Today started like any other Thursday, I drove about fifteen minutes to Lynnwood. There I walked about fifteen minutes to the train station and that is where the fun started...
As I approached train platform I overheard one of the workers telling other travelers that trains are going only to Northgate and if you want to go to Seattle or further to the airport you can board special busses that are going non stop to various train stations.
That may sound good, but there is a reason why I never drive to Seattle and that is not even the forty dollars a day parking with an employee discount included.
The real reason is traffic, you never know when you are going to get stuck for a couple hours during your commute to Seattle. That is why I take the train, it doesn't have to be stuck in our under developed road infrastructure.
So after another fifteen minutes we arrived in Northgate. Being from Eastern Europe I know what is up and so I got to the train door first and was first off the train and quickly walked down the escalator, so I was one of the first to get off the train platform in Northgate and quickly walked towards the special bus to downtown Seattle.
And that was a good thing because not everyone fit into the bus, there was a huge line forming for the next bus to Seattle and people were told it is only half an hour away...
I am going to believe that when I see that, which is never 😀 So we got on our way to Seattle and I think that a lot of poor suckers decided to drive to Seattle, because we were immediately stuck in an absolutely horrendous stop and go traffic. It is only around nine miles between Northgate and downtown Seattle, but it took us over two hours to get there...
And that is why I never drive to Seattle! Once we arrived in downtown Seattle, I took the first opportunity to get off the bus and walked the rest of the way to my work. I was walking along the same street as the bus was moving and I could see that my walking speed was at least twice the speed at which the bus was moving.
So in about ten minutes I was finally at work. What normally takes about an hour and a half turned into over a three hour one way commute. And there is absolutely no reason for me to go there, I had no in person meetings, all my meetings were on Microsoft Teams.
My productivity was shot and the first thing I did once getting to work was look up how I am going to get back to Lynnwood. The reason they gave for train service suspension at seven in the morning were electrical issues...
I know that "electrical issues" means that service is unlikely to be restored for at least a few days. So I made a plan to come back by leaving early and using the bus. It turned out to be a correct decision as I am already home after an hour and a half commute back and trains are still not running...
So all this effort is just to come into my office cubicle and sit on the online meetings that we did for five years exclusively from home. But our organization already spent twenty two million dollars on returning to the office. And our executive who is supposedly focused on fiscal responsibility has asked the board for fifteen more million dollars so that he can bring us back to the office full-time. What a waste...
I guess that there is one good reason for all of this for me and that is the fact that I get a lot more steps and get to work out in our office gym for and hour during my lunch break 💪
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