I'm finally home and it feels so good. I find travelling annoying and exhausting though it was good to see friends & family. Both plane trips had delays, the worst being on the return where it was an hour late taking off then when we go to the gate they wouldn't let us off the plane because they had lost power to the exit ramp, or some such nonsense. I had a 3:00 pm physical therapy appointment that shouldn't have been a problem to make but I screeched in with just 2-3 minutes to spare. The sad thing is that noone was even upset by this, these delays must be so routine that everyone expects them. We had a mid-morning flight, there was no bad weather anywhere, there was no excuse and American Airlines barely apologized for it. I'm done with planes until I go back again next year, phew. Jonny's going to Scotland to visit his family but I'll be staying home. It's way too expensive for us both to go and I'm quite happy to stay home. Plus what it does to your global footprint, yikes. I hate listening to my fellow Boulderites going on about their 'green' lifestyles then yammering on about all the air travel they do. I'm sorry, you can buy all the local produce you want and parade around town in your Prius and ride your bike to yoga class but as soon as you step on that airplane you've blown your global footprint right out of the water. So yeah that's my excuse for avoiding the planes, global warming. If only my family would buy that.
Chicago has major transportation issues as well. Basically, it takes forever to go anywhere. Jonny & I went to the Art Institute on a weekday and decided to take the train to avoid the hassle of driving. One of the major highways is down to 1 or 2 lanes due to construction and the drive is enough of a nightmare when there isn't construction. It took 2 hours door to door on that #$%@ train. According to mapquest the Art Institute is 18.27 miles from where we were staying and it should have taken 27 minutes by car. Maybe if we left at 4 am on a Sunday. I can drive downtown in 20 minutes at 4 am on a Sunday but unless you're running the Chicago marathon there's little reason to be down there at that hour. You cannot drive anywhere in Chicago in 27 minutes at 9:30 am on a weekday, trust me on this one. We would have been faster on bikes. Maybe this is why my friend has taken to kayaking on the river. I am so very glad that I no longer have to transport myself around that gridlocked city. It's one of the main reasons I moved away.
The dogs were exhausted when we picked them up at the vet. I'm supposing they were too nervous to sleep much in the kennel. I felt bad about it but what else could I do. I think Lola in particular was happy to be home and sleeping on a nice tempurpedic mattress instead of a hard concrete floor. She doesn't sleep on the bed too often in the summer because it's too hot for her but this morning I woke up all squished and contorted with Lola sprawled out over half the bed and all felt right in the world. Now to get back to training.
I agree. Traveling used to be fun. These days? Not so much.
ReplyDeleteThe way I figure it, I do 3 huge things that limit my carbon footprint:
1. Not having children
2. Working at home
3. Only driving about 6,000 miles per year (the average is like 12,000-15,000)
When you throw in the fact that I haven't had a real vacation since 2001, I figure I'm doing a pretty good job.
Welcome home!
Interesting, you never see 'not having children' discussed as an option for dealing with global warming yet it's the best thing you can do. I've always felt it's been my biggest gift to the planet. The govt. should be giving the tax breaks to people with no children and people who adopt. But that would be political suicide and the govt. wants more consumers/taxpayers, not less.
ReplyDeleteHo! I feel so much more selfless since I read this post. I don't have children either so I guess I can do all the travelling I want :-)
ReplyDeleteI know, it's the one way I justify all my agility travelling to myself.
ReplyDelete