Windows

 

 

 

 

I had trouble sleeping last night and for some reason my mind went back to a scene from about 30 years ago. At the time, I thought, "This would be a great opening line for a novel."  The problem was, not being a writer, I could never form the perfect sentence.  Let me describe the scene.

It was dusk and I was standing at the kitchen sink after dinner.  Looking out the window I could see three other houses, and though I couldn't see inside them, from each of them I could see a single light from the kitchen window. In that moment I thought about the inter-connectedness of our lives, how many women were standing at kitchen sinks at that moment? How many had stood at those sinks in all the years past or future? It wasn't a gendered feeling, a sense that women were toiling in the kitchen. It was more comforting than that, a sense of timelessness and continuity. But, even then, there was a hint of something else. Loneliness is too strong of a word, but certainly a feeling that I was alone, or solitary.  

So, now someone can take those opposing ideas--connection and solitariness and write a novel!  I've given you a great start.

Not able to sleep, and still struggling with how I could write the perfect opening scene of my never to be written novel, I wondered out into my 17th floor city view living room.  Looking out the windows, seeing all the other lights and activity, but also the dark and quiet buildings, I was reminded of how we go through life surrounded by people, connected to and loved by many, but still alone.

Sounds way more depressing than it felt!  Which is why I'm not a writer.

 

 

What's it worth?

 I live in Chicago and make frequent trips to Northwest Indiana.  The trip is pretty straightforward, expressway nearly all the way.  I have two options--use the Illinois Skyway and Indiana toll road, or use the Dan Ryan and Bishop Ford expressways (note that now that I live in Chicago I no longer use highway numbers, like 94 or 90 or 80, that's just not how we do it here!)  On a good day, the trip on either route can take as little as 42 minutes.  On a bad day, it can easily be 90 minutes or more.  Generally, the toll route is faster, but costs about $8 one way.  Before leaving either Chicago or Indiana I use my map app to get an estimate of the time for each route.  If the non-toll option is less than 8 minutes longer, I will take it.  If the difference is more than 10 minutes, I take the toll route.

                                                 

 

What to do in the range of 8-10 minutes?  Clearly, my time is worth somewhere between $1.00 and $1.25 a minute and , but exactly where?  I've found that in that range I begin to consider the time of day, the amount of daylight, the weather, and how likely I am to run into an unexpected delay once I start on my route. Occasionally, I have even taken the longer, non-toll route if I'm not in a hurry, it's a sunny day, and I feel adventurous.  But, even there a limit exists. I can think of no situation where I would take the non-toll option if the time difference was 20 minutes or more.  

                                     

 

Similarly, I work out a few times a week at a gym located about a 20 minute drive from my apartment. Within 2 blocks of the gym there is free on-street parking.  Right in front of the gym is metered parking which costs about $3.00 for an hour.  Generally, I park on the free parking street, but if the weather is bad, I'm late or tired, or just cranky, I pay to park.  

The moral of this story, everyday we make minute economic decisions which make very little economic sense.