My Choice

When we found our house in Etters, I knew I would have a drastic change in my commute to work.  Accepting a twenty-five minute commute (or an hour during rush hour)  on some of the Harrisburg area's worst highways was a hard pill to swallow when I exchanged it for a leisurely five minute commute.  It was a choice that I made, and amazingly I don't regret it because I am in love with my house and property.

But let me share with you some of the price that I have paid since moving into our home two years ago.
- A few months after we moved into our home, we were blessed (or shall I say cursed?) with a Walmart less than two miles from us.  With that construction came the destruction of our road!  Now, I must trek through Walmart and surrounding stores before I can proceed to the on-ramp of I-83.
- My commuting started at the tail end of Route 15/581 construction that took years to complete (10? 15?).  Surprisingly, PennDOT got it right and I'm thankful for easy travels through that area now!
- Then there was the repaving of I-83 right at the York split.  It was a rather benign construction zone during the hours of 9pm and 5am.  However, with my wonderful work schedule I was still often trapped in it. (Or when the workers forgot to take signs down in the morning, causing rush hour traffic to make unnecessary lane shifts due to supposed lane closures, creating major backlogs well before Reeser's Summit.)
- Most recently I've suffered through the thick of construction on I-83 near the PA turnpike.  Lane closures, restructuring of lanes and the like have plagued my commute for nearly a year.  The upside of this lengthy construction is that the "regular" commuters aren't phased and the backlogs are usually minimal, nothing more than the normal rush hour delays. This week, I finally see an end in sight!  My hope is that things will be finished with this construction site by the end of July (I'm giving myself an extra cushion so that I could be pleasantly surprised should it be sooner).

I still don't regret my choice to move to Etters, but I begin to wonder - what will be the next phase of construction in my commute?  Should I be so lucky as to have NOTHING?