December 14, 2007 9:31 AM

The mother of all commutes
Posted by Douglas Eisenhartat 9:31 AM

Your esteemed Job Blog editor was not immune from yesterday evening's commuter woes. I had an absolutely hellacious commute - the mother of all commutes, by a long shot. What usually takes me 1 hour took 6 1/2, as follows:

-- 1:30 pm - head to Globe parking lot to get a jump (ha!) on the traffic
-- 2:00 pm - exit Globe parking lot - there were 30 cars ahead of me, each waiting to get onto Morrissey Blvd.
-- 2:30 pm - make the U-turn at light in front of UMass Boston entrance
-- 3:30 pm - 2 hours after leaving, make it to the traffic circle by Moakley Park. It's about 1/2-mile from the Globe entrance.
-- 4:00 pm - reach the Mass Pike west - for some reason, I zip around the circle onto 93 north, slow but moving, and onto the pike ramp. Normally I am here in no more than 10 minutes from the Globe.
-- 5:00 pm - reach Allston/Brighton tolls
-- 6:30 pm - after stopping once just short of Sheraton Newton underpass to unstick frozen wipers - they were not moving at all - reach Weston tolls. This normally takes 45 min. from the Globe.
-- 7:15 pm - after exiting Pike, attempt U-turn by Leo Martin golf course as we are standing still trying to get over to route 16. Get stuck temporarily, rock my way out, then hold breath as I take steep short cut up into Wellesley Hills. Make it OK - no traffic, ploughed.
-- 7:30 pm - now on route 9 west, at a complete standstill. Not moving at all for 1/2-hour. As we finally move, pass spin-outs and flatbed trucks on side with marooned cars on back.
-- 8:00 pm - after snaking up Weston Road, past Wellesley College on 135, and onto Bacon Street, finally make it home.

Things I could have done in this time, instead of calling home five times and listening to three CDs and every radio station on the planet (at one point I picked up a George Washington-SUNY Binghamton basketball game):
-- Under normal conditions, done 5 more hours of work, plus drive home
-- Take the SATs - twice (not that l'd want to, but since my son is a high school senior, it occurred to me)
-- Drive to Burlington, VT to visit my daughter in college - and drive back
-- Drive to Rochester, NY to visit my parents

Instead I went 20 miles and burned roughly 1/4-tank of gas. I pity those poor souls who did not start out with a decent amount of gas, ran out while idling, and were stranded.

Also plenty of time for visions of the apocalypse, Armageddon, global climate change, and many many other thoughts about the ridiculously thin fabric of civilizaton that can be shredded in an instant. And this right in the heart of a major metropolis in the United States.

Read others' horror stories.

Now, as I sit typing these words in the comfort of my home office and look out on a glistening white scene, hearing only the trill of a wren that sits puffed up in a snowbound holly bush, I am amazed and reminded once again: nature rules.