Publisher's Note: Look at the date this was written before getting too mad at Patrick.

After giving it considerable thought over the past few months, I decided to stop walking to work.

I don’t live terribly far from my job (just a few blocks, in fact), and so when I first accepted the job, I make the decision to walk to work each day. But I’ve been finding myself late to work many days, because of the time-consuming walk from my house to here. I often find my self departing my house at almost 9:00AM, rather than getting in at 9:00AM, and as a result I have to stay late, and work into my evenings.

Driving to work, I have found, also has its benefits. It gives me time to relax, to think about my day ahead and prioritize things. It also gives me time to reflect, on the mellow drive home, and listen to my favorite NPR programming. I can crank up the heat on cold days, to keep myself warm; or turn the AC on when it inevitably gets hot (as it does for about 5 months in the desert). No more sweating for this guy!

In addition, ExxonMobil has decided to help people commute to work! If you sign a pledge saying that you will drive your car to and back from work each day, Exxon will plant a tree in one of their oil fields. These will provide much-needed shade to oil drilling workers, and beautify the lands that we extract our oil from. That will make everyone feel good!

I’m looking forward to the freedom I’m going to gain by driving to work. Freeing up extra time in my day, saving myself from being a sweat mess after walking for five minutes, and a tree planted in my name… what could be better! Here’s to the driving life!

UPDATE: April Fools!