finally...a carpool blog

Pretty uneventful carpool in general, although we did have the whole crew back together again. We got to hear some good Mexico stories and there was a little bit of witty poker banter flying back and forth. We also hit a few small patches of sun traffic (a topic which deserves it's own blog, but we'll save that for a day when I'm really fired up).

What's on my mind right now is the carpool lane. There are two things I want to rant about today. First, why is it that the carpool lane always slows down when the lane next to it gets really slow? This is more of a rhetorical question since I know the answer, but this really bothers me. Obviously, the reason this happens is that there are people that are trying to get in and out of the non-carpool lane, which is clearly going slower. Their need to accelerate to the carpool lane speed when they're merging in or slow down to match the speed of the slower lane when they're merging out causes havoc on the carpool lane. Also, it is a little unnerving to be going 70 when the lane next to you is going 10 mph, because there's always the possibility that one of the yahoos that is desperately trying to get into the carpool lane will risk their life and, without concern for the safety of anyone involved, recklessly throw their car into oncoming traffic. Finally, there are the people that feel content going 50 in the carpool lane no matter what the other lanes are doing. I think these people should immediately have their cars impounded and lose the ability to move their ankles so they would never be able to drive again. This is completely unnaceptable.

The second thing that bothers me are people that shouldn't be in the carpool lane. This includes people that are driving solo, as well as parents that are cruising along with an infant in the car. Yes, those parents technically have more than one person in the car, but that's not what carpooling was intended to do...it's not like that kid would be cruising along in their own car if you had decided not to carpool. Sure, we've all cheated and used the carpool lane when we shouldn't, but I'll let you in on a little secret. Those of us that carpool feel like we've made some great sacrifice to earn our ability to righfully be able to drive in that lane, like we sold our souls to the devil or something. This is in spite of the fact that we've made absolutely no sacrifice and are actually benefitting from it...it is our right. I'll leave you with that for now...I feel much better.

this is not about carpool...

I'm stepping up to the plate and promising an actual carpool blog tomorrow. We haven't been carpooling much lately, mostly due to Lisa's recent boondoggle to the Mexican Riviera and Zack's life-threatening surgery (maybe a slight exaggeration, maybe not...wisdom tooth extraction is one of the worst experiences I can remember. I would rather drive 10 consecutive Thurs night commutes in one sitting than go through that again, and you know how much I despise the Thurs commute. Not only is the actual procedure horrific, but I think I'm still dealing with the aftermath a year later.)

In the meantime, I'll whet your palate with this. I saw the new Keanu Reeves movie Constantine this weekend. I won't ruin it for those of you that are eagerly anticipating watching this movie (there has to be at least one person out there), but I will give you some thoughts. Keanu Reeves has discovered his niche as this greater-than-life religious being that can willingly transport himself between worlds and has superhuman powers. In fact, this is so his niche that from now on when someone finds their niche, we should say they found their Keanu. The two words are synonymous from now on...niche = Keanu. This is the only kind of movie he should ever do again. In general, I think Keanu is a pretty bad actor. His performance in Speed (capped off by the Gigantor line - I know you know it - "Calm down Gigantor") was some of the worst acting I can remember seeing. I won't go as far as to say he added anything to this movie, but at least he didn't ruin it (like he nearly did with Speed). In total, the movie was entertaining and is worth checking out, especially since there's not much else out right now. Effects were pretty cool. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Thursday - the Horror!

There's nothing worse than a looming Thursday evening commute when you're flying solo for the night. I equate it to knowing that you are about to get the crap beat out of you and not being able to do anything about it. It is an automatic trip over to 280 for the trip up to SF. That's what I have to look forward to tonight.

In fact, the Thursday commute has gotten so bad...Thursday is the new Friday. Was there a specific week when the Thursday commute became so bad, or did it happen gradually over time? Why did this happen? These are the kinds of questions we need answers to. And Friday has become the new I don't even know what - the new hell. Working from SF on Friday has allowed me to skip most Friday commutes, but on the rare occasion I have to commute on Friday, it's easily the worst moment of the week.

Back to Thursday for a second, though...I have my theory for why it is so bad. Since there are so many people telecommuting these days, people aren't driving to work on Friday, so the Friday traffic patterns have shifted to Thurs. As for why Friday (and now Thurs) commutes are so bad, I think everyone is trying to get out of work early - or at least on time - so everyone is on the road at once. This is probably pretty obvious to most, but it's a revelation to me. As for why the new Friday commute is so bad (and worse than it used to be), I can't even begin to speculate.

Why this blog

This is the first blog I have ever written. For those of you that have read Zack and Lisa's blogs, you know the story behind these blogs and can skip the next paragraph.

I decided to write this blog to share the joys and tears that are a result of carpooling. I am qualified to speak to this based on the following: on an average day, I'll spend 2 hours and 15 minutes in the car. Those 2 hours and 15 minutes are spent commuting from San Francisco to a tech company near San Jose. There are two other regular carpoolers that I spend my 2 hours and 15 minutes with every day (used to be 2 more, but the three of us that remain have love for the game).

Well, last week our carpool had a 4th carpooler for a day, and we were talking about some of the memories we've forged over the past year+. As we were telling our stories, the 4th carpooler suggested that it would be a good idea to start blogs to record these memories (shout out to Goff!). That way, if there was a good carpool story, the story may be written about by all of us and be from three different perspectives. So, I could write about this great driving maneuver I pulled on the way to work, and Lisa could write about how crappy my driving was.

So, that's how this all got started. I'm the slacker of the group (using the "I'm so busy with work" excuse), as Zack and Lisa have already written several entries in their blogs. Well, here I come, and off we go.

Link to Zack's blog - http://drivingdownthe101.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Link to Lisa's blog - http://thedailyroadtrip.blogspot.com/atom.xml