gas vs. late fee

despite kisu's initial hesitation to try carpooling, he is getting into it. i think he enjoys not having to drive, and not having to drive his car in particular. i am delighted that we get the opportunity to save some money and emissions, but i don't know if it's really working out in our best interest.

after campaigning ardently for it, claiming that it would provide us guaranteed time to communicate as adults and as husband/wife, now i feel pressure to have a topic to discuss.

wednesday morning, it almost backfired horribly. we had a disagreement before leaving the house and the drive was a little more frosty than our so far typically quiet rides. but in the end it was good, because neither one of us wanted to spend the 40 minute ride stewing; we were encouraged to clear the air and by the time i dropped him off at work, we were resolved.

we are still tweaking the timing of our departures. morning has been great, but the afternoon is causing problems. either i don't leave soon enough, he doesn't leave soon enough, or we do but get caught in traffic, storms, or terrible detours. sheesh. we may be saving gas money, but we're paying it back out in late fees. $1/minute/kid. being 10 minutes late costs us $20!! i think we're down about $50 bucks this week already. we 'pooled 4 times this week and were late to pick up the girls 3 times (the fourth time granny picked them up, so we were late getting them but didn't have to pay a fine.)

there's only so much we can do to try to improve. i'm regularly leaving work early to make it to kisu by his official quitting time, and the freeway is under construction, which causes unavoidable delays. fortunately, that work is scheduled to be done by the holiday next weekend. maybe after that clears up, we can start making good time. i'm sure the teachers would love to be able to leave work on time, too.

after seeing gas prices jump AGAIN today to $4.25, i'm willing to keep trying to make the ride share work.