Day 9 of 28: The biting reality of late shifts, winter nights and an inefficient transit system

I love my job. But it does come with a massive downside, and that is having to work way late into the night for about half of my shifts.

How late? Later than 1:30 AM EST, which is the cut off time in which I must leave in order to not only catch among the last subways in this city, but also my last bus out of the station. Otherwise, it's the night buses for me, one of which only shows itself every half hour.

Now after about two years of this, I've pretty much figured out the late night schedule in terms what times are best to leave in order to catch so-and-so bus, transfer to the half-hour bus all the while leaving me with as little time as possible standing on the corner waiting. It is as much a precise math as it is a science.

And this schedule is especially important during the winter, where a cold wind can easily kill any resolve I possess in my body as far as enduring a wait longer than ten minutes.

Hitch-hiking is not an option I have used getting home late at night.

However, things happen, especially since we're talking about a bus that can be held up by anything and everything including rowdy drunks, bad weather or just poorly timed traffic lights, which is sometimes the case of my first bus. 

And this past Saturday, it was a solid combination of all three, in that we had a really nasty snow fall that day (and basically all weekend), a bus full of loud people and... well the lights are as usual, badly timed.

I left at a time that should have allowed me to catch a bus that would have deposited me at my transfer spot about five minutes before my second and less frequent bus. Except as I mentioned above, all three of those problems conspired to screw me. The bus basically took about three times longer than projected to get to my stop.

By the time I got on the bus, I was going to miss my second bus by around two minutes.

Now sometimes, things change, the second bus could slow down or the transit predictor could be wrong, or even the first bus could catch up. But it didn't. I got to my transfer stop, and looked at the stop I was meant to wait at for my second bus, hoping to see the usual small crowd of people waiting for my bus. 

There was no one there. And the next bus? About 39 minutes away. Argh!

And here's the thing. If this was summer, I would and have had the patience to curl up on a spot next to the station with a book or my phone and accepted the reality of waiting a half hour for a bus. It's just not really as much of a problem in warm or temperate weather. 

But winter? Forget about it. I've stood one too many winters in the freezing cold to put up with it lately. And it is something I have far less tolerance and just general stamina or ability to deal with. Not to mention, it was the middle of the night and we were in the middle of a bit of a nasty storm system that while not whipping snow in your face was certainly doing its part to make you uncomfortable.

So I broke a cardinal rule for the month: I hailed a taxi and spent $30 of my $100 for the month to get my miserable ass home at a less absurd hour I would have otherwise gotten home and most importantly, in a non-frozen state.

But here's where my rashness and temper may have hurt me. Because there are two buildings near my stop with heating that I could have squatted at with no problem. A bank and an A&W. Sure the later would likely have meant I had to pay for some food, but that's $5 compared to the $30 I ended up spending. That's $30 that could have bought me some awesome food from the grocery store, including a new bag of apples. Now I may go fruitless for this week because I became impatient.

Yes, impatient. It was close to 3AM at night. I was tired and upset about how terrible my city's transportation system functions. All I could think about was the extra half hour that I wouldn't be in my bed. And the cold I would have to put up with. And that night, I prioritized my time over my money, except in this case I lost. For an extra half hour at home, I spent about two hours worth of work.

When I set up my general transportation budget, I usually throw in an extra $50 on top of my usual expenses for this such occasion, either stuck on the corner late at night with no bus on its way or sleeping in in the morning and risking being late for work. Or as a business expense going from one job to another.

Two of these are valid reasons to add extra cash. The other, not really.

But perhaps I need to rethink my winter mantra of "If I miss the bus I planned to catch and get caught on the corner for a half-hour, it's taxi time" and really save that extra cash for those days I do sleep in by accident or I do need to money because of work. Because after I thought of the money I spent on that taxi, I wasn't too happy about having spent it on that. 

It just wasn't worth the time I spent earning it and the time I saved or the sleep I gained by spending it.

Granted, if my transit system just got a better system in place, this wouldn't even really be an issue. And a huge motivator when it comes to how I vote.

Now down to less than $40 of my $100... and three weeks to go. Hopefully life has ceased throwing me new challenges to test me and my money. But I doubt it.