For those of us who have lived in Peachtree City for a while, the traffic buildup at 54/74 feels unbearable—our worst nightmare, the very thing we avoided by not living in Atlanta, sacrificing hip restaurants and easy access to all the good things city life offers. In exchange, we enjoy little traffic, cart paths, and low crime, a burb where we reach the essentials in two to seven minutes. Our new neighbors, moving in from other cities and the Northside suburbs, aren’t quite sure what we’re complaining about—so what if it takes 16 minutes to get through the 54/74 light to grab a beer?
Our 38,000-citizen burb is a bustling, blooming bridge combining the best of all worlds, close to dynamic ATL, with access to one of the biggest international airports, while maintaining an award-winning school system, a strong localeconomy, and a community supporting more and more interesting restaurants and venues for sustainable suburbanites to enjoy.
But man, when you allow thirty minutes to get to a new big box, chain in Coweta to eat an overpriced rubber chicken salad, the intersection of hope and despair gets real. Sure, I know that the new signs are going to be fabulous welcome to our fair city. I know the new left-hand lane will help everyone get through the light….and the backed-up traffic trying to park at the possible Trader Joe’s will make me question if those little gingersnap cookies they sell are worth the bother.
But I prefer to see the glass half full. My wait time to get through the left hand turn to go south towards my office is about 16.5 minutes. If there are 1440 minutes in a day, and I sit at that stoplight a few times a day somedays. There are 525,600 minutes in a year. And I spend 16,425 minutes a year at that stoplight, in my mind, that is a lot of time not being maximized.
If I get lucky and live say, 15 more years, I doubt I will say, gee, I am so damn glad I spent, 246,375 minutes of my last yearsat the stop light of 54/74. But it is what it is. And attitude is everything.
So here are few legal things I do at the stoplight. And no, I am not the jerk that slows down the flow of traffic.
- Clean up any clutter in the console area and place it in a bag on the floor board. Wrappers, receipts, half-drunkLaCroix cans. Less clutter = more room for creativity.
- Sort any receipts. Soak up a tear or two. Yes, those eggs were expensive.
- Rub my hands with sanitizer, the steering wheel just for good measure.
- Dictate my grocery list into the notes on my phone via the car screen
- Record my macros in My Fitness Pal.
- Voice text my lunch date updating my ETA due to the amount of traffic and the flow, adjust my calorie goals, as I may need a drink when I get there.
- Reach out to three people via voice text scheduling a livechat
- Call my children, hoping to chat with a grandchild
- Call for Dr. appointments and sit on hold.
- Schedule repair technicians for various things- golfcart, dishwasher, those items where you get put on hold.
- Pelvic floor exercises
- Listen to a new podcast – James Clear, Atomic Habits
At the end of the day, when I check off my list of things accomplished, highs and lows, the intersection of hope and despair, merges into genuine existence, and I’ll go with that all day long. We have to sometime sit in discomfort to have genuine growth sometimes, I remind myself as I add hand sanitizer to the grocery list all at the stop light of life in Peachtree City.
