Technology Giveth, and Technology Taketh Away

I like to say that commute time isn't the worst part of the day, meaning, really, that it can be quite enjoyable. Lately, though, construction on all possible routes has made it nothing but stressful. I have to admit that I know, if I'll just relax and take it in stride, it really could be nice: That's what the radio is for. But every day?

Normally it takes awhile for the GPS to figure out where all of the delays are, but the other morning I plugged it in and before I got out of the driveway it was warning me of a delay of over an hour! I decided to head south to highway 225, which I haven't done in some time. Then it did a funny thing: It told me to get off of the freeway and run the access roads when I got to I-45. Usually that's a bad idea. The GPS doesn't track speeds on the access roads, and usually if the freeway is backed up, the access roads are worse. But when I got stuck in the mainlanes and saw apparently empty access roads, I decided to exit. It turns out that these are almost completely empty, and it really shortened the drive.

Ah, but Friday. Friday mornings are the best time of the week for traffic, and Friday afternoons are the worst. I checked before I left the office and knew that it was even worse than the typical Friday, so I opted for an I-610 around to TX-225 route. As I got to the southbound portion of 610, the GPS said to exit at McCarty and run three miles east, then go to I-10. Having never gone that way, and because I wanted to know the route, I took its advice.

Thirty minutes and only half of a mile down McCarty, I turned around. That's 30 minutes I wouldn't have had to spend if I wouldn't have listened.

Fortunately, as I got back to the loop it suggested staying on the access road and heading back on side streets to the south of I-10, then taking Market Street (which parallels I-10). Good idea, but I should have headed back to I-10 on the major road before the one it told me to take. The lesson in chilling out would be a very good one to have learned before this trip — my 45 minute drive home took an hour and a half.

I could have either been relaxed, just taking it in stride and listening to the music, or I could have done my best to avoid traffic and, failing to do so, become very frustrated and completely exhausted. I took the latter course and paid for it. Note to self: Remember to choose the most likely route and stick with it (unless it becomes impossible), then go with the flow.