In the midst of suckage...

So, big news came down the pipeline today...


Sometime in 2009, the facility here in Marlboro will be closing down, and relocating to somewhere in Burlington.
To me, this means a couple of things...
1. My commute now changes from roughly 15-20 minutes (depending on stops) to over an hour. Plus, I have to take I290 to I495 to Rt 3... yuck! I hate the 495-3 Lowell interchange, and Rt 3 inbound toward 95/128 is horrendous in the morning.
2. Two days a week, I have to take Marcus to preschool, as C's school day starts 15-20 minutes earlier. Since preschool doesn't start until after 8am, I won't be getting to work until 930 or so. The days he doesn't have preschool, I have to shuttle him to whomever will be watching him that day, whether it's my parents or whoever. Again, that pushes my arrival time back.
To balance that, I will either have to work later in the evening, or take shorter lunch breaks -- if I take them at all. (I get 1 hour lunch plus two 15-minute breaks. I have never taken the short breaks since I started here.)

In other good news... no raises this year. That really bites. So I'm expected to travel further, but I get nothing extra to offset the extra fuel I have to expend to get to work?
Let's look at a comparison here...

Worcester to Marlboro
Distance = 12.2 miles using 290 to backroads to 20
ETA = 16 minutes

Worcester to Burlington -- rough estimate since I don't know the address of the new place
Distance = 48.2 miles using 290 - 495 - 3
ETA = ~56 minutes

Some quick math...

I've been running at about 27 miles per gallon... 13 gallon tank. Range should equal roughly 350 miles.
For Marlboro, that means a complete 13 gallon fill every 14 work days, give or take, with a round trip of 25 miles. It's been more like 30, so that's a fill-up every 12 work days.

For Burlington, this is what I'm projecting:
Roughly 100 miles round trip, that's a complete fill-up every 3.5 work days... nearly four times as often. Spending four times the money on gas for this job. I'd be spending upwards of $100 per week just on fuel.
That blows big time.

*sigh*

At least I'll still be working...

No use getting excited about it yet... still in the future, lots can happen...

D&D Redux

I'm still muddling my way through D&D 4e. I've been working on characters and such, trying to get a feel for them. I think I'll just create several first-levels, one of each class, just to see how they play out.

Initial observations -- this new revamp of D&D will go over well with the MMORPG crowds. It has that feel to it. I like some of the aspects, but I'd love to have seen more of 3.x stay with it.

More later on as I continue my trek through the books.