The 1# reason why I will not live in the city of Toronto - I would not be able to tolerate the commute. In the past 9 years I have driven from Ottawa to Hamilton dozens of times. The key to a successful trip is timing. I know that if I leave Ottawa at around 12 – 12:30 that I am going to hit the start of rush hour traffic in Toronto at around 4:00pm. I have no idea what I was thinking yesterday; maybe I was delusional and thought that I would get lucky and be able just to breeze on through the city. I should have known better. The drive to Toronto from Ottawa was fine. It took me a little over 3 hours, another record time. The fall colours were beautiful along the 401 and for the most part the other idiot drivers on the road didn’t bother me so much. Except for the occasional truck driver who would cut me off, the moron that drives less then 110 km in the fast lane blocking in all other traffic behind him, and there is always that jackass who will ride up your ass even though your are doing over 130km and have no room to move while still keeping a safe distance from the driver in front of you. I am used to this, it is typical 401drive. What I was not prepared for was the 3 hour drive from Toronto to Hamilton. Start stop, start stop, start stop – all the way there. It is the only time I regret buying a standard vehicle. That stretch of the trip is always the longest, if there is no traffic it should take approx. 45 min. By that time, I am tired of all the music in my car as I forgot to burn new cds, my musical A.D.D. is kicking in so I scan the radio in hopes that something good will come on. Like some Barry White, or James Brown, or maybe the soothing sounds of Nina Simone, something other then Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back. Hearing that song play over and over and over is enough to drive anyone insane. I’ll tell you where you can shove that fucking sexy back. The only thing remotely good that comes on is some Sexual Healing and then Rage against the Machine’s – Killing in the name of. Great… that’s something I want to hear in rush hour traffic as my current state of road rage isn’t enough; they have to play that song. It’s the exact reason I avoid putting my NOFX cds in. I look around and observe how many SUV’s there are on the road with lone drivers, the rage increases. I try to forget about the coffee that I drank an hour ago, I have visions of pulling over on the shoulder to relieve myself. It’s been done before, I am not sure I could put myself through the humiliation again. Start stop, start stop, start stop …. im burning up my gas, the low fuel light comes on…. i have a personal debate whether I should just ignore it … it lies anyway, right? Start stop start stop start stop…. it only took 3 hours to drive just over 100km, but I am finally there. I don’t know how people do this commute, I never could. PS – this is a piss poor photo. I’ll fix it at later date. Today I just felt like writing. Have a nice turkey weekend!