.18cents to much!

When you work for a non-profit you tend to watch the budget a bit.  and when you work for a non-profit in this economy you tend to WATCH THE BUDGET A BIT.

So when I ran out to the local officemax to pick up some name tags to use for a workshop.  I almost fell over paying $26.00 for 140 labels.  Granted it wasn't my $26.00 but in the non-profit world that might be $26.00 less in a raise next year.  

For the next workshop it's bring your own name tag. 

The Commute

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The Commute -- I have been trying different commutes into the city from the southside lately. Basically, the construction on the toll plaza has backed the traffic up on the Powhite in the mornings all the way back to the Midlothian Turnpike Exit. So most days I give up and take the Midlothian Exit -- travel down Midlothian -- take the chippenham exit -- then take the powhite exit. Not to bad - but a lot of work for a couple of miles of traffic.

Today, I decided to forget the tolls and forget the traffic. I took 288 to the Patterson Ave exit. And took Patterson all the way down to Thompson. Again -- All the Way Down. I forgot how far that was. And how many stop lights. and the stop and go traffic. "Old Man in the Acura --- please give the car back to your son -- and stop driving so aggressive on a 2 lane road". Going the speed limit - and sticking to one lane is -- how you can save on gas too -- Jack...

Tomorrow -- leaving early to compensate for the traffic on the powhite.

Who loves Charts??

Google has released the Google Chart API. Perfect for making charts on the fly. The downfall to this is that Google is limiting you to 50,000 API requests per day. So Pace Yourself...

Go Make Your Own.

GRTC THIS!!

Okay, everyone is using the bus these day. According to the commercial. So, I went to the GRTC website to see how I would get to work from my house. Not an easy thing to do - since I live way out here in the burbs - south of the Rivah.. But GRTC does in fact come out here. So here is my schedule from getting to Work from my House.

Drive (a short distance 2-3 miles)to Commonwealth 20 (Hull Street) to the GRTC Park and Ride lot.

6:43a.m. Board #32 bus ($2.50)
7:19a.m. Arrive @ 14th and Bank St.
Wait until next bus (25 minutes)
~Transfer~ (.15)
7:44a.m. Board #24 bus ($1.25)
8:03a.m. Arrive @ Robison and Broad St.
Wait until next bus (15 minutes)
~Transfer~ (.15)
8:18a.m. Board #20 Bus ($1.25)
8:30a.m. Arrive / short walk to work from Broad.

TOTAL TRAVEL TIME (1 hour and 45 minutes)*
TOTAL WAIT TIME (40 minutes)*
TOTAL COST ($5.30)*

VERSUS (Driving)

TOTAL TRAVEL TIME (20 MINUTES)*
TOTAL WAIT TIME (5-10 FOR TRAFFIC)*
TOTAL COST ($3.28) gas/tolls*

* TOTALS are 1-way only.

Am I ready to give up the convenience of my usual way of travel. The 20 minute travel time in my own car. The $3.28 per trip travel cost of gas and tolls. Yeah - I don't think so. Not yet.

But this is not the fault of GRTC. I choose to live way out here, and my work is near Broad Street - but not really near any large businesses. GRTC does seem to have a lot of routes and most of Richmond covered. The site is relatively user friendly. The Customer Service was great - I had to call 3 times concerning my route.

So what would get me to ride the bus -- if GRTC added another route that would only have me using 1 transfer. I think with 1 transfer my travel time would be cut in half.

--- Good Times!!

We had a nice little break this past weekend.

Friday - Stayed in - Our new home office furniture finally arrived - So an exciting night was spent setting up our my new home office.

Saturday - Adam had a soccer game at 11:00. I was finally getting used to the 9:00 am games. Anyway, 3-4 year olds playing soccer - it's fun to watch the first few minutes - then after that -- it's pretty much watching all the parents trying to keep their kid encouraged. -- "It's not over -- go play -- go kick the ball". Saturday night though was a much needed kid free night. We have not been to the movies in so long - we were anxious to go see something - but nothing was playing - really nothing. So, we settled on The Shooter. Not too bad of a movie - compared to everything else that was playing.

Sunday - Woke up at the crack of dawn to meet my Dad and his fishing buddies in Fredericksburg - to see if the Shad were still rolling through. It was a good time - I am really starting to like this Fly Fishing. Anyway, caught a couple of Shad and a really good sunburn - not too bad for our first real spring weekend...