End of the line

Well, without much warning, this will be my last post. Tomorrow I'll be moving out of New York City, so today is my last etummoc that I know of. I'll still be riding metro north to visit on the weekends, but its not even close to being the same thing.

I don't think I'll miss the daily chaos I've endured for the past 3 years. Waking up at 6am, mad dashes to make a train, and the never-ending maze of stationary tourists; nope, won't miss those. the thing I will miss is the city though. Living here is really unlike anything else. Its unfortunate that my field is likely to exile me to suburbia or the boonies for work. I remain optimistic that I'll be back here at some point for another couple of years.

Back to gazing out the window for me. The Hudson is calm and reflective this morning, not unlike myself, and I'm taking it all in.

Safe travels.

etummoc fail

Another day of rain prompted flooding... When the shuttle was uber late I just hoped a train back to the city. Such a strange week

Enough already

Ok, i think its been a year since my last post, but something unprecidented has happened. I am in the process of beating my one way commute time. We are approaching the 4 hour mark from when I set out at 7am. The clock is still running, and I don't know if we're even going to make it into the office.

Apparently yesterdays rain has flooded the roads and has made a mess of things. roads are closed all around tarrytown. We've been on the shuttle for nearly 2 hours now circling the office in bumper to bumper traffic. I will spare you the details, mostly because I don't know road names/numbers.

Most my coworkers had problems, and I'm getting reports that one of them brought his kids to the office because he couldn't get to their daycare. Also the bus driver is blasting the heat instead of the ac.

I am in hell.

I can relate...

So after a series updates on getting a visa and a plane ticket, my friend Steph is off to India for an adventure. She just started up a blog Eat Sweat Diarrhea, which I think is an excellent title given her laugh is as infectious as that of Julia Roberts. I'm also sure there are to be many mis-adventures, and juicy details to come.

I don't really have much in the way to offer in terms of international travel advice. I do, however, have a lot of general travel experience taking the train everyday. Looking back, my original math was that i spent 2 hours a day commuting, making that 10 hours a week or 40 hours a month. Well with the changes in timetables and little delays that have crept up (additional shuttle stops), somehow that time has significantly increased. It now takes me a solid 1.5 hours each way, and more often than not an extra 30 minutes in the morning because I almost never make the express train that gets me to work early. So worst case that 3.5 hours a day spent commuting, thats 17.5 hours/week and I refuse to convert that any further.

17.5 hours is a lot of time. But when you think about it (and a quick trip to kayak.com confirmed it) I could fly to India in 17.5 hours. So, every week I fly to India... or a lot of other places, but I think India has a kind of dramatic tone to it. So Steph, while I know you are worried about the flight, it won't be bad. After all, I do it all the time. 

...the earplugs are a good idea though. Best of luck, I'll be reading.

All posts have been rerouted

Haven't posted in a while, but renewals are just around the corner. I do want to keep this alive without having to do so much management (could never get on top of customizing the look). Plan is to head back to Blogger even though playing with WordPress was fun. All my posts have been moved to etummoc.blogspot.com and soon www.etummoc.com will also point you there as well.

Hopefully this will get me back into blogging as well. Enjoy the new look.

Railwork

My regular train on the harlem line makes a stop at Fordham. I know ther is a prep school there, and when it isn't the middle of summer I do see some of the students. On multiple occasions I have tied to menally put myself in their shoes, and wonder what etummocing to school would be like.

Firstly, I kind of wonder if this train is the last train they could take without being late. In hish school I lived a mile away and, depending on the year, either my brother or I would drive to school, speeding, in 3 miutes. So I definately would be on the last train possible. There would be contingency plans to get to GC faster if I needed to, but I think I'd be running for the train 90% of the time.

Also, I am shocked that I've never seen one of them furiously doing homework on the time. Leaving homework for a morning train ride is a procrastinator's dream. Think of the extra video gam time! I see the occasional student reading a book every now and again, but as someone who would go home during a last period study hall to do assignments due by 3 that I had still not done, I expect a little more panic. As soon as I landed in my seat i'd have my calculus book out and a freshly wrinked piece of paper handy to do my work on.

Even though my adolescent lazyness could be accomodated, I just can't think of high school without the freedom of having a car. I mean, how are you going to get to the krispy kreme store in the next state over and back with 36 dozen donuts? What about driving with your friends to the away football games, using the nearest cornfield for a pitstop? What is high school without these crucial life experiences?

Its hard to get my head around, and I don't think there's much use worrying about such things. Besides, most if the time I'm running late and I have a train to catch.

Busgrade

I used to explain that my daily etummoc consisted of 2 shuttles, 1 train; however I think I'm going to have to revise that to 2 busses instead. As of today, both of my shuttles have been upgraded to charter busses. It may not seem like much but they are now probably 1/3 of the trip and makes a world of difference - like going from regular to organic milk.

The first one got upgraded from trollies with uncomfortable seating quite some time ago. It was really a no brainer. Today I stepped off the train at North White Pains to find that the daddy bus had come for us instead of the shortbus to which we were so accustomed. Most of my fellow riders looked at it with disbelief, but it was all smiles when we realized none of is would have to stand. There was also a small sense of pride or luxury in that, perhaps that we were important enough for an upgrade.

And let me just say that I appreciate the new smoothness of the ride as well. Being a gentleman, I would often give up my seat to others and brave standing though the ride. This is not an easy task, and felt like I was surfing with handlebars above me while not being able to see what was coming. I hope this bus never breaks down.