Post-commuting free time

Since trading my job 38 miles away for one that's a mere 3.3 miles from home, I've been asked countless times: "what do you do with all your spare time?" 

In my old job I got up at 6:30, left the house at 7:12a to catch a bus to Seattle, worked from 8:30-5, caught the 5:08p bus home, arrived home around 6:30, made and ate dinner by 7:30, then vegged until my 10p bedtime.  I wasn't particularly productive, especially in the winter when the daylight hours are basically 8-4:30 in Western Washington.  Spending 2 1/2 hours per day on a bus really sucks the life out of you.

Yesterday I decided to jot down what I do in a typical day, it being fairly typical, because I was curious how my new life compares.

7:00 - get up, get ready for work
7:50 - leave for work
8-4:25 - work
4:25 - scoot out a few minutes early sp I can get to glass store that closes at 5
4:35 - dash home to grab the window I'm refurbishing, the dog, and the chisels I want to return at Lowe's

4:50 - arrive at the glass store, order new piece of glass to replace this one

5:15 - arrive at Lowe's, get refund, mentally figure out how much the solid hardwood flooring would cost for the piece that's missing in the living room (the furnace intake used to be there at some point), buy some pickle crisp for the cukes my mom is buying for me tomorrow

5:50 - get back home, collect chicken eggs, squirt the neighbor's barking barking barking dogs with vinegar diluted with water, preheat BBQ, turn on canning water to finish the last batch of vanilla-peach jam

5:55 - get dinner ready for the grill: whole chicken and roasted corn from farmers markets, red potatoes from our garden

6:15 - put away dry pots and pans from yesterday's peach-canning spree, wash some jars for the vanilla-peach jam

6:25 - hubbie gets home and finds that Rosemary has eaten all the cat food, cross "feed dog" off the to-do list
6:30 - delight in telling hubbie that the spray bottle of "Canine Shutter-Upper" (patent pending) is working, hope that neighbors don't notice their dogs smell like vinegar

6:32 - realize that the jam fixings had been frozen so jars and canning water are not useful tonight

6:35 - take out recycling and trash, flip dinner on grill

6:40 - come back into house and squeal with glee upon discovering that hubbie has swept

6:41 - shred cabbage for sauerkraut and take pics for blog

7:05 - timer dings for dinner - ignore it until cabbage for sauerkraut is salted

7:10 - get dinner off the grill, plate it, pop open a hard cider, watch some TV for a bit

8:00 - transfer the sauerkraut into its resting spot for the next few weeks, put away dinner dishes, prepare leftovers for lunches tomorrow

8:20 - check to see if chickens are put away (they aren't), start this blog post

8:38 - take Rosemary outside to pee, lock up chickens, notice they're nearly out of food so refill the feeder

8:45 - start the dishwasher and settle in to watch "It's Complicated" with the hubbie (very, very funny movie)

10:45 - brush teeth and hit the hay

If I had any spare time, I'd probably read or knit but it seems I'm wasting it on sleep.

On a final note, happy 38th anniversary to my parents!

Rosemary

Parsley

Sage

Rosemary

And thyme.

We got a dog! 

Her name is Rosemary and she's a 4-year-old spayed champion Pembroke Welsh Corgi.  Her owner & breeder decided not to breed Rosemary so was looking for a home for her.  G-man and I have always wanted a corgi and now that I'm no longer commuting it's possible to have a dog.  He's taking her to work with him and on days she stays at home, I'll be able to run home at lunch to check on her.

The next thing we'll be working on is to make sure she doesn't kill a chicken.  We're keeping them well separated while she adjusts to being in a new home.

The cats hate her.  And us.

A photojournal

Here are some pics of a typical day for me.  I'll spare you the pics of my office.  These are pics from my lunch break and from my bike ride home.

Thursdays means the downtown farmers market in Tacoma.  It's only 5-6 blocks from my office building.  I came home with 2 lbs of red cherries for the hubbie.

My boss and I laughed about Infinite Soups a lot.

Fast forward to my bike-ride home.  I have to cross I-5, where I used to spend over 2 hours daily.  In the distance is the Tacoma Dome, which was built with wood downed during the 1980 Mt. Saint Helens eruption.

I love the old homes in my neighborhood, which was built in the 1920s. 

About 2 years ago I found 3 cases of pint-sized canning jars on this corner.

This house is the reason I took my camera with me on this trip.  They've used their space so well, both on their parking strip and in the miniscule front yard.  I ride by their house all the time and have enjoyed watching their veggies grow.  I anonymously dropped off some eggs in appreciation.  Hey, we've got about 5 dozen eggs right now!

Something tells me that they and their neighbors will have an abundance of squash this fall.

This house is a couple of blocks away.

I'd bet money that this yippy Jack Russell has an invisible fence.  I kind of like tormenting him a bit when I ride by on my bike.  I'm not proud of that.

This guy, Bill, lives down the block and kitty corner from us.  His front gardens over the years inspired my own.  We had a nice chat over the rotten weather and animals destroying our plants (his: dogs, mine: chickens).

(No idea why this pic wouldn't rotate.)  Here's Bill, showing off his garden to me and sharing my lament over the crappy cold weather.  He's on planting # 2 or 3 by now, too.

Need inspiration in your yard?  Take a walk.  Talk with your neighbors.  See what they're doing that works and what's not working.

Baby surprise jacket

Need a fast and easy knitting project for a young child?  Make a BSJ.  They're great for using up that variegated yarn you couldn't resist buying but now can't figure out how to use. 

In general I knit in the winter and garden in the summer.  I used to knit on my commute to work but it's really hard to knit on a bicycle.

I recently finished this sweater, a baby surprise jacket, for a friend's daughter.  The recipient is 22 months old and it fit her prefectly.  But the best part is that the stitches are so stretchy, and the sleeves are only supposed to be half-length, that it'll fit her well into the fall.  This is the third one I've made.  It took nearly 2 skeins of Cascade 220.

It's got the cutest buttons!

Here's the first BSJ I made.  It's a yummy hand-dyed merino wool from Vashon Island that I bought at the Madrona Fiber Fair nearly 2 years ago and then didn't know how to use because of the color variations of the yarn.  I mixed it with a Cascade 220 to get the yarn to go farther, and added a little mandarin collar (because I didn't like how I did the neckline, which I've since fixed).  It is also being worn by a little girl.

I haven't sewn the buttons onto BSJ #2, for a baby girl just born in March.  Must get that done!  I'll post that pic another time.

Cylons, Homer, and honeybees

NOTE: I started this post on Thursday and didn't get to finish it because Gene was hounding me to watch Battlestar Galactica with him.  Who am I to deny him a Cylon fix?

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 After working in higher education for the past decade, I'm used to being the one to stand waving while others walk away.  So it was really weird yesterday to be the one heading toward something new and leaving others behind. 

My staff team took me to Serafina for an adieu lunch.  As we stared at the menus, slack jawed about the drool-inducing descriptions, Krista proudly pointed out the top line that said that the restaurant sources their food locally.  She had even selected the restaurant for that reason!  Thanks, Krista!  Lip-smackin' deliciousness ensued: English pea soup followed by butternut squash ravioli with sage butter and crushed hazelnuts.

As a good-bye gift, my team gave me a very cool apron, 2 books, and a set of nesting bowls made of recycled metal containers.  Granted, the "Fast Actin' Tinactin" bowl is a wee bit odd, but the orange juice and striped turpentine bowls are way cool.  They've all found a new purpose in my new office.

Nancy Gardener has been recommending this first book for ages and I had never gotten around to getting it.  Funny how that works, eh?

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening by Steve Solomon

The second book has a picture of a bee hive on the front. The lure of urban bees is getting stronger each year.  I even figured out where to put them: on the flat roof of our back porch.  Too bad Gene is allergic.

Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting by R. J. Ruppenthal

I have a feeling how I might be spending my newly found 10 hours each week.

Sometimes 35 miles just isn't local enough

I spend about 2.5 hours each day to make my 70-mile round trip commute from Tacoma to Seattle. I've been doing it for the past 4 years and 2 months.


Consider:
12.5 hours per week x 48 weeks per year x 4.25 years = 2550 hours
2550 hours = 106.25 days = 3.42 months



It pains me to do that math and see that in the past 4+ years, I have spent over 3 entire months on a bus.

That time has not been altogether unproductive or entirely unpleasant, mind you.

I have read lots of books. Because I religiously take the full northbound commute to read the newspaper thoroughly, I probably know more about world news now than at any other point in my life.

I've gotten comfortable with public transit in Seattle. Google maps has an option to get directions by bus, which I've started to use recently. I've rolled my eyes at the college kids taking home massive loads of stinky laundry and myself been the annoying person with weird packages. In the past 4 years I've transported chicks (twice!), 5 cases of canning jars I'd bought in Seattle on lunch break from Craigslist, eggs, plants, cases of wine, piles of files, and empty laundry baskets.

One time I was returning a co-worker's paella pan. It fell off the seat on a bumpy stretch of the freeway with a terrifying CRASH!!! It scared the crapola out of everyone, driver included, because they thought the bus had run over something or someone.

Me: [blush] "Ha haa. Um... so sorry! You can go back to sleep now!" [sheepish grin and embarassed wave]

Them: [...if looks could kill...]

I learned to knit on the bus. This is what Seattle looks like for me on many mornings. My fellow commuters taught me the basics. A woman my husband has since dubbed The Uber Knitter gave me pointers, tips, patterns, and careful critiques: "well, you could keep going like this but I don't think that you're going to be happy with the finished project". My knitting projects progressed from crooked scarves to more complicated projects like fingerless gloves for my brother and baby attire for my many fertile friends.

And what friends I've made on the bus! Our commuter bus makes no stops for 30 miles, making us each other's captive audience. We spend more waking hours with each another than anyone else, save co-workers and possibly spouses. I have met kind, funny, generous, and patient people (and some massive jerks, but to heck with them). These commuters create a small community of "Bus Buddies". Some of the relationships are - pardon the pun - "transitory", while others will be life-long.

In fact, next week we're having a gathering to celebrate with a bus buddy who has found a new job close to her home. Congrats, Cheryl!

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On November 5 I got a gut-wrenching call from my boss, asking me to join her in a conference room in another building. I knew something terrible was about to happen. That's where people get let go.

Thankfully, I wasn't fired. I was, however, reduced to 50% time. I still had a job and full benefits but the paychecks were going to start to really hurt. Commuting to Seattle for 20 hours a week, while not exactly peachy for 40 hours/week, no longer made sense.

About the ensuing 5 months I have this to say: searching for a job is disheartening and networking is hard work. Networking is also the best way to get a new job (thanks, Paula and Julia!).

Fastforward to today. I have been offered a job that is a mere 3.5 miles from home, 90% less than my current commute. I haven't yet accepted it - the salary negotiations haven't been completed - but I'm optimistic that it'll provide both relative financial security and good professional growth opportunities.

I can't wait to get my life back. When do you think it'll hit me that this is real??