What's silly that you do on your commute?

[Corner Case]

I take the 40 minute drive around the north side of the lake. It's a two-lane blacktop through a bit of rolling landscape (hard to find in the DFW Metroplex). There are many ranches and I wave and say "Hi" at the horses, cows, and the few llamas or sheep. Also the train if it's going past. I like a nice commute in the morning and evening to relax, and it's the shortest way to boot.

[freckafree]

I only have about a 10-minute commute, so if I plug my iPod into the car stereo as I'm pulling out of the driveway, I can play -- and sing! -- Spike Jones' brilliant "Pal Yat Chee" at least twice, maybe three times.

When we was in the city
We was wonderin' where to go.
A sign spelled out Pagliacci
Up in lights above a show.
We thought 'twould be a Western
Till the stage lit up with lights --
And 97 people sung, without a horse in sight!

Etc, etc, etc.

[akira5822]

I wisely use the time commuting (about 85 min.) firming up my plans for world domination.

[MovieMogul]

My commute's 45 minutes (at least) each way, and I don't have a radio in my car, so I talk to myself.

A lot.

[Antinor01]

I bus to work, so I nap in the morning. That extra 45 minutes or so of sleep is wonderful.

[Fetchund]

I count Loons. Three this morning, in a snowstorm!

[racer72]

I play license plate cribbage. Pickup trucks in Washington have 5 numbers. Counting zeros as 10s, I see how many trucks can beat my pickup, with totals 12.

[Millit the Frail]

Listen to NPR podcasts. People-watch. Act surly.

On the way home, same, but less surly.

(About an hour, mainly by subway.)

[Tikki]

When I'm working in the north end, about a 20-30 minute trip, I count taxicabs. Since I live near the airport and take a route through downtown favored by taxi drivers, I average about 25 each way. You have to be alert because most of the cabs going to or from the airport are white (with green lettering) and tend to blend in with all the other white cars on the road.

Fetchund, I used to commute by bus across Lake Washington, past the Arboretum. Haven't seen loons there but there were cormorants that would line the logs in the water, doing pterodactyl impressions with their wings opened up to dry. Didn't count 'em but I always enjoyed seeing each day.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Heading to work, I go from southwest Memphis to the eastern part of the city; thus I often say, "To Mordor--and war" as I head out.

Returning home, I say, "To the west--and whores."

[twickster]

I play license plate cribbage. Pickup trucks in Washington have 5 numbers. Counting zeros as 10s, I see how many trucks can beat my pickup, with totals 12.
PA license plates have three letters and four numbers. I look at the three letters and think of a word that has those three letters, in that order. If it's a fairly easy combo (FSH), I'll think of words for all five vowels (FASHION, FLESH, FISH, FORESHORTEN, FLUSH), or if it starts with a vowel (ARH), I'll see how many words with different initial consonants I can come up with (CARHOP, FARTHER, GEARHEAD, MARCH). Sometimes it's a challenge to come up with just one, though (GSW -- GOSHAWK).

[Kythereia]

I suffer from claustrophobia. I've made myself get accustomed to elevators, but--instead of taking the subway and having a 20-25 minute commute, I take the bus and spend 45 minutes to an hour on the road. :smack:

Other than that... well, I say hi to the conductors, but other than that I mostly read--the newspaper or a library book. I'm not all that interesting. :)

(Some of the other commuters, on the other hand...)

[Bobotheoptimist]

I catch a quick nap sometimes. But then the other drivers start honking and raising a fuss... Inconsiderate jerks!

[Man With a Cat]

My commute is 1.6 miles and takes me about 3 minutes.

Sometimes I drive fast through puddles to make a big splash, does that count?

Oh, and I honk and drive towards the canadian geese, because they annoy me.

[Queen Bruin]

I wisely use the time commuting (about 85 min.) firming up my plans for world domination.
You commute on the 405 too, huh?

My husband I and commute together. We spend a lot of the time coming up with new epithets for bad drivers.

[Cabin_Fever]

My commute is less than 40 feet, since I work from home.
One of the silly things I do is to say "HI" to all the birds out in the backyard while my coffee is brewing.



They seem to like me playing Tom Petty from the patio, although that may just be a regional thang.

[Don't Call Me Shirley]

I drive about 20 minutes to work. I shave on the way in. Unless the batteries in my shaver die, then I have to take it in to work, plug it in, and shave there.

I can do this without taking my eyes off the road. I have become very adept at telling where I have shaved by the feel and sound of the shaver. Plus I have very blond hair so I would have to miss the same spot several days in a row before it became noticeable.

[Girl From Mars]

I cycle about 38 minutes one way, and 43 minutes the other way each day. Each time, I know the split times to beat when I hit the top of the hill, the bridge, the post by the motorway, Federation Square... The goal is to get there quicker each time I cycle, and I have cut down about 5-6 minutes each leg since I started 4 months ago.

Oh, and I sing along to my iPod. I'm going too fast for people to hear, I hope!

[Nava]

The Swiss DOT (whatever they're called, and I have no idea whether it's central or local) likes to play games with us.

You see, about half of my highway drive to the border is getting roadwork. It was getting roadwork when I moved here in November. The roadwork must be advancing, since they occasionally move the cones and the temporary-orange-lines-you-should-follow-instead-of-the-permanent-white-ones and the concrete barriers around. How is it advancing exactly I don't know, but advance it does.

So on some days (most usually Mondays) I get to play "figure out the new path to work" and "figure out the new path to the house", as temporary signs and concrete barriers have been shuffled again.

On days when I'm not trying to relearn the drive, I look for exotic license plates.

And when I cross the border, I check out who's on duty. There was a new officer on the German side yesterday. No idea what rank, I'm not familiar with German militaria.

[DeVena]

We smile and wave at crossing guards in school zones. Typically by Christmas we've worn down their resistance to the point that they start waving back! By this point, they'll smile, wave, and stop traffic after our car, much to our tailgaters wailing and gnashing of teeth.

DeVena - spreading cheer by pissing off grumpy drivers since 1984 :D

Oh, one more thing. At one stop light, there is a very fierce-looking bulldog who barks at cars from behind his fence. I make a point of rolling down my window and asking, "Who's a good doggie?? You are! Such a good doggie!" To which, the fierce bulldog responds with a full-body tail wagging. Makes my morning.

[Dung Beetle]

There is nearly always some poor schmuck out in front of the coffee shop or the smoothie place wearing a ridiculous costume and holding a sign to try to draw customers in. I always give 'em a big smile and wave.

Props to the guy in the banana suit the other day...he was shaking that thang! :D

[Colophon]

One thing I did on Tuesday which was especially silly was doze off on the train and not realise that due to a timetable change, the train would be dividing, with one half going the way I wanted to go, and one half heading for the south coast. Guess which half I was on?

Plus it was the last train. Luckily I take my bike with me on the train, but instead of a 4-mile ride I had a 19-mile journey back home, incorporating over 1,000ft of ascent (as I discovered when checking the map later.) Took me nearly an hour and a half, so I got home at 1.30am. And my headlight battery ran out halfway home. :smack:

Other than that, I don't do anything especially silly. Some would argue that cycling in all weathers is silly, but I will be spending over £6,000 less on transport costs this year than I was last year, and I feel a hell of a lot fitter, so I think it's worth it.

Edit: Nava, you have a cross-border commute? That's pretty cool.

[An Arky]

That attractive woman sitting a few seats away is giving me the eye. I know she simply cannot control her urge to shed her clothes and perform unspeakable acts upon me, but I nip that hussy in the bud and put out my Stop In The Name Of Love hand, singing "Leave me alone, I'm a Family Man!"

Then I wake up and wipe the flecks of drool from my chin and wonder why all those people are staring at me.

[gigi]

I catch a quick nap sometimes. But then the other drivers start honking and raising a fuss... Inconsiderate jerks!
:p

My commute is uneventful. Not many other drivers out. When the turkeys are in residence at the little farm I enjoy gawking at them. And I sing along to fun songs. But that's about it.

[Dung Beetle]

singing "Leave me alone, I'm a Family Man!"


That's so wrong, it's right. Baby. ;)

[NurseCarmen]

I bike to work when it's above twenty degrees and there isn't ice, so that's about 8 months of the year here in Minnesota.

My silliness is my bike helmet. It has a mohawk of doll's hands. Little hands waving at folks as I ride bye.

[Ceejaytee]

I read Pit threads. I print them out just before I leave the office and read them on the train. If I don't finish, usually due to a 5-page rant-fest, I finish them the next morning. The only drawback is the inability to post when I become sufficiently outraged. But Pit threads make for excellent train reading.

[Savannah]

I count bunnies along the highway by VGH hospital. No bunnies means a bad day! :eek:

Then, if there have been no bunnies spotted, I must find and count three dogs before I get to the office. I've become superstitious in my old age.

When not counting bunnies or listening to CBC or NPR, I sing along with a CD. Loudly. Occasionally on key. Sometimes I harmonize a duet role for myself. I let my inner Linda Ronstadt out.

[Sofaspud]

I have about a 70-mile round-trip every day, so there lots of stuff to do to keep myself entertained. (I'll leave out the boring stuff, like "think about what I need to do today at the office.")

I try to see how many times I can avoid the lines with my tires when changing lanes. It takes skill, I tells ya. We have little divots in them 'round these parts, so you can feel and hear it if you hit them.

If I'm not listening to the CD player, I whistle. Usually it's a classical piece, but this morning I was stretching a bit. Unfortunately, I don't think Aerosmith would appreciate my efforts. I will have to try harder.

I wink at passing drivers. Usually I don't get any response. When I do, most of the time it's nothing more than a baffled doubletake -- "Did he just wink at me?" -- though the other morning a hot redhead grinned and winked right back at me, which was nice.

Try to calculate just what angle I would need to hit that other car at to force them off the road in a tumbling fireball. I don't ACT on this, mind you, but thinking about it makes me feel better, especially after having to dodge some jerkweed who wasn't paying attention.

Come up with new words on the fly to songs that are playing, usually describing my current situation. From this morning: "I wasn't in the pile up/It was already done with, before I reached it" (to We Didn't Start The Fire). Lame, I know. :)

I try to figure out what the 'acronyms' on license plates means. "GRL? Um... ooh, he must work for the Government Research Laboratory!" It's amusing.

I think that's about it... I also think I'm sounding stranger than I am. Oops.

[SurrenderDorothy]

I take the bus

so, if there are any little kids on the bus, I make faces at them.

I wave to anyone looking at the bus (although I'm pretty sure they can't see me)

I'm a creature of habit, so I like to sit in "my" seat every day. If it's taken, I'll wait for the person in it to get off and then move.

I pretned I'm somewhere else... I listen to tropical-sounding music and stare out the window and pretend I'm not in a nasty, cold, rainy city on a bus on my way to school... but in Hawaii on a shuttle from the airport to the beach... and I pretend the lightposts are palm trees and the miserable-looking people out on the streets are wearing swimsuits and smiling and the river is an ocean and so on.

[TheLoadedDog]

Once, I was driving along an unfamiliar road, and I was bored so I decided to look for signs that had words starting with 'B'. I swear on my grandmother's grave that the first sign I saw (only a couple of seconds later) was a business name in huge letters, "B & B Billiard Tables".

That was spooky.