My longest commute

Today, I set a personal record for my longest commute to work. I started at my parents' house in upstate New York, and ended at my office, some 370 miles away, arriving by 9:40 this morning. It also marks the first time that my commute to work has included an airplane! I was out of bed by 3:30 this morning, so my father could drive my brother and I to the airport in Buffalo. My brother had a 6:00 am flight to JFK in New York City, and I had a 6:30 flight to Baltimore. When I arrived in Baltimore, at about 7:40, I caught a shuttle bus to the Amtrak/MARC rail station located just outside the airport and bought a ticket for the MARC commuter train to Union Station in Washington, DC, where I switched to the subway to my office.

Except for the early start, it was a very pleasant trip, and I'm happy that I was able to get here in time to work a full day, without making my wife drive up to Baltimore to pick me up. I'm also quite pleased with the price. My one-way airfare from Buffalo to Baltimore was only $57.20 on Southwest Airlines, and MARC and Metrorail added less than $9.00 additional to that cost. At the current gasoline prices, it would have cost more for me to have driven!

Prize books

I've had a chance to sort through this weeks mail, and found the package I was expecting from BBC Radio Guernsey. The books I'd won in their trivia contest had arrived. The envelope included three Quick Reads books, which the BBC was giving away to promote World Book Day. Unfortunately, I've belatedly realized that I should have insisted that JKT register these with BookCrossing before sending them across the Atlantic to me. I definitely will release these, and I hope I get good catches to show Jenny.