Afternoon Delight

For two years, Michael commuted fifty miles one way to work every day. That means he put 500 miles a week on the vehicle he drove. When gas was $3.10 a gallon, he sometimes spend over $100 a week in gas alone.

He had to be there at eight in the morning, which meant setting the alarm for five, so he could leave no later than seven. He worked until five p.m. (He gets a one hour lunch). Then he would start the long odyssey home again. Fifty miles. He would usually arrive home somewhere between six and six-thirty.

That meant that five days a week, he was gone eleven to twelve hours a day. When he came home, he was very tired. I would have dinner on the table by seven, most nights. By eight, it would be cleaned up, the kids bathed, and time for them to go to bed. Michael would get, perhaps, an hour or so with them at night.

Three nights a week, he would have clients. At first, he would have to go into the office (sometimes straight to it, missing dinner altogether) until he switched his practice to online. After he did that, he'd at least be home in the livingroom working on his laptop. That was a nice change, and afforded us a little more time together.

Michael is a night person, not a morning person, so that means we were awake until at least eleven. Sometimes midnight. Sunday nights were the worst, because he'd caught up on a little sleep (I always let him sleep in on the weekends if I could) and he was resentful of the week-long odyssey he was facing, so he would defiantly want to stay up late. There were Sunday nights we were up until two or three in the morning watching movies--and when his alarm went off at five in the morning, he would groan and hit it... but he'd still get up.

I honestly don't know how he survived it.

Now that we'd moved, however, his drive has gone from fifty miles down down to five. He can make it home in ten minutes (as long as he doesn't get stuck behind a farm vehicle!)

He went from this:

(his route is detailed in red)

To this:


See that tiny little red dot near the bottom? That's where we used to live. In case you can't see his route, it's the green "start" and red "end" near the top righthand side of the picture there. See it? Look close...

Big difference, huh?

He leaves at seven-thirty in the morning (but doesn't have to get up until six-thirty!) He's home by five-fifteen most nights. Five thirty at the latest. And the best part? Three days a week, he even gets to come home in the middle of the day... most of the time for lunch... once in a while for a little "afternoon delight."

Days like today I think moving here was the best thing we ever did!