I needed to go to Chicago to pick up a Christmas present that would cost a lot to ship. I had some smaller things to get as well, two at stores within a few blocks of the first store, and one a few miles away. It took me one hour to get from Milwaukee to the first store, arriving shortly after noon. I shopped for 45 minutes, because the store was huge, awkward and difficult to find anything. I then stood in the checkout line for 45 minutes. I then drove around for a while looking for the next two store, but I couldn’t find them. I grabbed a bite to eat while I was searching, but ended up stopping at a totally different place. It was a cool store and I was hoping to find alternatives so that I didn’tneed to make any more stops, but I shopped for an hour and found nothing.
It was now 3pm and it had started to snow. I thought I’d try to hit the fourth store, but after I sat in traffic for 30 minutes getting nowhere, I decided to just head home. The first 8 miles took 2.5 hours. The next 10 miles took 2.5 hours. I decided at this point to take a 5-mile detour to take a “sanity break” with some friends. The 5 miles took about 30 minutes. We hung out for about 45 minutes. At about 10:30, I left. The 84-mile trip took only 2.5 hours, so that was good, I guess.
I’m lucky that I wasn’t in any accidents, and I didn’t come across anything more than a car in a ditch. Some people had it much worse today. But it’s difficult not to be entirely selfish and think, “What a freaking waste of my time. Maybe it was worth the $90 shipping.” I mean, it used up at least $20 worth of gas…