Walldren's World

Every month my wife and I try to give each other one afternoon off. It's meant to be pure discretionary time, spent on doing whatever you want to do: take yourself to lunch, go to a movie, relax at the library, etc..The only rule is really is that each of us should get out of the house. More often than not we spend at least a portion of the time doing at least one chore. Yesterday was my day off and I kicked it off by going to the car wash. Look at that grime fly. When all was said and done, I spent the afternoon at the library planning out my week and reviewing some goals I have for 2014. This morning on my way to work I filled my gas tank. When I went to enter this week's numbers, I realized that today marks the completion of the first full year that I have been tracking mileage. Take a look at what a year it's been: 2006 Hyundai Sonata Mileage driving to/from Atlanta from Buford, GA Prior to moving to Atlanta, I used to walk to the train and walk to work...

Today I crossed a new threshold that reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer takes a test drive and convinces the dealer to keep on going after the needle hits E. Today I have traveled the longest distance between fill ups in the history of owning my car. That distance was driving 340.6 miles. Ooh. Ahh. I know that's not all that far, but considering I panic and start filling up once I hit the 300 mile mark this was a small milestone. Overall, despite the absurd commute my car is performing much better and getting more mileage than when we lived in Chicago. Here's a snapshot of my last four fill-ups: This week's audiobook choice was prompted from seeing a banner ad on Goodreads  for Dan Brown's new Dante-inspired Robert Langdon novel. (That's right, fellow marketeers, a banner ad prompted me to take action at my local library! Monetize that !)  I thought, " I'm hip. I'm with it . I better catch up and read The Lost S...

When I lived in the Chicago area, I would walk a mile to a train that would drop me 1 mile from my office. Such as it was, I was getting daily exercise and a mostly relaxing ride into work each day. Missing a train wasn't such a bad thing as the longest I'd ever have to wait for a train was 1 hour, and during peak times, about 20 minutes. I enjoyed unlimited commutes for about $120 per month. When I moved to Atlanta, I knew I would be driving. But I had no idea just how much. Out of strange curiosity in mid-January, I began keeping track of my mileage. My daily commute is about 36.9 miles each way. This translates into 90 minutes in the morning and about 75 minutes in the evening. Here's a table of my 2006 Hyundai Sonata's performance to date. For those keeping score, I am paying more to drive into work. Add in what I pay for parking, and it's close to double. There is a spectacular trade-off however. Back in Chicago, what I spend on my mortgage today got...