It’s Day 1 of attempting the Morning Commute from the new house. So far, not too bad. I arrived at St-Laurent in twenty minutes and headed for the top of the roof as Rob suggested. He indicated that there was an elevator that brought you down there.
There was an elevator, but it was behind locked doors! I double backed and parked on an upper level of the parking lot. There are some clear signs marked ‘No Parking for Bus Users’ so I’m definitely taking a chance. Each level is 90% cordoned off as well so I parked in an area which wasn’t cordoned off but I’m now wondering if they will ticket me considering SOMEONE has to remove the wire that blocks an area and I’m sure they will think “Hey, what’s up with that car parked over there?” Time will tell. It’s all an experiment at this point.
I then walked down to the bus tunnel which is pretty great during bad weather…I was dry as a bone. However, the exhaust from all the buses probably took a week off of my life! My eyes were tearing up a little and my mouth tastes pretty foul this morning. Granted, I had to wait 10 minutes for my bus to arrive so if I time it better in the future, it won’t be a big deal. In fact, I may just hop on the first bus out of there to ensure my health is good and transfer to a new bus.
All in all, this commute may actually be shorter than my previous one. Even with waiting for my bus for 10 minutes, I arrived at work at the same time as coming from Orleans. So if I can time it, I may be able to make it to work by 7:20AM.
It is definitely a different beast altogether to hop in the car for 20 minutes and hit the highway instead of the 5 minutes I used to take. I will have to think of how I want to spend that time. Am I going to gain something in life from listening to Morning Radio all the time? Or is this the time to catch up on some podcasts I like? Or perhaps it’s a great time to pop in a new CD and get some much needed music listening time!
Anyhow, we’ll see what happens this afternoon when I arrive to my car! Here’s to hoping there is no ticket!
Experiment #1: Go to the roof and take elevators – FAIL.
Experiment #2: Park in the parking area near the station – PENDING.
Experiment #3: Park in the far parking area and walk around the mall – PENDING.
Experiment #4: Park in the super secret parking spot that my previous neighbour suggested. – PENDING.
**Update! No ticket was found on the car! Sweet! It was a reassuring feeling. But I didn’t want to chance it so I have adjusted my parking. I will now try the farthest point away from the bus station. One would assume that if a ticket were given out, it would be for the cars closer to the bus station rather than the one in the far corner on the other side of the mall. But who knows?**