Cape Cod, Massachusetts

10 September 2010

Crazy, modern professional life. A committee of ten, appointed by a national agency, working for a year. Our charge: review and report on the anticipated consequences of climate change for indoor air quality and the impact on public health. Our fourth and final 2-day working meeting was scheduled for this beautiful site near Falmouth on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.



We all are busy people and so the committee members participate to different degrees. One member, from the UK, participates only one morning by internet video. A second member, who lives in Atlanta, is on conference call for most of the meeting. A third member can only be present for a half day on the first morning and so flies in the night before and leaves after just a few hours of work.



I spent all day Wednesday traveling. Leave home at 7 AM, catch a 7:30 train at the Rockridge BART station to arrive at SFO at 8:30 in preparation for a 10 AM departure. Flying Virgin America, I manage about 4 hours of productive work enroute using the in-flight wireless system before landing in Boston just after 6 PM EDT. It took an hour to get a rental vehicle. Navigating solo to Cape Cod, I made two significant wrong turns (but only two!), so the 90 minute drive took 2.5 hours and I finally settled into the hotel about 9:30 PM. Up the next morning at 7 AM (= 4 AM body time) for a full day's work at this spectacular location (see bottom two photos) with absolutely marvelous weather. And top off the day with a wonderful lobster dinner.



On Friday, I was up early (maybe too much dinner?) and used the opportunity to take some sunrise/early morning photos (top three photos) before heading off to the meeting site for an 8-3:30 working session. Immediately after the meeting adjourned, I was back in the rental car for the rush-hour drive back to Boston (only one wrong turn this time) and a late-night flight back home. In all, over these three days, I spent 24 h in transit, about 14 hours doing committee work, and maybe another 8 hours working on some of my other professional responsibilities. Those 14 hours of "face time" in the committee were very important. And having a laptop with almost constant wireless access makes it relatively easy to keep up with important matters in Berkeley no matter where I am. But there is definitely some wear-and-tear. This is not a sustainable model for working, either as an individual, or for the society!