What if my last 5 years was normal ? Working within walking distance of work.

It's been almost 5 years now since I started taking an apartment within walking distance of my current contract.

Started on a fluke, I "lived" 50 miles from my contract so I just spent my commuting money on a second place to live, in this case an apartment next to the office building where I worked. In many ways it was like heaven, I drove there late Sunday night, worked the following schedule and then spent a very long weekend in my real home.

• Monday 12
• Tues 12
• Wed 10
• Thurs 6. (Left at noon)

I liked it so much I did it on my next contract, then ended up moving out of the house entirely.

Apartment living is great. Especially after maintaining one or another big house all of my adult life. Would't be practical if I still had children at home, of course. But for me it's a dream, I just live and work, no more part time job as a maintenance man :)

The Big Gain: Time

Compare this to the time I would spend driving around Dallas to and from work every day. 10 or even 15 hours a week is pretty normal. Yuk. I'll take that benefit any day, pretty nearly makes it worth sacrificing other things to be close. But so far, I haven't had to sacrifice anything to get this gain, it's just worked out.

Carbon Footprint: Some interesting facts

No, I don't always walk to work even when it only takes 10 minutes - and I love to walk. This is Texas, lots of times you can barely walk to the car without becoming drenched in sweat. So many months I just drive the mile or less, never even get in the sun. I park in a parking garage at both ends. But winter, like now, it's almost always great to walk as long as it's not raining.

Still, I don't consume much energy this way, at least not like it was when I drove 45 minutes each way, which nearly all of us have had to do at one time or another.

My mileage is still 10,000 miles a year ? How can that be ? My most likely culprit is semi-frequent drives to see my family members in Austin 200 miles away, but also my weekend partying and dancing probably adds to it as well.

Sheer Luck Helps a Lot

Last two contracts have been sheer luck - both within walking distance. No, I didn't do it on purpose, just worked out that I live in the right place I guess.

Could it be replicated ?

What if we all lived near work ? I'm not sure it would be easy to replicate this good fortune. I sure do appreciate it in my case though, it gives me an extra 10 or so hours a week to not be driving around in traffic. That's pretty nice.