Your weekly dose of Notre Dame news, opinion, and other stuff.
Top News
Notre Dame’s Lance Taylor is leaving to take the offensive coordinator position at Louisville and now the Irish need a new running backs coach.
With Mike Elston off to his alma mater Michigan the defensive line position became available and will be filled by Al Washington. He played college ball at Boston College and he’s coached at the Power 5 level at his alma mater, Cincinnati, Michigan, and Ohio State prior to coming to South Bend.
As expected, Brian Polian couldn’t hurry off with Brian Kelly quick enough to stand right next to him on the sidelines at LSU games. The Irish have officially welcomed Brian Mason as special teams coordinator from Cincinnati.
Stetston Bennett and Nolan Smith are returning to Georgia for 2022.
Kirk Ferentz signed a contract extension to stay at Iowa through 2029 which would make it a clean 30 years as head coach of the Hawkeyes if he makes it that far.
UCLA agreed to an extension with Chip Kelly through 2025.
Todd Graham resigned after 2 seasons at Hawaii following allegations of mistreatment of players that made its way to the state hearing level.
California head coach Justin Wilcox signed an extension through 2027. That’s an interesting decision for someone who hasn’t mustered even a .500 record in the Pac-12 once in 5 seasons.
Western Michigan head coach Tim Lester received a 2-year contract extension through 2025 following a bowl win this post-season.
Uniform of the Week
This past season Virginia Tech wore 1999 throwbacks for a home game against Syracuse. You may recall this was the Hokies season that saw them make a run to the BCS National Championship Game against Florida State in the Sugar Bowl with Michael Vick at quarterback. They lost of course, but there’s always been great vibes about these uniforms.
Virginia Tech has tried a lot of different uniform gimmicks in recent years. Some have worked well and some have absolutely bombed. These throwbacks are so simple and effective–among the best in the country to utilize the plain white pants (and you know I’m loving the TECH wordmark on the right hip). Most of all, the contrasting burnt orange TV numbers on the shoulders are such a cool little touch.
Recruiting
Notre Dame safety KJ Wallace is transferring out of the program. A low 4-star recruit from the 2019 class, Wallace had a brief flash as a player on the rise but didn’t have much of a role in 2021.
Former Irish safety Khari Gee announced his transfer a month ago and is headed to Georgia Tech.
This past Sunday, 2022 receiver Justius Lowe (0.8616) from Oregon officially left Utah’s class after never signing, set up a visit to Notre Dame for January 28th, and then cancelled that visit. He promptly committed to Oregon.
Michigan State picked up a commitment from 2023 running back Kedrick Reescano (0.9165) out of Texas this week.
JT Daniels winding college career will make another stop as the former USC, and now former Georgia, quarterback will be playing at a new home in 2022. He still has 2 years of eligibility!
Hunter Johnson signed with Clemson, later transferred to Northwestern, and is now headed back to Clemson. He’s thrown for 1,090 yards in his career.
Former Florida State quarterback Chubba Purdy is transferring to Nebraska.
Brenden Rice (son of Jerry Rice) is transferring from Colorado to USC. He’s caught 27 passes in 2 seasons.
All-Big 12 corner Jarrick Bernard-Converse is transferring away from Oklahoma State. He’s played 4 years for the Cowboys and is using the Covid season for an additional 5th-year somewhere else.
YouTube Channel
I’ve always wanted to commute to work by train. Readers, if you do this chime in down in the comment section with your experience. I recently came across this video about the design of Tokyo. I don’t love trains like a nerdy train guy obsesses over different locomotives, with all due respect to those people. But, public transportation and how we all deal with it in different cities and regions does fascinate me.
I commute 55 minutes (in moderate traffic and weather) each way to work. My choices are either taking back roads with no tolls for a 52-mile trip that much takes longer or the 65-mile highway route with tolls for a shorter trip. I pay $88 a year to New York for the EZ-Pass plan that drops my daily toll fee to 26 cents. Factor in gas, car wear and tear, and my goodness I would love to ride a train to work. At least, in non-pandemic times.
Tunes
I wanted to feature Chet Atkins this week putting on an absolute guitar masterclass from a 1970 appearance on the Johnny Cash Show. I would kill for these finger picking skills. I taught myself guitar for about 4 to 5 years, hit a wall, and don’t have time to push forward. I still stay interested in the gear side of things and have always loved the large Gretsch Country Gentleman guitar that Atkins used.
How about Cash’s voice, too? It’s like a computer used a sample of his voice, perfected his baritone vocals, and spit it out in the most perfect Johnny Cash way possible. But nope, that’s exactly how he sounded even on a 50+ year-old TV show. He must have one of the most iconic speaking voices of any American in history.
Trivia (answers at the bottom of the article)
How many sacks does Isaiah Foskey need in 2022 to set the all-time record at Notre Dame?
The Other Football
FIFA has introduced new rules on loaning players. Next season international loans coming in and out will be limited to 8, then dropping to 7 the year after, then to just 6 for 2024-25. Homegrown players will have looser restrictions.
In transfer news, left back Lucas Digne moved from Everton to Aston Villa for $33 million, winger Jonathan Ikone moved from Lille to Fiorentina for $15.4 million, and winger David Neres was sold from Ajax to Shakhtar for $13.2 million.
The Big 5 Check-In:
EPL – Man City defeated Chelsea 1-0 over the weekend. Coutinho welcomed himself back to England as an Aston Villa player with a goal and assist to come from behind and draw Manchester United. Everton lost 2-1 to Norwich and promptly fired manager Rafa Benitez. Tottenham came back from 2-1 in the 95th minute to beat Leicester City and you just love to see it. Liverpool got past Arsenal 2-0 in the 2nd leg to advance to the EFL Cup Final vs. Chelsea.
La Liga – Real Madrid beat Athletic 2-0 for the Spanish Super Cup. That gives left back Marcelo 28(!) major trophies for Madrid, tying club legend Paco Gento who recently passed away.
Serie A – AC Milan fell 2-1 to Spezia and failed to take over the top spot in the league. There’s still a lot of drama surrounding Juventus’ Paulo Dybala and his contract situation as the transfer window is closing soon.
Bundesliga – For the 2nd straight year, Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski won the FIFA Best Player of the Year Award. The cool story at Freiburg took a hit last weekend as they lost 5-1 to Dortmund.
Ligue 1 – Neymar has a documentary coming out soon that he hopes will make people realize he’s not such a bad guy. His teammate Kylian Mbappe might be staying at PSG, or so sources at the club seem to believe.
Streaming
I started watching Dances with Wolves on Netflix recently and I’m about 45 minutes in before I had to stop, not having picked it up back up again yet. The plot in the beginning just does not make sense to me. A soldier (who is seriously wounded) make a suicidal charge across a field, randomly succeeds in spurring his fellow Union men on, and somehow doesn’t die. Okay, fine. Then, the Army decides to let this hero pick wherever he wants to go and the character played by Kevin Costner wants to go far away to the frontier border. Sure, Mr. Hero you can effectively leave the war effort now.
The scene where he gets sent to the fort cracks me up. The “why” from the insane commander when he’s told he voluntarily wants to go to the frontier is one of the best lines in cinematic history. Will this movie get any good? Union soldier who stupidly tries to defend a fort by himself and learns about the natives surrounding him feels like a long 2 hours from where I left off.
A Look Back
The 1995 Fiesta Bowl turned an entire generation of Notre Dame fans against the green jerseys and you cannot convince me otherwise. Looking back, it makes no sense. Lou Holtz never wore green jerseys (the Sugar Bowl uniforms after 1991 with green accents don’t count) and the school had gone a decade without wearing them. I’d bet there is a disproportionate amount of Notre Dame fans who were born in the 1955-1970 window, and were young men or women or young adults in the late 1980’s, that are against the green jerseys more than any other slice of the fan base.
Most of you know the history here. Due to the wonderful nature of the bowl rules back then–a mediocre and disappointing 6-4-1 Notre Dame team that finished the regular season on a 2-3-1 run with wins over Navy and Air Force–was picked for the Fiesta Bowl against a Colorado team whose only loss in 1994 would be to the eventual National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers. Needless to say, it didn’t end well for the Irish. Of all the times to break out the green, why this game Lou?? I just remembered I wrote an article back in May 2018 that this game put a curse on Notre Dame.
18S Paddock Club
2022 Regulation Changes (Part 2 of 4, Floor & Chassis) – The new regulations for this year all start with the re-worked floor taking advantage of more ground effect to increase downforce. Tunnels in the floor are back for the first time since 1982 with a standardized tea tray at the front to make sure each team uses the floor as intended. The plank is more narrow and narrows further towards the front of the car. In the back, the diffuser is 300mm less wide but 110mm taller.
The array of aero bits are gone as the bargeboards of recent years are removed and now a longitudinal floor edge wing sticks up with fences to direct air into the tunnels. While we won’t see completely sealed floors for insane ground effect like cars in the 1980’s, we can expect cars to have very low rake in 2022 to seal things as much as possible which could mean significant changes for a previously high rake team like Red Bull. Testing has shown the overall car balance with the ground effect is close to the center of the floor which should help even more when cars do drive through dirty air.
The main chassis tub and cockpit are slightly larger for 2022. On the F1 concept cars the sidepod inlets for engine cooling were fairly large, although that’s partly due to the aero bits from the bargeboards no longer obstructing parts of this area, plus there is room with the prescribed volumes for smaller sidepods. They are keeping the shark fin for driver number placement, while cooling louvres are coming back around the engine cover area which could help reduce the size of said sidepod inlets.
The noses will be slightly longer than 2021 and instead of being flat then angling down the 2022 cars are slightly domed near the cockpit and slope gradually down to the ground.
Williams Racing (8th place, 23 points)
The 2021 season was a step in the right direction for Williams in the first full year of Dorilton Capital ownership. Their upgraded car meshed well with the Mercedes power unit and the team finished a surprising 8th (jumping over Alfa Romeo) following zero points in 2020. Led by 23 year old British rising star George Russell, the team combined for 10 finishes inside the top 12 and Russell’s impressive qualifying at Spa securing their first podium since 2017.
Russell is now off to take the much sought after seat at Mercedes opposite Lewis Hamilton leaving Canadian Nicholas Latifi as the elder statesman of the team. Russell beat Latifi in qualifying in all but 2 races in 2021. Now former Red Bull driver Alex Albon joins the team after a year away from the grid and should offer similar stiff competition. The struggles of Latifi–arguably the 2nd worse driver on the grid–brings the hope down for 2022 as well as remaining a customer team of Mercedes. Dorilton is pouring a lot of money into the team but they look at least a year if not 2 more away from becoming a midfield staple. Original team owner Frank Williams passed away back in November and it’s possible the team debuts a throwback livery in his honor for 2022.
Alpine F1 Team (5th place, 155 points)
Renault re-branded last off-season to their sports car brand Alpine and carry a lot of positive vibes into 2022 following a late surge past AlphaTauri for 5th place with the younger Esteban Ocon winning the chaotic Hungary Grand Prix and the veteran Fernando Alonso grabbing 3rd place in Qatar. They weren’t quite as competitive at the top of the midfield as 2020 but that’s largely due to Ferrari’s resurgence.
With the 40 year old Alonso who still seems committed enough to El Plan and a rising star in Ocon there’s a nice mix for Alpine to continue doing well. Also, they’d been using the same engine, chassis, and gearbox for 3 straight years through 2021 and will be the one team truly bringing massive upgrades to the new 2022 regulations. Also, executive director Marcin Budkowski exited this month with rumors ousted Aston Martin director Otmar Szafnauer is taking the job. Best Water Technology (BWT) is also rumored to become Alpine’s title sponsor after leaving Aston Martin, as well. Many are expecting Alpine to welcome a lot of BWT to their livery in 2022.
Trivia Answer:
8.5 sacks
You’re turning (turned) 40 and you’ve never seen “Dances with Wolves”?… So, you’re the guy. Happy birthday.
I’ve seen the first 45 minutes!
Just keep watching. It’s a wonderful movie!
Have you gotten to the part where the Indians build a baseball field, for their ancestors, in a cornfield ?
I don’t know if this is the part you don’t understand of if it is that the Army is letting him pick his post.
However, after years of fighting and the stories around at the time about the free land, the freedom, and the emptiness of the frontier, I could definitely see a soldier that has PTSD from all the fighting seeking out this place for their mental health, I suppose he could have asked to go to Boston and drank. The other way of self-medicating.
Agree with Cubfan below, it is a great movie.
No, I totally get that they let him pick his spot. It just seems, strange and not realistic. A guy like that should’ve been promoted to a position where he never sees the field of battle again, or at least it would’ve been very unlikely.
Green lighting another suicide mission to the frontier in those situations is gross negligence.
I commuted by train for about 6 years when I lived in Chicago. Largely liked it: you get to read, zone out, or whatever you want instead of having to focus on the road. Also I loved the elevated track: the views of the city never got old.
The trade offs include distance/access to the stations and a lack of control when delays hit (which is honestly no different than traffic). Also if you are commuting more than 30 minutes or so, it can be a bummer if you are standing.
All in all: much better than driving IMHO.
Didnt commute by train to work when I lived near seattle, but 15 nautical miles of my commute were by ferry, so I view that as sort of analogous. It was gorgeous: views of mt. Rainier, ate breakfast, read a book, just a great way to start the day. That being said, missing the 4:15 home in the evening was disastrous, so no dilly dallying punching out, but overall, yeah someone else driving you to and from work is great!
Pretty disappointed the entire “The Other Football” section wasn’t just this:
My commute is walk down the stairs. Coffee is cheap.
Should’ve been the entire article, tbh.
My wife was on a call with her boss in an adjacent room when the first goal went in and she thought I got hurt. 35 seconds later, she had to put her boss on hold and check on me.
🙂
you maybe left off the most controversial part of dances with wolves. it won best picture and costner won best director over goodfellas/scorsese that year. I love costner but that is a rough one in hindsight.
there’s also this weird “simpsons did it” element with this movie. I mean avatar was just “dances with wolves” and CGI. I feel like this exact same story line pops up again and again
I hated Avatar, I’m probably not going to enjoy the rest of Dances with Wolves eh?
Have you seen The Last Samurai?
I mean, it’s all the same movie.
I commuted on the T in Boston for like 7 years (until eventually moving close enough to walk). The green line is absolute hell on earth. You are so ridiculously packed in it’s disgusting. But I mostly lived on the red line and that was glorious. Extremely consistent length of commute. Can go out drinking after work. Don’t have to worry about parking.
Also spent a summer on Staten Island and used the buses. They were great. Went everywhere. And the ferry is the best.
Public transportation is amazing.
I once had explosive diarrhea on a packed T after a Red Sox game. Top 3 worst experience of my life.
Seems like that’s at least worthy of a blurb in The Weekly Rambler
“Why Tokyo Is Insanely Well-Designed”
You really want to do this, huh? You know this is putting bait in front of me, and as someone who has lived in Tokyo, just outside of Tokyo and commuted into Tokyo, and passed through Tokyo on business off and on over the past 20 years, I can’t want for this to explain how “well-designed” Tokyo’s transportation system is.
Since none of it was “designed” as it is now.
Not to say it isn’t good–Tokyo transportation is great. It’s also complicated, confusing, and mind-numbingly frustrating at times. But I’ll watch, and we’ll go through this.
Eh. Y’all probably don’t want to hear it, so I will hold off.
But suffice to say, this video simplifies, ignores, and generalizes A LOT.
Yes, Tokyo’s train/subway system is better by miles than any I’ve been on in the US.
It is not the result of some grand master plan, and the way this frames it bothers me like anything we see produced about how “The Japanese” do X.
At the very minimum, this sounds like someone who has visited Japan once and not actually lived there.
what video?
….the one in this post about Tokyo’s train & transportation system?
hmm. It’s not showing up as far as I can tell.
it’s embedded in the main post under the heading “YouTube Channel”
hah, my bad. I read too quickly and thought it was in your comment.
Because this is the internet, I didn’t watch the video, BUT it seems like being firebombed and, more generally, bombarded for ~1 year in ’44-’45 probably made it much easier to rebuild/build a more modern and efficient transit system vs one that had to be dug under an already built up, non-destroyed NYC.
That’s always been the argument about Chicago’s grid system, alleys and street sizes post-fire
Except that isn’t exactly how it works, and it’s a very big oversimplification. You’re not wrong–you’re very correct. But it would be wrong to assume that it cleaned the slate and everything was able to be laid out in clean lines.
I think that’s the main point though, right?
…framed in a manner that I often come across that’s “Oh gosh, aren’t the Japanese so clever!” in the same manner I see massive generalizations of “the Japanese live in harmony with nature!” and “the Japanese believe in community harmony!”
Anyway, I typed out a much longer explanation but since we’re just talking “main points” I’ll cut it and say the main point I disagree with is the idea that it was “DESIGNED” as it currently exists. The ticketing system is the first thing I thought of.
At the 6:30ish mark the guy talks about the Pasmo system, and how it was introduced to streamline the ticket system. Yes, it’s wonderful–though it’s not just “Pasmo,” it was an overhaul of the entire ticketing system. Pasmo is just one (of many) pass systems that then take advantage of it. But this isn’t how the system worked for decades. You had multiple subway lines run by multiple companies, and could not switch between them without exiting the system, purchasing a new ticket, and coming back in. It was a royal pain in the ass. The current system was finally implemented after lots of legal wrangling and technology made it possible for ticket price sharing that was transparent to the consumer. Having lived through the way it was before, I take issue with the “oh, see, they designed it to be so great.” No, it evolved, because it was a problem.
There’s a lot of other stuff–no one thinks to themselves “gosh I wish I could drive a car, but the tolls are too high! oh no!!” Overall, yes, the point that it’s better than other systems around the world is fine. I just see way too many things on the internet looking at Japan or Japanese things from a surface level without actually understanding it. At least they covered the ticket system, which I didn’t think they would.
Picked a route from a place I lived in the exurbs of Tokyo to a place I worked in downtown Tokyo. 6 month train pass of 110,000 yen converts to $968, with 2 line changes on the way in, for a 45-min station to station commute.
Google Maps says the same route via car (during rush hour) could take 1 to 2.5 hours. Also has tolls, one way is $17.86 without an ETC pass, $10.03 with the ETC pass.
I commuted via the Metro (aka subway) in DC for a few years. It’s not very pleasant, rampant delays, fairy dirty/grimey and now lately very infrequent trains in the post-COVID world the ridership is way down so scheduling has gone way down as well. I’ve seen fights (day and night), a man under his sweatpants going to town on himself, smoking, you name it any weird or dangerous situation possible.
Could be a good system but is fairly horribly run and managed. But at least they haven’t killed anyone with derailments, full on collisions or smoke inhalation from short circuiting starting underground fires in the tunnels in the last few years, so, hey. that’s one positive.
DC
I did the DC metro thing for about 18 months, and it was a miserable experience. After I rode in relative discomfort for 4 hours a day, punctuated by having to walk 3/4 of a mile between “connecting” stations, I decided that the 2.5 hour round trip by car was much more appealing. We then moved to Phoenix, beautiful Phoenix.
I believe there was an error in the general philosophy that guided the system design. I don’t think the system designers (or the requirements dudes) though it would be a commuter system but a visitor transport system. The city has the I95-I66 network (395/295/495) that loops and stabs in from the cardinal points and the outlying Hwy 301 system that was originally to be outer loop. All considered that cars moving smartly across the bridges would be enough for the DC area. Since tourists would get lost and frustrated with the DC roads, they could take the metro.
I get that there is challenging geography and hydrology to work around. DC is a swamp bordered by 2 rivers with the attendant high water tables making subterranean stations difficult to impossible at places and rail placement a challenge in its own right. The system is laid out around historical sites and then the rail lines are stitched in between, and…
All trips end up in DC.
There isn’t any meaningful cross linking between the lines heading out to the terminal ends to make it useful as a regional transport network. The VRE would have been more helpful if it had its own dedicated tracks. VRE generally works as the HOV lane for rail transport, you pay much more to go somewhat faster.
Metro busses suck. Stay away. I don’t care if your destination is 10 miles away. You priority order is POV/Uber, metro train, walk, metro bus. Seriously, stay away.
London
I lived in London as a high schooler. I loved the Tube. I could get a $7 (allowing for GBP-USD rates at the time) all day tube/bus pass and go meet up with friends from all parts of the city and explore. Ultimate freedom. I went back in 2010-ish and found it mostly the same. Major difference was that many of the older cars had been replaced and I could identify about 6 different languages being spoken near me.
The BR network that radiated out from inner London stations was awesome. I frequented Marlybone. Friends and I once pulled the “we are [all] spending the weekend at ____ house” trick. We jumped on the BR up to Liverpool for a match. Muah!!
There is certainly some bias at work here. The Tube/BR was for fun and the Metro/VRE was for commuting. Even controlling for that, the London network is so much better designed. More stations, almost all underground with better cross links to avoid the inner city when that is not required.
Looks like someone mentioned the hell that is DC metro before I could get to it! I lived there when they were in the midst of a major infrastructure improvement plan, which just ended up closing stations and lines, making things run worse, and either ‘fixing’ things with substandard parts that broke quickly or just not not doing the repairs at at. There was a fun day when DOT forced the metro to shut down for 36 hours because of arcing insulators that caused a fireball that miraculously didn’t kill anyone. It was bad enough that when I eventually started driving to work in Mad Max DC traffic, it was a massive improvement to my quality of life.
tl;dr, yes it deserves to die and I hope it burns in hell
Oh boy, E opened the can of worms of urban planning. My favorite!
Living in Chicago changed my worldview regarding urban planning in general and cars in particular. Cars suck. Having the option to walk, bike, take a bus, take a train, or take a cab/Uber/Lyft to virtually anything you want to do at virtually any hour of the day or night is quite the experience. Plus, it only cost $1200 a year, which is less than I put into my 2015 Toyota Corolla that I only drive ~5k miles/year. The national average for annual cost of car ownership in the U.S. is ~$5000 per year. So…yeah. Car dependence is killing us as a nation (literally, MVCs account for 40,000 deaths per year).
Here’s a YouTube channel to follow if anyone is even remotely interested in this stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes
On the one hand, cars suck and the city is designed way too car-centric at this point, including to get to usable public transportation (thinking of my walk to the train where I have to cross a 6 lane road with a speed “limit” of 30, sidewalks at some points not wide enough to fit two people), on the otherhand, the CTA tends towards “day ruining disaster” much of the time. I greatly miss living in a neighborhood that let me get on the Metra instead of CTA to go downtown for work.
Living in Chicago was absolutely fantastic as far as transit goes. First year there, learned the bus and train system. Second year, learned how to use the Divvy bike system. Third year, got my own bike. By the end of that year, I had basically stopped using my car at all except if I needed to go get a large amount of groceries or leave the city. Sure, CTA delays suck when they happen. But I loved having so many options to get around easily that didn’t involve me having to drive.
Metra in Chicago gives one the opportunity to have a cold beer on the way. Im more of a soda, and candy, and and all the snacks from the trackside shop kind of commuter, but those who partake seem to enjoy.
Ah, the weekly reminder that the PAC 12 doesn’t care about football. Well, maybe USC with the big moves and splashy hire, but they seem to be the only one in the conference actually willing to pony up the money and effort to not be a MAC level program.
Apparently Oregon’s star running back is transferring to USC – Travis Dye.
Landing spot for JT Daniels?
You’d think UNC would be inquiring about him.
IIRC ND is still recruiting a 2022 running back and wide receiver.
Lol dances with wolves. Kevin is so annoying in that movie. Beautiful score though.
Never been to Japan but would love to go. I tend to think insular, generally homogenous countries can make pretty much anything look better vs large generally not homogenous countries like the US. it’s why Scandinavian countries do so well with health- they’re all hot and in shape from skiing and what not.
This is not a rhetorical question, since Eric mentioned a 55-minute commute: what are the things in life that make it worth having such a long commute? I haven’t purchased a house yet, but that decision is coming up and living that far away from work isn’t out of the question… but I’ve never had more than a 25-minute commute, and I thought that was unpleasantly long.
(I of course realize most folks, myself included, can’t afford live near a city and have a lot of space and a yard and have good schools etc. without living far away. But is having a back yard really worth commuting that much? Again, not a rhetorical question.)
Nice to have a yard if you have a dog – letting them outside when it’s -15 in the morning is much more enjoyable than having to take them on a walk. Nice to have a yard if you have kids. I can let them and their friends play in the yard and know where they are/what they’re up to. Also can throw out the Slip ‘n Slide for the kids and enjoy a few brew dogs in the summer. For the past several years, there’s been a perfect fall evening when ND is playing at night and a fire in the fire pit is perfect, so sitting outside with a fire and a screen (and a few brew dogs) to watch the game is nice. Warmer months with a grill and eating out on the deck is also enjoyable, usually followed up with some brew dogs. Backyard is where I’ve got my smoker set up – pop a pork butt in early in the morning, keep an eye on it, have a few brew dogs in the afternoon while it’s finishing up. Sometimes I just go out there and have a few brew dogs, honestly.
Obviously, having to mow/rake/landscape is a commitment, but something I enjoy doing. Nothing better than sweating outside for a few hours and then grabbing an ice-cold brew dog to quench the thirst.
(I also only live in a metro of ~400k, in a city of ~40k and I’m only 1.5 miles from my office, whenever I have to go back in there.)
I will say the average commute in the US is creeping towards 30 minutes each way. Anything under an hour really isn’t that bad. Going to work is relaxing with a lot of peaceful time to myself. Yeah, driving home isn’t always awesome.
I drive from one small town, through the suburbs and outskirts of the city, to another small town with a lot of small town co-workers. It’s amazing to me the amount of people who will complain about even 5 more minutes longer on their commute. I think that’s part of the DNA for a lot of small-town folks.
Speaking for myself, my wife wanted to stay in her hometown, in a house with a bigger yard, and close to her parents who provide a ton of help with the kids. I wanted to move to the suburbs (or split the difference 30 minutes away) closer to Buffalo and my parents. I did not win this decision.
Good points. Also post-COVID world is quickly tipping towards more flexible work from home options, making distance from job mean less than ever. And even if you personally can’t/won’t be able to at lest partially work remote, lots of other people do, so you will benefit from when traffic is a lot better now than it was in the good old times. A factor like that also makes living far from work more palatable (though I wouldn’t know, I’m just a 10 minute commute now. Used to be 20ish minutes pre-COVID).
Well the key part is not living in a major city. And if you check the records, ND’s football dominance occurred when there was less urbanization, therefore, in this essay I will demonstrate how…[45 double spaced pages follow, ending in the subheading ‘Towards a Moderate Ted Kacyznskism’]
I think it depends on what values you have. I just moved over Christmas, from a 2 story with a basement, 2305 total useable square feet on a regular town lot with backyard to a slab house with a well and septic on two acres with the main house being 3150 sq ft and a shop on the back of the two car garage. There is a hill in the yard so the kids can sled on snowy days, the shop is good for me as the old house my shop had overtaken the garage and my wife was quite irritated with me for not being able to park he car in there. The kids have more personal space too. The dog can get out and run without having to be leashed or make a corner after 10 strides. My commute went from 10 minutes door to door to 20 minutes door to door. Of course much of this is possible for me living in a rural state where the two largest cities are around 65,000 each.
If you don’t want to spend weekends taking care of your house/ yard/ garden etc, then don’t worry about having those things. If you aren’t a firepit/smoker/brew dog kind of person, then you don’t need space for it. Look for a house that fits what you want, including commute. I don’t worry so much about paint colors and finishes when looking to buy a house as most of that can be changed, I do look at rooms, functionality, lifestyle fit, to what I want.