The longest commute

We've been getting a lot of letters recently from people upset about rising gasoline prices, as readers of the Opinion page will surely have noticed. All of us are affected by the hikes, whatever explanation we prefer for the phenomenon. But a Mariposa man named David Givens might have more reason to complain than most of us -- yet he hasn't.

Givens lives in Mariposa. He works at Cisco in San Jose. That, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News, gives him a daily commute of 372 miles. That works out to a 7-hour round-trip most work days.
It also works out to "$40 a day, $200 a week, $800 a month in gas money," according to the Merc.

Givens says it's worth it because in Mariposa he and his wife get to enjoy a lifestyle ion 7.5 acres that they couldn't come close to affording if they lived closer to the Bay Area. Well, yeah, but what a price to pay.