I just heard a NPR story this morning about extreme commuting. It seems that the fastest-growing segment of commuters are those who commute more than 90 minutes each way to work.
I can certainly identify, having driven two hours each way from Brewster, NY to Hartford, CT every day for more than a year when Linda and I first got married. Now that I'm driving from Cañon City to Colorado Springs, the hour-each-way commute doesn't seem bad at all in comparison. I've always thought that cars are a terrible means of transportation.
Personally, I'd love to work only 15 minutes away from home. But Cañon City is so rural that I'd be silly to think I could find any kind of a programming job nearby. Perhaps I could find I.T. work at one of the many local prisons, but hardware and networking have never been my specialty.
If I ever had the option again to drive two hours each way to work, I don't think I could do it. I just value my free time too much. I listen to a lot of podcasts in the car and make a lot of phone calls, but I'd rather spend that time sitting at home or maybe even exercising.