Wednesday December 15, 2004 – Tuesday, The Most Productive Weekday

Wednesday December 15, 2004 – Tuesday, The Most Productive Weekday

Tuesday is supposed to be the most productive day of the week—I learned it on Yahoo News. It has to be true, right?However, yesterday began as if it were going to defy this truth. The problem was me. After a restless night, twice awakening for no apparent reason—once just after midnight and again just after 4:00 AM, I emerged groggily from what I thought was a deep sleep—I say this because the clock radio went for at least 30 seconds before I was awake enough to shut it off—NPR was doing some story that had gotten into a dream I was having—talk about freaking me out. I usually awake just ahead of the radio coming on and I turn it off.

In this disoriented state, I pulled on my running gear and make my way into the darkened morn—5:35 AM out the side garage door. It was nearly 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside so a sweatshirt and running shorts were more than adequate dress. Somewhere two miles or so into the jaunt, I lost my momentum and decided to cut the chase short by ten to fifteen minutes. I returned home earlier than normal. Still in a state of what the French call a malaise I wasted enough time that I drove out of the garage and joined the first wave of commuters rushing toward downtown on Monterey Highway at the time I normally join the crowd.

At 7:15 each morning, Monterey Highway moves at 45 to 55 miles an hour from Senter Road all the way to West Alma Avenue. You’ll typically hit the light at Senter but some mornings you can make it all the way to Alma without hitting a light, which is what happened yesterday. You see the same cars along this stretch. Some I recognize by the decals on the back window or bumper, some from their personalized license plate or the customized paint job or bodywork. We pass one another every day without recognizing the other’s presence other than as an obstruction in the roadway moving too slow for the traffic flow or as a wannabe Nascar driver speeding up to 65 or 70 miles an hour to take advantage of the empty right lane that often opens up north of the Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery where Curtner crosses Monterey.

Beyond Alma, us north bound commuters split up. Half of us proceed on Market Street to destinations within or through downtown San Jose. Those proceeding through downtown on Market typically pick up Coleman Avenue heading west under California Highway 87 en route to Interstate 880—there’s a large FMC manufacturing operation just west of the junction of Coleman with 880—a shell of its former self. Coleman provides surface street commuters access to Santa Clara and the business parks on the northwestern side of Mineta San Jose Airport. Coleman also provides access to De La Cruz Boulevard which in turn gives access to Central Expressway and all the high-tech companies along its length in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. I’ve never timed the commute but it would probably be quicker than trying to reach the same destinations via California Highway 101.

The half I’m with make their way up South Third Street. Monterey becomes South First Street as it crosses Alma. About two more blocks and the right lane of First is forced onto East Humboldt for a block and then forced onto S. Third after another block. The stretch just beyond Humboldt on S. Third has been the site of construction delays for the past year as some developer is building a football field size apartment or condo complex. Beyond the construction, the three lanes of S. Third move through a neighborhood of old Victorian houses all the way to where it crosses under Interstate 280. On the left is Notre Dame High School, the Catholic girls school that obstructs traffic flow on S. Third blocking the left lane with cars dropping students off.

Traffic flow along S. Third picks up beyond the high school as the lights are timed and if you do 30 miles an hour you’ll make each of the lights on East Reed, East Williams, East San Salvador, East San Carlos, and East San Fernando. Beyond E. San Fernando, S. Third narrows to two lanes with the left lane taken up with construction of a block long gray multi-story apartment complex—occupancy available probably at reasonable rents given the oversupply of rental property in the area after the dot-com bust. Third crosses East Santa Clara, widens into three lanes again, and becomes North Third. The commute slows now due to a light at East St. John Street and the early morning members of the San Jose Athletic Club trying to find a parking space on the right side of N. Third—where the club sits in its Grecian splendor or on the opposite side of N. Third which fronts St. James Park, a favorite hang out of the homeless in the warmer months. The light at East St. James Street always stops the commute on N. Third, which gets further slowed as the three lanes of N. Third gets squeezed to two just before the railroad crossing by another multi-story high rise going up on the left—too early to tell if it’s offices or housing.

The commute continues unobstructed thereafter and my spirits have improved as the traffic has moved remarkably fast through the twelve or so miles we’ve driven. My mood improves even further as I merge off I880 onto 101 to find the freeway moving instead of slow-and-go as is normal for this time of day on a Tuesday. It’s just after 7:30 and within twenty minutes I’m pulling into the parking lot ready to start my workday. Remarkably, the productivity of the day resembled the swiftness of my commute far more than the slow progress of my waking experience. I guess Yahoo was right.