First Rambling Babble Of The Year

Despite waking up with a sore throat, stuffed up nose and a bit of a cough, I thought I should still go in to work this morning. After all, it's the start of a new year, I was off last week, have my root canal scheduled this Wednesday, will be out of the office doing training next week and have plenty of things to get caught up on.

I should have known my day would be a bit more interesting than normal when the first thing that greeted me this morning was the snowman that Alexander and I built in the front yard yesterday. Due to the warmer temperatures we've had, the poor little snow creature had started to melt and was bent over completely backwards, as if doing the limbo.

I figured I'd take a few minutes to fix up Mr. Snowman -- after all, didn't want to give Alexander any "Calvin & Hobbes" snowman nightmares. Not yet, at least -- and then I got into the truck and headed down to Aldershot GO station.

I should have known that things were amiss when I was actually able to find a parking spot in the first row near the station. I figured it was just because so many people were off today. When I went in to the station I found the ticket booth was closed with a sign to purchase tickets from the bus driver. Bus driver? But I wanted a full pass, not single ride or day pass. What a waste of money.

There's a new automated ticket machine at Aldershot that allows you to use a credit card to purchase tickets. I figured I'd buy my pass there, but no, it too only sold single ride or day pass tickets - d'oh) Then, a fellow commuter reminded me that GO was on a weekend schedule today. Which meant no trains beyond Oakville. The next bus would be there in 20 minutes. Double d'oh.

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm not the world's most patient person nor do I like arriving late anywhere. Taking the bus from Aldershot to Oakville, then a train from there would have meant arriving at work some time after 8:30. Not that that's a terrible thing, but because I usually get in a little after 7:30, it constituted "late" in my books and would have started the day off, well, not so good.

Then I thought about the joys of returning home, especially considering the "freezing rain" warning I'd heard for the afternoon on the radio. I imagined arriving back at the old homestead some time after the 11 PM news was wrapping up . . .

I considered going back to Hamilton and parking downtown and taking the express bus from Hamilton to TO. But then again, I'd have to pay for parking and purchase a day pass from Hamilton (when what I really wanted was a ten-ride pass from Aldershot) - two "wastes" of money. No, I'm not the poorest guy in the world, but nor am I the richest, and tossing away even a small amount of cash on parking and a single ride ticket constitutes enough of a waste of money in my books. (Yes, if you can' tell, I brown-bag my lunch) Besides, I didn't even know if I had any cash on me -- I'd been planning on using my debit card to buy my pass. Hmm, yup, I did have $1.60 in change in my pocket. But not enough to pay for a parking spot downtown.

When I got to my truck I saw I was on a quarter tank - enough to get to TO, but not enough to get back. Combine the cost of gas with paying for parking in downtown Toronto, and that clinched it in my mind.

Thus, I turned around, came back home and have already started working (okay, I spent 5 minutes writing this -- so sue me -- I would have wasted a heck of a lot more time chatting near the coffee machine than it took to write this) My cell phone did die while I was checking messages and I haven't a clue where the power cord for it is -- but I'll resolve that eventually. As it stands, I've "arrived" at work and things are okay.

Good thing too, when I was unpacking my laptop bag, I just realized that I had forgotten my lunch in the refrigerator when I left this morning. So I'm thinking it all worked out in the end and the fates of the New Year are smiling on me.