new job, new commute

My new job in Herndon is about 30 miles. and takes a half hour at 7am. The home commute at 530 can take over one hour slogging it out on the highways. the clogged artery is an apt way of putting it. everybody's trying to squeeze onto a few roads at the same time.

Last week it rained for three days and traffic came to a standstill. One evening I was so disgusted. After an hour and a half, I stopped to do TM. Total time for commute, including TM, was two hours!! I was dreaming of stopping to get pizza while driving through the rain with all the other cars. On Friday I did get pizza at a new place near here. Very nice people, the manager sitting by the door said, thanks for coming. Pizza crust was too wet and cheese just ok. don't have the heart to tell them, make thick crust, use different pans.

Note to all pizza lovers. Hot bread gives off condensation. The bread must be flipped out of the bread pan to cool. or else it gets soggy from perspiring hot steam. My innovation is to take a fresh hot pizza off the tray and put it onto a rack and the crust remains crispy. Most pizzas are flipped just onto a box which lets hot steam make for soggy crust.

So all this week I have been driving through northern virginia in search of a slow steady commute. All the back roads are slow going, but no standing still. Unfortunately, it can never take less than an hour going that way. I have a new option of going right through Tysons Corner on Rt 7, but I seem to remember that it gets clogged around 66 and 495 interchanges, so I opted out of that route a few years ago, and decided on the 193 and GW parkway idea.

As it turns out, everyone else has discovered 193 and GW parkway and now that can easily become a total standstill. I think GW Parkway, even moving at 5 miles an hour will be quicker than going through Arlington and McLean. My last untried option is 193 to that road next to CIA headquarters, but I wonder why nobody uses it. And it is hard to find, but it is there on the map. I want to try that route on the weekend to see how it goes.

I hate sitting still, and the car hates it even more, the engine gets really hot, so I want to be constantly moving to keep the engine cool.
At least I have this to come home to: