The Commuter

1 : a person who commutes (as between a suburb and a city)
2 : a small airline that carries passengers relatively short distances on a regular schedule

Because of a confluence of events I’d rather not discuss I, Taylor, currently am employed at a job I’m not terribly fond of that requires me to make a 30 minute commute (that estimate is without traffic. The presence of traffic tends to inflate the length to anywhere between 45 minutes and one hour).

Additionally, I am without my regular form of transportation because a number of other circumstances the likes of which I would like to discuss even less.

As a result I’ve been driving a borrowed 1992 Ford Taurus lately. If, like I was, you aren’t already aware of the amenities offered by the 1992 version of Ford’s flagship mid-size four door allow me to bring you into the inner sanctum of “the know.”

-An engine that overheats when driven for more than 30 minutes at a time

-A transmission that periodically caps the maximum speed of the vehicle around 35 mph

-A stereo that turns on, but that does not work

-Bench seating

All of these things must be dealt with however when you promised the people who hired you that you had “reliable transportation” and when it is unlikely that you will be able to find another job. Short term solutions must be found.

New coolant, avoiding highways, and putting things in the middle of the front seat to prevent any passengers from sidling too close on the bench seat are all well and good but are not specifically what I would like to discuss. I would like to discuss my short term solution to the lack of a working stereo. You see, when left to my own devices in a car with no stereo I have found that I simply start singing to myself, a tendency which can be awfully embarrassing at stop lights.

So, after a bit of searching, I discovered a boombox in the back of a closet and have plugged the device into my cigarette lighter. It skips like a precocious kindergartener, it doesn’t sound very good, and it has trouble sometimes being heard over road noise, but it works.

For a variety of reasons this short term solution has lead me to impose the rule on myself that I will only keep one CD album in my car at a time giving me the opportunity become closely acquainted with it. At least once and no more than five times per week I will post a review of some sort of that or those albums.

Some of the albums I’ll be reviewing will likely be:

-The Hold Steady’s “Heaven Is Whenever”

-Harvey Milk’s “A Small Turn of Human Kindness”

-Future Islands’ “In Evening Air”

-Baby Dee’s “A Book of Songs For Anne Marie”

-The Gaslight Anthem’s “American Slang”

-Samamidon “I See the Sign”

-Sick of It All’s “Based On a True Story”

-Devo’s “Something For Everybody”

-Misery Index’s “Heirs to Thievery”

etc., etc.