back at it again
early to rise drive in dark
low country commute

I woke up this morning and looked at the clock about 5 minutes before the alarm went off.

Resigned to what it is, I reached over and clicked off the alarm before it went off, got up, started the coffee, showered, dressed and drove off to work, all in the dark.

Driving in the early dark again to avoid being stuck in my car for too long lengths of time.

For 12 years I commuted into downtown Atlanta.

It was a drive you could make in 30 minutes … if you left early enough and all the 1,000s of drivers cooperated.

If you left later, the time it took to travel grew exponentially.

Now I work for a resort that is on an island on the Atlantic Coast of South Carolina.

The thing is that if you work for a living you most likely cannot afford to live on the island.

So all of us who work on the island have to commute to work from somewhere in the low country so we can provide the amenities of resort island life to those who can afford to be on the island.

I understand this is new, that as recent as 4 years ago, there was affordable housing on the island.

Once equity driven real estate management took over, affordable rental property for housing disappeared as it was purchased and turned into short term vacation rentals.

I also understand this is happening across the country from Long Island to Jackson Hole.

Here in the low country, we all have to be at work between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. in the morning.

It is called the trade parade.

Toss in the traffic created by getting kids to school and add in that there is only one bridge to get on to the island and you get a commute worthy of Atlanta.

If I leave early enough my drive takes about 20 minutes.

If I leave later, the time it takes to travel grows exponentially.

Like my drive in Atlanta, if I had to choose, I would rather leave early and have some quiet time at my desk rather than leave later and have a lot less quiet but a lot more time in my car.

There are some benefits to where I work.

I do get to see the coast for a few seconds and often some wonderful sunrises.

Interesting to note that I hit a sunrise window for about 2 weeks in the spring and fall and then another two weeks with the time change.

I am not commuting in Atlanta where my angst over my drive was compounded by the angst that the nasty people I worked for required me to be in the office while allowing other people who were part of the team I was on, to work remotely. (Looking back, I had a great job in ATL, that was a lot of fun and I worked WITH some great people, but I worked FOR others who made it their business to make my job as awful as possible.)

And I can review my life on my drive to work and wonder what I did to deserve such a life – then I go all over the reasons why I got the life I deserve.

And I can walk the beach on my lunch break if I am a mind too. That alone puts me in a very very select minority of the world’s work force.

Employee Survey: Question #11) Are you able to access the beach on your lunch hour?

I bet that puts me in a the .001% of those who answered yes, of anyone working today.

Happy to say I work a hybrid schedule which means Monday and Friday, I get to work remote.

Which means that tomorrow, at this time, I will still be in bed.

round and round it goes
why did it stop? Nobody knows …
direct that traffic!

Moving from Atlanta to the Hilton Head area, the traffic I deal with is bad but on a different level.

Most often, the traffic problems I deal with are ones of stupidity and little access to roads rather than the overall mass or volume I dealt with for 12 years in Atlanta.

One day last week at lunch something goofy happened.

I take my lunch and go for walk down to the ocean.

The other three people I share an office with go out on the island to find something to eat or run errands.

I was back at desk and alone as they trickled back in, one at a time, each one saying how terrible the traffic was.

This happens often in season or between Memorial Day and Labor Day, but this was odd for April.

It was the middle of a big spring break week but still it was odd.

The traffic continued to build through the afternoon which was odd.

And when end of the working day came and we left to go home, the local streets were still at a standstill.

That there was a problem was already being acknowledged by local police and the local paper.

Terrible traffic.

But no one seemed to know why.

It was as if everyone with a couple of hundred miles had decided to spend the day on Hilton Head Island and no one wanted to leave.

Not far from where I work, the two main roads, the only main roads on the Island, intersect.

You might think that this intersection would have a stoplight or a 4 way stop or something in the way of traffic management and it does.

It has the latest and greatest scheme in traffic to handle traffic.

It has a traffic circle.

A traffic circle that requires cooperation of all the drivers who are in, entering and leaving the circle.

Maybe it was a sign of the times, but the traffic circle traffic had collapsed.

Nobody understands or says they understand what happened except that traffic was backed up for miles on all four roads that shared the circle.

Something needed to be done.

And the local Sheriff did it.

The traffic in the traffic circle was rescued by Deputy Sheriff’s directing traffic.

A method of traffic control that is older than the gas powered automobile.

It took four Deputy’s, one at each entrance to the circle.

Traffic was held up at three of the entry points while traffic was opened for 2 minutes or so for just one entry road.

The coordination took some time but it was the best, if not the only, solution.

Is there meaning behind this random event?

I think so.

Either traffic circles don’t work, which I agree with.

Or drivers in this self centered era, can not cooperate to make it work, which I something I can agree with.

Or, it is just one more sign of the coming apocalypse.

That may be the best reason in explaining what happened to make traffic so bad last Thursday.