I Hate to Commute

Life in a rural place - it gets pretty tricky. If you are in a city right now, there may be some things you take for granted, like public transportation. Something that pretty much doesn't exist for rural areas.

Maybe you don't use public transportation now. But with gas prices always going up, the environment going to hell, and traffic congestion, chances are you might be very soon.

It is not that I hate driving or even that I feel bad about the emissions (okay, I do but, sometimes it is a necessary evil).  The truth is, I hate winter driving AND I hate wasting time.

Wait, that isn't right. I don't mind "wasting" time if it is something I kind of want to do. Like watching a movie, lying in a hammock, napping, web-surfing. You know. I guess some people would call those things "relaxing." Not really doing anything exactly USEFUL, yet not quite a waste of time.

Driving can sometimes seem like a complete waste of time. Truth is, if housing  prices weren't so outrageous in Guelph, we would be living there right now. Don't get me wrong; I don't mean to suggest I would RATHER live in Guelph (no offence to Guelph at all - it is a really great city).  I wouldn't rather live anywhere else than right here. However, once again, if housing wasn't so outrageous, we would have moved from Waterloo to Guelph in 2009. That is when I finished my Bachelor's at University of Waterloo (which only took me 16 years to complete! Wait, I took some time off in between - I wasn't working on it the whole time. Sheesh...even I am not that slow. Well, maybe I am. I digress...). We moved down to Waterloo, Ontario from Meaford, Ontario in 2008 so I could go to school full time and it would be easier with me right there. In fact, we lived in the student residence for families.

When we first left, I didn't intend then to start a graduate degree. But things change and we had tried to move to Guelph for my two year masters degree, but we simply couldn't afford it. Yes, it is even more expensive than Kitchener/Waterloo! So we moved back to Meaford, with the intention that I would take the Greyhound to University of Guelph. Only, there was a problem - Greyhound reduced, then pretty much cancelled, the direct route to Guelph from Owen Sound. If you want to regularly commute - you need to take a 7 hour ride through Toronto. What was a 2 hour ride is now 7!

To be clear, there is some service through Aboutown Routes, but it only really goes Sunday and Mondays. True, I could combine that with the rare Greyhound trip - but it is complicated. Frankly, it doesn't really work unless I basically want to only come home once in a blue moon. Or take 7 hour bus rides.

So, what is worse - driving 7 hours per week  (a waste of valuable time) OR ride a bus for 14 hours per week (and one which is almost trying to make us NOT make use of it) and never see my family?

Monday's Commute - south of Damascus, Ontario - Wellington Rd 16.

I chose to drive. Not always sure I made the right choice, but either way I am nearly finished my degree. I keep driving for the next few months. It will be over soon. I hope. Back to my nap.