You Want Me To Drive Where?

One must understand that before moving to Broward County in 2005, I lived in Key West for 9 ½ years. Key West is a 2x4 miles island and although I had a car while on island, my main mode of transportation was my 49cc Yamaha Zuma Scooter. I was able to drive from one side of the island to the other in no more than 10 minutes.

Coming from such a place as Key West to the bustling urban sprawl that Broward County is, I immediately started looking for work within a 5 mile radius of where I lived. I felt that a commute more than 15 minutes in any direction from where I lived was just way too much. Besides, I had brought my scooter with me and wanted to continue to use it as much as possible.

It took me only 2 months, 100 resumes and a 3 day stint at an architectural firm to land the job that I have now, which at that time WAS 11 miles away and driving on I-95 at 8:00 in morning (or anytime) is nothing I would wish on anyone.

Back in February of 2006 and, after getting use to the commute, my wife and I were asked to move out of the condo we were renting as it had gone up for sale. When we started looking it was my intent to move closer to our jobs which worked out well as I’m now 2.5 miles from my front door to work and my wife is 4.5 miles from her job.

So the point of this story is that on occasion my wife will say that she needs to run somewhere, but somewhere is usually not the closest place to find said product. She likes to go “over there” or to “that one”. So when she say’s this to me I usually respond with something like, “do we have to go to that one? I mean it’s on the other side of town.” She lovingly looks at me like I’m crazy and says something like, “oh, it’s nine miles away, do you think you’ll get too tired driving there?” or “do you think your car will make it?” All the while I’m thinking is “you want me to drive where?”

I don’t think she understand my dilemma at times. Coming from a place like Seattle, she’s accustomed to driving to reach her destination. I on the other hand still haven’t quite adapted to it all. I miss my short commutes. Never that long to get anywhere, always a parking place up front (for scooters), easy in/easy out.

I suppose my days of short commutes have ended and I’ll just keep driving until I drive my life away...yeah, sorta like that song. On and on and on...