30 Minutes on Highway 30

I never thought I would miss commuting. 30 years ago I used to commute from Boring, OR to Beaverton – a thirty minute drive at the time. Then I would rush home after work, and risk my life crossing the Interstate Bridge into Vancouver to see my fiance’.

Then I went off to grad school and lived five minutes from campus, moved to Rock Springs, WY and worked out of a home office. After a few years in Colorado Springs, I’m back in the PNW and I have a 30 minute commute again. From Rainier to Scappoose is about 30 minutes. As a registered introvert, I’ve found that I need a commute and I need time to process life. I’ve found that quality, quantity, quiet time (QT3) is better than drugs and other mind altering events. I missed my commute time.

Where I used to use the commute time to fill my mind with thoughts of sex and drugs through rock’n roll, I now find music a bit boring and I seek greater inspiration and progress through mental stimulation. Between podcasts, Twitter, Jotts, the inspirational beauty of the Lower Columbia River, and my own wandering mind, many thoughts come to mind. Now, from the magic of technology, I can post those thoughts for future recall and public display. Of course not all posts will be real, relevant, or enlightening – but at least I won’t lose them to the fog of a deteriorating mind and increasingly short-term memory loss.