So I’ve been commuting into Cambridge, MA from Providence, RI for a year now.

Survival on that commute dictates a few necessities so that I don’t become nasty and brutish.

Music is a must – so the phone is stocked with music and a good set of Symphonized headphones and I’m a happy camper. They also serve the purpose of in effect saying “Don’t bother me.” That is worth it’s weight in gold. Anyone cute tries that might change, but alas nothing of the sort.

Now an hour and ten minutes of the commute is on a commuter train. So I need something to do. I had played on my phone but network service drops out around Sharon, MA so that was a no go. Plus the phone is small so reading a book on it was challenging.

So I bought an Amazon Fire HD6. It’s  a little six inch tablet but so much better. I’ve got a ton of books I’ve read and am reading on it. So that helps out a lot. And it’s funny – how many people are sitting next to me on the train reading a dead tree version of a book. Meanwhile I’m just swiping through pages on my Fire tablet.

So you can survive a commute via public transit.