So I'm getting out of the rat race

A decade? Lightweight.

 

That's after almost another decade in restaurants. My soul has been sucked dry.

I once watched a restaurant owner make his 4-year-old daughter polish silverware while waiting for her mom to come pick her up.

 

Congrats, Dick. To me there's nothing as soul-sucking as a long daily commute. The time (and maybe additional sleep?) you'll regain from eliminating that will make it worth it enough, I'm sure.

 

My nieces and nephew used to claim that my brother didn't actually live in the same house as them, since he left for work before they were up, and came home after they were in bed most week days.

 

No excuses not to run a sub-5 mile now.

 

This is so true. I used to drive anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour-and-a-half each way to and from work, depending on traffic, every day. And that didn't include mileage to and from games, practices and events that also could get you stuck in traffic.

As I enjoy my seven-minute drive to work now, I honestly don't know how I did it for so long. And I say so now, too. Often.

When you've always done such driving, and even, never really minded it that much, you can't, and don't, truly realize how valuable time really is, until you're not doing real commutes.

My dad always had a policy of never living further than 20 minutes away from his work/job site, and, growing up, we never did. He simply would not do it, but it is only in recent years that I've really understood and appreciated the wisdom of that.

 

Ever since I've gone from the newspaper life to a more 830-5, M-F life, I've been fiercely territorial of my time off. Work is just not so damn important that you need to be obsessing about it 24/7. The move out of newspapers gave me that proper perspective. And I don't have kids. Or a wife. But I have a very active social life and I want to experience that, not staying at the office late or worrying about minutae on the weekends. As others have said, our time here is way too short for that. I get every word of what you're saying, Dick.

If you'll excuse me, it's time to head to Happy Hour ...

 

Phil Mickelson sends a golf clap your way.

[/crossthread]

 

Best of luck to you. Hard to go wrong putting your kids first. And you will still have plenty of clients whose lives you will change and improve through your work at the new gig.

 

Fucking bravo.
I bow in your general direction.

 

My son has started asking me if I could go into work later, because he gets scared when he wakes up and I'm not there.

I started waking him up at 0-Dark-30 so we have at least 10 minutes together before I leave.