Thoughts on the INL 500

This morning, I did something I rarely do: I drove to work.

Ordinarily, going to work for me involves a quiet, seven-mile journey from home to bus stop. I get on the bus and blissfully drop into a quiet slumber until the bus rumbles into CFA at about 6:30.

Because of an in-town meeting that would elave me stranded in Idaho Falls afterward because of the absence of INL bus service between the two cities, I chose today to drive, carpooling with another worker.

I don't ordinarily make the journey because -- and I clocked this once -- driving only saves me about 20 minutes versus riding the bus, it costs me half a tank of gas and ends up putting 178 miles on my truck. That's a long trip just to get to work, considering that Salt Lake City is only 210 miles, one way, from home.

I got plenty of reminders this morning of why I don't like to drive to work. Plenty of tailgaters, for one. And it didn't seem to matter how fast I went, I always had somebody trying to crawl up my tailpipe. Plenty of speeders, too.

The worst were the honkers. As I was waiting for traffic to turn off Highway 20 to get to RWMC< the idiot behind me started to honk and nearly decided to pass me through the intersection. Through the intersection, mind you. He and another idiot passed me instead right after we cleared the intersection. Watching them race up the road to work really made me laugh, because in the end we walked through the front doors with them. They didn't gain any time at all being rude at the intersection. I figure if you're in that much of a rush to get to work in the morning, you're better off riding the bus -- which beat everybody there -- or getting up earlier and getting to work earlier than everyone else.

I'll be happy to get back on the bus tomorrow morning. Lot less stress. And I can sleep. Or watch Dr. Strangelove, which I just uploaded onto my iPod Touch. Can't wait.