I recently enjoyed a trip to Burlington Ontario, a place I have not been since the early 2000s working at the Record Store.
Driving down Highway 6, I wondered, is that place with the funky dinosaurs on the front lawn still in business? I remember they had a T-Rex with a missing head. And yes! That business, Flamborough Patio Furniture, is still there and still has the T-Rex. They even fixed the decapitation damage. I was impressed.
A lot of other businesses didn’t make it. There was Grasshopper Imports, a weed accessory shop with a tie-dye pattern on its walls. It almost survived the last 20 years, but is now closed and for sale.
I wonder what else changed since my last trip to Burlington, in the world of the Record Store?
Do they still force their employees to drive down Highway 6 to manage two stores in the winter time, with cars that are barely snow-worthy, like they did to me? I remember asking them, “When you do plan on hiring a full time manager for that store? I’m concerned about the drive in the winter.” Without sympathy, I was told “other people have to do that drive too.” Yeah, maybe, but I had my own store to manage in Kitchener. Driving to Oakville every day at Christmas time wasn’t what I was hired to do.
Do they pay mileage, or make employees wait months, like I did?
Do people still come in daily with hundreds of CDs to sell? Or has vinyl taken over once again?
Do they still have a TV in that Burlington store to show movies? Does that guy who was roommates with Scott Anderson from Finger 11 still work there? I’m guessing no, to both.
I’m just glad the dinosaurs still live. It’s comforting to know that T-Rex has his head back.
Regardless of “improvements” on Highway 401 and King St. in Kitchener, commuting continues to be a highway to hell.
I was spoiled for many years with pretty easy commutes. During my first two years (1994-1996) at the Beat Goes On in Stanley Park Mall, I was able to walk to work. Talk about the dream situation! Working at a music store, coming home with amazing used CDs every week, and only a 10 minute walk home! No wonder I was so skinny. However, working part time buying and selling used CDs wasn’t sustainable forever, and I sought advancement.
Though I was skipped over on the first managerial promotion, I was selected to run our new Fairway Road location in 1996. This was especially exciting, because it was the biggest store yet. I admit I let this go to my head. I boasted a bit. This new store had six listening stations for customers, each equipped with a five-disc CD changer. Our store was to be 95% used CDs, with a small selection of charting new releases. The only thing I didn’t like was the location. Across from Fairview Mall, it was kind of…trashy, in terms of clientele. There were jazz snobs and strippers in equal measure. It was only a ten minute drive from home though. Not bad, though I only walked to work once.
In 2004 I was transferred across town to Highland Road. This is where I really learned to driving to work. I experimented with different routes to and from, eventually coming up with an optimal way to, and another one from, work. The accountant Jonathan lived near one of my routes and gave me tips. I improved my musical arsenal by putting a Discman in the car. The commute was now about 20 minutes each way, but unfortunately now I also to do pickups and drop-offs as part of the relocation. My old location was the hub store, so I didn’t have to do a lot of pickups or deliveries. This commute was more prone to disruption by construction, weather and accidents, but hey…I had a Discman in the car now.
I quit the hellhole in 2005, with my final day coming in January 2006. I worked a number of jobs in 2006, before settling in at United Rentals, which I loved. They had music piped in on the radio, which was my introduction to the great local rock station Dave FM. Hard to believe that relationships I made there are almost two decades ago now. That was life changing, but the commute was the thing. 10 minutes, with a Tim Horton’s right on the route, and all back roads too! Never any traffic issues. I had a new car too, with a factory CD player. Another quantum leap for me!
United Rentals was probably my peak happiness for driving to and from work. Now I work in Cambridge, and have done for the last 17 years. My commute used to be 10-15 minutes. Now, it’s pure agony.
Construction is perpetual. Every way I go, I run into construction. There was a brief four month reprieve, where one of my routes had no construction. That oasis of good driving has now ended. To get home from Cambridge, I need to not only cross over Highway 401, the busiest in Canada, but also the Grand River. And guess what? The Grand River bridge right around the corner from my place is now needing repair. They’ve already blocked truck and bus traffic. Next year, it’ll be out of service. That means I’m going to be forced to take the 401 to and from work every day. Which I already do anyway, now that construction has resumed on King St.!
Now, of course, I have my 2T hard drive in the car, so I can listen to literally everything I have ripped to PC. That helps to alleviate the tension a little, but the drive home is still a nailbiter several times a week.
The big peave that I have today in my current work is my daily commute. It’s not far at all (I can do it in 10 minutes if there’s no traffic) but it can be hairy. To understand this, you would have to see the poor planning that went into the roads in Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, otherwise known as the tri-cities area.
To get from work (in Cambridge) to home (in Kitchener), there are only a handful of good routes. The trick is getting across the Grand River, and there are only three nearby bridges to access. One of them is Highway 8 into town (two lanes each way but expanding), which is always in a state of construction. Another is the King St. bridge (one lane each way) and another is Fairway Road (a bit too far out of my way). Any accidents can cause jams on any of these routes, but the worst location is what I call the “sweet spot”:
The Tri-cities “Sweet Spot”
The “sweet spot” is on Highway 401, between Hespeler Road and Highway 8 into Kitchener. An accident there at the right time of day (3-4 o’clock) will tie up traffic going into town on any of my routes. Prior to the opening of the Fairway Road bridge, accidents there have delayed me by almost two hours (on a normally 10-15 minute drive). Add in winter weather conditions for part of the year and you’re in for a real good time.
There are accidents on my 10-15 minute drive home nearly every day. Once a month there will be an accident in the dreaded “sweet spot” causing major delays. Last week there were two in a row! On those days, all I can do is study the traffic map, select a route and hope for the best!
When I first started this commute, all I had was a single disc CD player in my car. Each day I’d pick an album to listen to. I only had room for one or two CDs in the car at a time. Length didn’t matter; a Van Halen album would be perfectly fine for my commute on a good day. On a bad day however, you can count on running out of music and having to start over! Fortunately I have since switched to a couple 8 gig flash drives, avoiding traffic tie-up repeats.
On the bright side, a “sweet spot” traffic tie-up informed my review of Sloan’s The Double Cross (which I got to hear twice in one drive), during my drive home.
Other commuting misadventures that I witness on my way home, on a daily basis:
1. Motorcycle idiots passing between two cars. On the highway. Last seen on Friday last week.
2. People passing on the shoulder of the 401.
3. Being cut off in traffic, daily.
4. Idiots on cell phones.
5. Somebody in a Dodge Ram weaving in and out of traffic, trying to make it further along than anyone else, only to get stuck behind a transport truck.
These stories are not so unique. If you live in a major metropolitan area, you witness these same things too. As I progress into the RST Mk II’s, I intend to vent about traffic again in the future. (In fact, I’d like to buy a dash-cam. The video gold I could produce every day would provide endless blog fodder.)
Fortunately, music does soothe the savage beast. Rather, technology does. Back in Record Store Part 16: Travelling Man, I stated “when you’re stuck in traffic on the 403, in a torrential downpour, listening to Winger, it still sucks pretty much as bad as it would if you weren’t listening to Winger.” What has changed since then? Well, I’m not driving that far for one. GPS and Bluetooth have reduced the stress greatly. Having 16 gig of albums in the car is also better than five cassette tapes.
What’s your favourite album for being stuck in traffic? Take it from me: Sloan’s Double Cross works really well!
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