I'm not sure if you've all noticed, but petrol is getting more expensive. I'm in the process of driving my car until it falls apart. Which means I will continue to get OK (not great) gas mileage. My almost-daily trip from San Francisco to Menlo Park has helped me rack up close to 110,000 miles on my 6-year-old car. As you can imagine, that's a lot of petrol being used up.

Just as I was contemplating how to work extra days from home or manage to take the train without shirking my responsibilities at home, Sun announces a new shuttle: 2 daily runs between San Francisco and Menlo Park. To top it off, the pick up point is 3 blocks from my house.

So, here I am on the second-ever shuttle from San Francisco to Menlo Park. If I wrote this in a couple of weeks it would have really been live: we'll have WiFi soon. :)

Not everyone lives as close to the Sun office as I do, so I'm not sure how many people will make the journey to the shuttle pick-up point every day. Certainly today's ridership was... low. I'm torn on this point: I don't want the shuttle to be crowded, but I also don't want it to be canceled for lack of interest. I hope that others in the area discover it, and want to ride along -- especially once we get wireless.

Believe it or not, Sun isn't just spending money on a shuttle just to make me happy: Sun is committed to doing its part to help the environment. With so many employees in the Bay Area making the trip to Menlo Park every day, it makes sense for Sun to do what it can to help out. And, clearly, those of us who take the shuttle may be a bit more productive as a result.

Back to work now. This has turned out to be the most productive commute I've had for some time. And once we have WiFi I can even still listen to my usual asinine morning radio show while I do my work. The only question is when I'll be able to get my swearing and honking in for the day? Beep, beep.