quote:

Originally posted by AdagioM:

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I'm waiting for Uncle Sam to order us all back to the office.

I've been maskless the last few weeks -- ever since major stores dropped their mask requirements. I do not think this places me or others at any risk, and the scientists agree.

What I'm not happy about is the prospect of getting back on the metro this fall when my vaccine is 6 months old and could be wearing off. Fifteen minutes on a bus and thirty minutes indoors in tight quarters does not feel safe, but I may not have a good option. I don't think I could even get a parking spot downtown if I wanted to foot the bill for one -- hundreds a month.

Would you consider masking for the commute?

Yes, for sure.

*sigh* I kinda miss commuting on the DC Metro. Not a lot. I don't miss those Breda trains they added in 1986 or so with the super-loud 400 hz buzz. I don't miss the 20 minute interval between trains mid-day... If you just missed one, you were going to be waiting a while for the next one. I don't miss the pretty steep fares -- even in the late 80s when I left, they were high and I'm sure they've only gone up. I left before the major equipment failures started. The fires, the shutdowns, the problems that were popping up because when they started building the system, they went cheap on all the wrong things.

But when I lived a mile from a station (Falls Church, then Vienna) and worked either directly over one (18th and K), near one (Wisconsin and East-West Hwy), or a short bus ride away (Old Georgetown Rd and Democracy Blvd), it was great. (I admit, when I lived in McLean and Vienna and worked in Bethesda, I drove more often.)

I liked commuting on the London Underground more than the Metro, just 'cause it was in London.

When I was working in Moscow, I had an apartment two blocks from my office, so I didn't commute on the Metro there, but I rode the heck out of it on the weekends.


In my last 15 years (except for the last 15 months) at the NFFMCo, it would have taken me three buses to get from home to my office, and well over an hour, especially if I missed a connection. It's a 15 minute drive, and free parking. It just never made sense.

I digress.

No. Never.

I finally got the hang of working from home. My benevolent employer has sold the office building I was in -- we packed up our desks in February, and have yet to get a new office space. And they were talking about giving us 10 desks for a group of 30 people, so they expect us to continue working from home (or wherever) indefinitely.

By the time we are told to go back, I will have retired.


My wife's office is in a huge windowless box. For 15 months, she has been working at the dining room table, facing the window. There's a huge bird bath just outside the window, under a lilac bush and surrounded by other trees. She has gotten to know the birds and other critters that live in our back yard. She's just been told they will be back in the soulless box mid-July. She's talking about retiring instead.