Extreme Commuting

I spend three hours each day on a bus going to and from work. My butt is calloused. My flu shot is current. And I read about a thousand pages a week.

Extreme commuting involves purchasing a good backpack, a sturdy digital player with several pairs of earbuds, a library card and the ability to tolerate all forms of humans being whatever it is they are being that day. Some are being naughty. Some are being smelly. Some are being rude. Some are being nude. The sum of it all is that some days you shut your eyes and summon up some southern sun splashed seaport.

I swipe and ride, a commuter program for state employees in Tennessee. It saves expensive Gore global guzzling gas, enables my reading addiction and forces me into being a social animal and not the isolated road rager I was when I was a lone driver.

Now I plunk myself into my cushioned seat aboard the RTA's 96X relax and ride.