what I write. Just out of curiousity, what do you think, “revenge is a dish best served cold” means? Anyway, that’s not what’s really starting to get to me. What’s getting to me is the analysis of a few pieces of fiction by 20+ students. It’s nice to read different perspectives on things sometimes, but there really isn’t all that much to say about short stories and 20+ people have to come up with something to say in 15+ sentences. And then do it again after reading what everyone else wrote about it. It’s odious, and I’m just a student. My poor professor has to do this three times a year.