Sometimes I like driving. You don't go somewhere so much as space out as you get lost. Driving for its own pleasure is relaxing and helps clear your mind.
And sometimes it's tolerable. A commute is a commute, and when you get lost, you (or at least I do) take a look on the bright side and note what you explore. Like, "I didn't know this road led back to home," for example.
Yesterday, I'm afraid, wasn't either of those. It was infuriating. It's hypocritical of me to worry about wasting gas and spending money and putting a huge carbon footprint on a night where I was meandering around, but that's how I feel when I drove a lot longer than I should have.
Two reasons for this, and how it pertained to my yesterday and last night.
The first reason is construction season. They say that that and winter are the only two seasons in Minnesota. I have nonetheless been lucky because most of it has been in other parts of the metro area. This week, however, the construction virus has spread our way. Specifically, the on- and off-ramps I use the most, from 694 West to 94 East, are closed, and I don't know for how long. I forgot that going to my parents' store and coming back home, and the detours were such a pain in the ass, especially with so many people needing to wind through the same roads as I did. I was an hour late getting home so I could take my Grandmother grocery shopping. Usually I'm not that bent out of shape, but I was because of the construction.
Last night I took my friend to the Megamall to see a free movie. To avoid the construction and traffic that may or may not be there, we took a very long way down to get there. And because I didn't know if the cones would be up (there's another construction site where they're taking down bridges overnight, and it could've started as soon as 10, about the time we were driving home and the same time I was going through there [and getting stuck] driving to the airport to pick up Father), I decided to avoid it altogether. As we drove past around the area, the traffic was not so bad. I estimate that I drove about 40% more miles than I would have needed to because of the construction and my over-cautiousness.
The second reason is I got lost. Again, getting lost could be fun ... if you intend to just get lost. But I intended to get home, and I totally spaced out when I was going home my usual route right toward the closed ramp. I forgot that I planned on taking side streets home, so I went off the first exit I could find and see if I could find may way to that side street.
I couldn't. What I wanted to do was cut across and hit the side street at an intersection much closer to the house. But I couldn't because around this area was a huge industrial site; there were no streets, period. So I would up going all the way back to the exit I should have taken in the first place. I should have just taken this exit and turned around. Fuck, I could've gone all the way to the closed ramp, taken the detour they laid out, and still gotten back home much earlier than I did. Instead, I wanted to avoid the whole damn area, even though it might not have been bad at 10 at night, and wound up taking twice as much time getting home ... with several more miles on the odometer which I didn't need to drive.
I should stay home more, at least to make up for last night. But I know I won't.
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