Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 11/12/18> Eight hours to write this...
This is different...
This is different, 8:05 AM and I writing a Daily Dose while sitting in the office at work. I have never done one from here and I don’t know that I like doing it either. I am waiting on the guy I am training with to show up. Mondays are a bitch to begin with and Houston traffic just flat out sucks if you want to know the truth of the matter.
For me the office is...
For me the office is only 31 miles from door to door, but it takes well over an hour to get there at the early morning rush hour. So, in order to get here by 7:30 AM I need to leave no later than 6:10 AM. I don’t use the toll road even though I have an “easy tag” which means I don’t have to stop to pay the tolls I can just drive right on thru and the scanner will read it automatically.
Saving time and ...
The toll road is so crowded that a person can save both time and money by just driving the access road that runs along side the toll way. Yes, you do have to stop for traffic lights and people slow you down by turning into businesses and side streets but the speed limit on the access road is 50 MPH and you can pretty much drive that speed.
The people paying to use the toll road are maybe moving about 20 MPH and paying for that pleasure of going nowhere fast. I will usually pick out a truck that I can see up on the tollway and gauge how I am doing in distance traveled compared to them. I try and pick out a big truck which I can easily identify as normally I will loose sight of them since I am moving faster than they are, it is the traffic lights that slow me down so it can be hard to gauge who is winning and losing in our race when I get stopped for a traffic light.
Also, the bridges make it where I can lose sight of them as well, there are plenty of elevated bridges that the toll road has that go over the major surface streets but even though the toll payers really have no reason to be going so slow they always are at rush hour. I guess the shear number of vehicles and that lack of driving skills is something that just takes it toll on the speed.
I had to step away...
I had to step away for a while, my guy made it in and we have been working on some quotes for some repairs that are needed for some customers floating fountains. Most floating fountains aren’t just there for aesthetic purposes, small ponds and lakes need the water to be turned over regularly in order to keep the water oxygenated.
So, while the fountains may look pretty to the eye the real beauty isn’t seen and that is keeping the water in a good chemical state in order to keep the algae and pond scum from covering the pond.
So back to the...
So back to that toll road stuff. Years ago, when they sold us on the idea of toll roads the government officials said that once the roads were paid for that the tolls would be done away with and the roads would be open to all vehicles at no charge. Well that sure has hell was a lie, the toll road known by several different names including Sam Houston Toll Road, Beltway Eight Toll Road and the Houston Beltway North / South are just a few, has been paid for over 15 years and they are still collecting tolls even while I am typing this.
Of course, in order to...
Of course, in order to build that road they had to have a “commission” to over see it and make sure that everything was done according to standards. They also decided that if one toll road was good several would be better, so they were ambitious folks and now we have a bunch of these toll roads.
By my count...
By my count we have at least seven in total just in Harris County, Texas and I might have missed one if you include the HOV lane on I-45 that is for vehicles carrying more than two people. If you have more than two occupants there is no charge to use the HOV lane, but if you have an “easy tag” and you are by yourself you can use the HOV by paying the toll. I guess they have cameras that take a picture of the vehicle and determine whether you should be charged based on how many people show up inside the vehicle in the picture.
I am not a fan...
I am not a fan of the toll roads. They are over priced and just another tax on people who think they are saving time when most of the time there are faster alternatives to getting where you want to go that don’t involve toll roads or even the freeways. I will use one toll road regularly and that is one that does make it very easy to get from where I live down to I-10 to head to San Antonio, it is a 75 MPH speed limit road for the most part and isn’t very crowded at all, at least not yet.
Lunch time already...
So, it is now lunch time, I think I may just work through lunch. This sitting at a desk doing basically nothing hasn’t really stimulated an appetite yet. In fact, I worked right through the fifteen-minute break that came at 10:00 AM, I need to get this routine figured out, I do know that if I blow off lunch, I can leave an hour early and I have done that a couple days already last week. I might have to start including the two fifteen minutes breaks in and leave an hour and a half early.
Over the weekend...
Over the weekend I did get 8 drawings done and started on the bigger drawing that I saved for last to do. It is a challenge since the file I was given to draw from was missing most of the relevant information I needed. I had to end up drawing in all the building and parking lots in order to show just how the hell it all will come together.
Next thing I have to do now is get the landscaping plan straightened out and to locate the all the plumbing details and easements. So hopefully I can start actually designing on it later tonight or on Tuesday night.
One hour left...
Well, one hour to go now and it will be time to head on home. I’ll be cutting out at 3:30 PM since I skipped lunch, I could even cut another 15 minutes of since I only used one 15-minute break, I ran up to the local taco stand and grabbed a couple tacos to get me through the stomach growling and boredom.
A good day for doing...
It looks like this is just a good day for doing nothing because that is exactly what I have done, the good news is though that I least got to write a Daily Dose and all I need to do is publish when I get home. I will end up doing more work at home than I have done all day at work.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
Note: Thanks for reading the Daily Dose.
Photo Credits : All photos are the property of @sultnpapper.
I have been in that morning traffic in Houston a couple of times. Not pretty, and I was just passing through! I stuck to the freeways, because I was just passing through.
Sounds like you've got some 'job adjustment' to do... Glad you are getting lots of side work done with it.
I was off camping this weekend. I had actually planned to stay in some sort of touch but State of Kalifornia didn't have any power at the state park at the Salton Sea. Put a quick crimp in the "keep in touch" option.
So I'm back and bushed, but other than that things are just fine.
I am way behind on replying to folks. I did some side work at work on Tuesday. No power at the park, that had to suck big time.
Oh my word but you do sound excited about your work day Mr Papper, must be really frustrating for you of all people to sit and do nothing!
We have toll roads all over the country where one pays as you drive through, but the one on the busiest freeway in Johannesburg has been a massive failure, way too expensive as they have gantries with cameras and e-tag readers picking up car registrations approx every ten kilometres. Road users are sent bills but no one pays as SANRAL went about it without any consultation so now they're sitting with a very costly system which no one wants to pay for. So everyone agrees we need to pay for new roads abd maintenance (although we already do in taxes) but not the high fees they imposed! Speak to any Johannesburg road user about tolls and they get hot under the collar.
Yes, I get more tired just sitting around doing nothing than I do when I am really working. They have those camera's here too, they call it "pay by mail" if you don't have an easy tag.
Doing nothing is the most tiring of all tasks!
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I don't like the toll roads in my country too especially the one where you don't have an alternative
So you can't choose to not pay the toll
Thank you for sharing your day with us :D
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lololololol. All governments in all countries say that and none keeps their word, it is the same all over, my place included. Empty promises, nothing more :D
Yes, like I said in another reply, we need to find a cure for government lying and then maybe things could get better all around the world.
🌮 Now I want a taco 😆
Observations of an office worker
Thankfully I don't have to commute that long any more as it really does grind you down when you have to commute so long. In fact, the drive can sometimes be more taxing than the job itself!
The temp job I'm at now is less than 20 minutes away from home and it's nice to have the 2 hours I would have lost in a previous job back again.
As for tolls, we have a couple of toll roads here in the UK and they do make a big difference to flow of traffic. No-one wants to pay unless they are wealthy or it's on the company expenses, so you can pretty much have a motorway to yourself at times!
The funny part is that at any time other than rush hour it is only a twenty or twenty five minute drive from my house to the office. Just a whole pack of people needing to travel at the same time slows everything down to a crawl. With my old position with the company I didn't ever have to go into the office but that recently changed so I am in an adjustment mode right now.