So Friday, I got back on the rails again when I had to go to DC for a social function. The previous Friday, I had driven from NW Baltimore County to Greenbelt to catch the Metro into the city for the Capitals game, and the drive was a nightmare, so I when I realized that I had left early enough to catch the 5:03 train from BWI, I went ahead and did that.
I got there with a few minutes to spare and looked at the board to find that the 5:03 MARC train was on time. Sweet. By the time I had purchased my ticket and gotten to the right side of the platform to catch the train (about 5:02), the boards said the train was 5 minutes late. At 5:07, the announcer said the train would arrive at about 5:12. Finally at about 5:20, the train departed. No reason was given. But the frustrating thing was the idiocy of some of the people on the platforms. Usually, people stand on the platform in a horizontal line, 1 deep throughout, finding their own personal space, etc.
Well while I was waiting, a dude and his wife decided to stand literally right in front of them (I could have sneezed on them and they would have gotten a shower). When I tried to move and said "excuse me," I discovered that not only were they standing right in my path, but dude had put his big ass, oversized, there must be the body of a dead mafia guy in there bag down to my right. I took great pleasure in accidentally kicking it out of the way as I made my escape from their little trap. I think he said something about it, but I was too busy trying to find another place to stand.
The train ride there was somewhat uneventful. But when we got to Union Station and I was walking toward the station, there was a crowd of people probably 400 strong waiting to board a train. By rule, these folks are supposed to wait in the station. But instead they had all herded out to the platform area like morons and had no plans to move, even though they were blocking all the doors. This is where elbows and forearms come in handy. I made my way through, acting as the lead fullback for this old lady that was behind me with rolling luggage and needed some space to get through. Then, once through the door, there were still more people charging through the herd who apparently don't understand that when trains come into Union Station, sometimes, people exit them. One person stopped right in the middle of everyone and sighed as if our desire to, you know, get through the station minding our own business, was some kind of an afront. I wasn't in the best of moods at that point so I spoke my mind to him as I walked past. I heard one person clapping.
On the way home, I missed a train so I had to sit in the station for about an hour to get the 10:05 back north. While sitting in Sbarro eating some pizza, two dudes almost got into a fight because the one older gentlemen was paying for his food, and the other dude thought he cut in line in front of a woman who was still waiting for her food and hadn't even been ready to go to the register yet. While this dude felt like it was his business, I have no idea, but he was a real asshole about it. Maybe he was trying to hook up with the woman, who wasn't really wronged in the situation, but he felt he could play hero. The older gentlemen told him off in something that I think was Chinese and went about on his merry way. The woman ignored the dude, who was trying to be all impressive and talking to her, and then he went on about the rest of the station trying to cause trouble somewhere else.
People are punks. Be careful out there.
MDR
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
So, yeah. Hi.
So, for the moment at least - it seems like MARC of the Hooligans is kinda dead - much like the trains on the MARC line themselves most of the time.
I haven't been working in a good couple months now, and I would go into all of that, but I don't want to put all that out there on the Internet for public consumption - because I would get kind of nasty. Well, not kind of. It would be nasty. Like, Philadelphia Flyers winning the Stanley Cup kind of nasty and awful.
I am, however, a Washington Capitals season ticket holder. And more than likely, I'm going to be using the MARC during the week to go to games, rather than drive all the way down to the Greenbelt Metro and then ride 10 stops into the arena. So, in the near future, I think all sorts of hilarity will ensue.
Now, the people to watch will be fewer, because I'll be going oppo of the commuters, but when the trains go the other way, I can look in the windows and laugh at them, too.
So, sit tight, we'll be back on Tuesday morning after Monday's Caps-Canucks game.
I haven't been working in a good couple months now, and I would go into all of that, but I don't want to put all that out there on the Internet for public consumption - because I would get kind of nasty. Well, not kind of. It would be nasty. Like, Philadelphia Flyers winning the Stanley Cup kind of nasty and awful.
I am, however, a Washington Capitals season ticket holder. And more than likely, I'm going to be using the MARC during the week to go to games, rather than drive all the way down to the Greenbelt Metro and then ride 10 stops into the arena. So, in the near future, I think all sorts of hilarity will ensue.
Now, the people to watch will be fewer, because I'll be going oppo of the commuters, but when the trains go the other way, I can look in the windows and laugh at them, too.
So, sit tight, we'll be back on Tuesday morning after Monday's Caps-Canucks game.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Land on Free Parking, You No Get the Pot in the Middle
Of course, you remember the old house rule in Monopoly, where there was a pot of money that grew through various means, and if you landed on Free Parking, you collected it all. For the normal folks, it was Monopoly money - for the gambling folks in college that I hung out with, it was real money. Whatever, find the parking spot, get the money.
For MARC commuters, some would want you to believe it doesn't work that way. There was an article in the Martin O'Malley Daily Telegraph .... errr .... Baltimore Sun, with MARC riders complaining how there is no parking at MARC lots, and a bit of an implication that folks living in the neighborhoods around the lots getting pissed because people are parking on their streets to get to the train station on time.
The story is here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/bal-te.md.parking26jun26,0,6903345.story
Now, there is a lot of fact-itude in that article. Parking is stretched at Halethorpe. But some of this problem is the fault of the very commuters who in the story are made out to be victims. Yes, by 7:20 this morning, when I got there, there weren't many spots open. But when I get there by 6:05, like usual, over half the lot is still empty (a lot that holds nearly 800 cars).
But here's the thing ... even at 6 a.m., when there are literally hundreds of spots available, people are still parking in front of people's houses on Route 1, or in the neighborhoods right around the lot, rather than parking in the lot. Apparently, the only thing I can figure is that these folks think it's easier to get out in the afternoon if they aren't in the crowded lot. Nevermind that they are taking up residence in front of someone else's house, houses which in some cases don't have garages, so the spot in front of their house is their spot, in a sense.
It's hard to blame the MARC folks if the lot is full - there aren't No Parking signs in the neighborhood, according to the Sun story. What there should be is a No Parking/Permit system, where the residents get permits to park where they want, and outsiders are kept out. This is how its done in the neighborhood around where I work, and it gets the job done.
But the MARC commuters themselves need to stop playing the victim card here, too.
First, if there's spots in the MARC lot, use them. If there's spots along US 1 on the opposite side of the houses, use them.
Second, I see people on the train every day who have been riding the train together in groups of 6-10 folks for multiple years. Surely, these folks can't all live in 10 vastly incongruent neighborhoods geographically. If parking is that much of a chore, quit fucking with the neighbors and carpool to the train station. You'd save a load of gas, have your company that you already talk to everyday for longer, and there'd be more parking spaces.
I don't condone the neighbors for going all vigilante and keying people's cars. But I also don't blame them if they called to have the invading cars towed. I don't know if it would work, since there are no signs, but it's worth a try. I see too many people using too many spots other than the ones designated (and open) to believe the woe-is-me crap presented in the article.
--
Meanwhile, according to CNN, The House voted 322-98 to authorize $1.7 billion over the next two years to lower fares and expand operations as more riders flock to public transit. The transit measure, which must be considered by the Senate, marks the first time federal money would be used to support local mass transit operating costs. Now there was another part of it that didn't pass with regard to oil drilling, but let's deal with the transit funding deal first.
When exactly would you expect any kind of lower fare to show up? You really think Metro is going to LOWER fares? Their employees are too busy running a brothel. And too busy riding the rails for free - so what do they care what we have to pay every day just to get to work! There's no chance of this happening here. Metro told us they needed additional funds with the last fare increase for maintenance purposes and to provide better service. Meanwhile, trains continue to be late, door problems continue to abound, smoke/fire continues to be reported on tracks, and there really doesn't seem to be anyone else who cares, because the system is having all-time high ridership days of late.
Hell, they know we all have to get to work. And they know we don't want to fill up for $50 or more every week. So, what reason, exactly, do they have to lower fares?
MDR
For MARC commuters, some would want you to believe it doesn't work that way. There was an article in the Martin O'Malley Daily Telegraph .... errr .... Baltimore Sun, with MARC riders complaining how there is no parking at MARC lots, and a bit of an implication that folks living in the neighborhoods around the lots getting pissed because people are parking on their streets to get to the train station on time.
The story is here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/bal-te.md.parking26jun26,0,6903345.story
Now, there is a lot of fact-itude in that article. Parking is stretched at Halethorpe. But some of this problem is the fault of the very commuters who in the story are made out to be victims. Yes, by 7:20 this morning, when I got there, there weren't many spots open. But when I get there by 6:05, like usual, over half the lot is still empty (a lot that holds nearly 800 cars).
But here's the thing ... even at 6 a.m., when there are literally hundreds of spots available, people are still parking in front of people's houses on Route 1, or in the neighborhoods right around the lot, rather than parking in the lot. Apparently, the only thing I can figure is that these folks think it's easier to get out in the afternoon if they aren't in the crowded lot. Nevermind that they are taking up residence in front of someone else's house, houses which in some cases don't have garages, so the spot in front of their house is their spot, in a sense.
It's hard to blame the MARC folks if the lot is full - there aren't No Parking signs in the neighborhood, according to the Sun story. What there should be is a No Parking/Permit system, where the residents get permits to park where they want, and outsiders are kept out. This is how its done in the neighborhood around where I work, and it gets the job done.
But the MARC commuters themselves need to stop playing the victim card here, too.
First, if there's spots in the MARC lot, use them. If there's spots along US 1 on the opposite side of the houses, use them.
Second, I see people on the train every day who have been riding the train together in groups of 6-10 folks for multiple years. Surely, these folks can't all live in 10 vastly incongruent neighborhoods geographically. If parking is that much of a chore, quit fucking with the neighbors and carpool to the train station. You'd save a load of gas, have your company that you already talk to everyday for longer, and there'd be more parking spaces.
I don't condone the neighbors for going all vigilante and keying people's cars. But I also don't blame them if they called to have the invading cars towed. I don't know if it would work, since there are no signs, but it's worth a try. I see too many people using too many spots other than the ones designated (and open) to believe the woe-is-me crap presented in the article.
--
Meanwhile, according to CNN, The House voted 322-98 to authorize $1.7 billion over the next two years to lower fares and expand operations as more riders flock to public transit. The transit measure, which must be considered by the Senate, marks the first time federal money would be used to support local mass transit operating costs. Now there was another part of it that didn't pass with regard to oil drilling, but let's deal with the transit funding deal first.
When exactly would you expect any kind of lower fare to show up? You really think Metro is going to LOWER fares? Their employees are too busy running a brothel. And too busy riding the rails for free - so what do they care what we have to pay every day just to get to work! There's no chance of this happening here. Metro told us they needed additional funds with the last fare increase for maintenance purposes and to provide better service. Meanwhile, trains continue to be late, door problems continue to abound, smoke/fire continues to be reported on tracks, and there really doesn't seem to be anyone else who cares, because the system is having all-time high ridership days of late.
Hell, they know we all have to get to work. And they know we don't want to fill up for $50 or more every week. So, what reason, exactly, do they have to lower fares?
MDR
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
We're Back, and the Beatings will Continue Until You People Fall in Line.
Yeah, yeah, we've been in the basement a while. Whatever.
Dear Dude on the 5:20 Train on Monday afternoon:
What, were manners not on sale when you were growing up? You're 50-something years old, with the look of someone who plunders around the country club golf course on Saturday mornings trying to swing your putter with the 16-year-old beverage cart girl and the wife who has surely hired a pool boy behind your back ... you never learned how to chew gum? You know, Bobby Knight once said about writers ... "Everybody learned to write in third grade, most people moved on to better things." Well by third grade, everyone should know how to chew gum properly, save for that one kid that was in the corner who no one talked to because if you did he'd snap and drop about 47 bitch-slaps at you in a 40-second span - then he'd get a sticker for being an example of the human spirit.
But no, you had to sit there on the train Monday, across the aisle from me, chomping your gum away like you were some kind of rabbit downing a carrot. Heh ... downing a carrot. I wonder if that's what the kids call it these days.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you annoyed me, and you have made the list. You've been given seat 3 in row 12 on the blog's special Train to Hell on Christmas Day - a non-stop cavalcade of everyone who has pissed me off in the last year.
Bring your gum.
Love,
MDR
Dear Dude on the 5:20 Train on Monday afternoon:
What, were manners not on sale when you were growing up? You're 50-something years old, with the look of someone who plunders around the country club golf course on Saturday mornings trying to swing your putter with the 16-year-old beverage cart girl and the wife who has surely hired a pool boy behind your back ... you never learned how to chew gum? You know, Bobby Knight once said about writers ... "Everybody learned to write in third grade, most people moved on to better things." Well by third grade, everyone should know how to chew gum properly, save for that one kid that was in the corner who no one talked to because if you did he'd snap and drop about 47 bitch-slaps at you in a 40-second span - then he'd get a sticker for being an example of the human spirit.
But no, you had to sit there on the train Monday, across the aisle from me, chomping your gum away like you were some kind of rabbit downing a carrot. Heh ... downing a carrot. I wonder if that's what the kids call it these days.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you annoyed me, and you have made the list. You've been given seat 3 in row 12 on the blog's special Train to Hell on Christmas Day - a non-stop cavalcade of everyone who has pissed me off in the last year.
Bring your gum.
Love,
MDR
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Parking Woes, Part Deux
Speaking of parking wars.
So yesterday, I went to the dentist. No big deal. Had some work done, everything was fine. Now, where I work, parking isn’t exactly ideal, and it’s especially difficult to find a spot. Because I’m in the program that gets the metrochecks deal, I can’t get a spot anywhere actually within our little facility here, so street parking is necessary. And usually, if you aren’t here by 6:35 a.m., the street parking is gone. Yeah that’s right, I typed 6:35 a.m. It’s not so bad that people get here that early I guess – but then I see some of those same cars still sitting there at 5 p.m. Seriously, I know there’s important stuff done where I work, but go home! Walk your dog! Cook dinner! Argue with your family! Laugh at the neighbor!
Anyway, I figured since there was no street parking available when I got there a little after noon (actually, there was one spot, but I wasn’t talented enough to squeeze my car into the small spot); I decided to head up the street to the Metro station, park there, and ride 1 stop into work. No big deal. Save for the fact that despite the sign not being on to indicate the lot was full – the lot was full. And because the parking garages are unstaffed at the wonderful, customer-friendly Metro facilities aren’t staffed, there was no way out of said garage without paying the $4.75 to exit, even though I didn’t actually park. That was wonderful.
So now I get to fight with the Metro folks to get my $4.75 back. I don’t think the odds are very good that I’m going to win that one.
Seriously, if this shit keeps up, I’m going to be like that dude in that one movie where he goes nuts at how the world is going crazy and he just starts going all sorts of apeshit on people.
I’m not sure I’ve really ever seen someone actually go apeshit, but I bet it’s interesting.
Not that I’d find a parking place close enough or cheap enough to actually see such a thing.
Maybe I should run for President and fix all this stuff. Nah, that'll never work.
So yesterday, I went to the dentist. No big deal. Had some work done, everything was fine. Now, where I work, parking isn’t exactly ideal, and it’s especially difficult to find a spot. Because I’m in the program that gets the metrochecks deal, I can’t get a spot anywhere actually within our little facility here, so street parking is necessary. And usually, if you aren’t here by 6:35 a.m., the street parking is gone. Yeah that’s right, I typed 6:35 a.m. It’s not so bad that people get here that early I guess – but then I see some of those same cars still sitting there at 5 p.m. Seriously, I know there’s important stuff done where I work, but go home! Walk your dog! Cook dinner! Argue with your family! Laugh at the neighbor!
Anyway, I figured since there was no street parking available when I got there a little after noon (actually, there was one spot, but I wasn’t talented enough to squeeze my car into the small spot); I decided to head up the street to the Metro station, park there, and ride 1 stop into work. No big deal. Save for the fact that despite the sign not being on to indicate the lot was full – the lot was full. And because the parking garages are unstaffed at the wonderful, customer-friendly Metro facilities aren’t staffed, there was no way out of said garage without paying the $4.75 to exit, even though I didn’t actually park. That was wonderful.
So now I get to fight with the Metro folks to get my $4.75 back. I don’t think the odds are very good that I’m going to win that one.
Seriously, if this shit keeps up, I’m going to be like that dude in that one movie where he goes nuts at how the world is going crazy and he just starts going all sorts of apeshit on people.
I’m not sure I’ve really ever seen someone actually go apeshit, but I bet it’s interesting.
Not that I’d find a parking place close enough or cheap enough to actually see such a thing.
Maybe I should run for President and fix all this stuff. Nah, that'll never work.
Parking Woes and Stupid Sunglasses Guy
So after about a month’s hiatus, I ventured back on to the rails to commute to work on Tuesday. I had been sick for a good part of the last month, and still am, but since I hadn’t used the rails, I had built up quite an arsenal of the metrocheck things, to the point where I could get a monthly ticket for free. Free is good, so I thought, what the hell.
What the fuck would have been more like it.
The commute itself really wasn’t all that bad I don’t guess. Save for the dude on the MARC ride home who was the type we’ve discussed here before, wearing dark sunglasses on the train when we haven’t seen the sun here in several days. If it was anymore gray outside, it would have looked like, well, I don’t know, something that looks very gray.
But anyway, he spent most of his time staring at the girl (she was maybe 23) in the seat across the aisle from us – who, while very pretty and not particularly overdressed, probably didn’t deserve to be mentally stripped by sunglasses boy. He was also one of these super annoying people who carry on way too much stuff for a commuter train. Part of his stuff went up into the little compartment above the seats, which is usually about big enough for a wallet and small raincoat. But he kept a notebook, a radio, a bottle of water, a cup of coffee, and his umbrella in his lap. Seriously, either dude had way too much lap or way too much stuff.
When the train came to my stop, this also created a problem for sunglasses dude, because he then had to move all this stuff to try and get out of the way so that I could exit. And he didn’t even bother getting up out of his seat, which A) would have made it easier for me to get out, and B) got him closer to the girl of his dreams. He was just all around an inconsiderate little bastard. But that’s pretty much normal service when it comes to public transportation, I guess.
More fun awaited when I left the BWI rail station. The trick at BWI is that they have two parking garages, and for common folk, it costs $9 a day to park. That’s kind of exorbitant but whatever. Supposedly, however, if you are a monthly ticket passenger on MARC, this fee doesn’t apply.
Well, that’s true except for me, apparently.
Because when I got to the gate and showed the dude my ticket, he said, “That won’t do you no good here.” Now, bless this guy’s heart … he’s probably never held another job in his life. He seriously looked like he’s been manning this parking lot booth for a long time. I mean, he probably watched his Colts beat the Giants in the ’58 Championship Game right from that very booth. But his rationale was that I didn’t have the special ticket that you have to get “mailed from Florida,” and that he could give me an application. Which, of course, does me no good unless I want to then turn around and spend all the money I saved by saving up the metrochecks to then send it to some clandestine place in Florida that apparently has the parking lot racket all squared away. Nevermind that I had a monthly ticket, too, I guess I didn’t have the “right kind” of monthly ticket. The dude’s last words (before I left, I didn’t kill him) were, “Yeah, there’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this whole deal.” I told him it was because the deal was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard, and I drove off.
So, now I get to fight with the folks I bought my ticket from because as far as I’m concerned, that rail ticket is useless, since I have no intention of paying $9 to park every day when I can drive to work and fight the same level of crazy people for parking places for free.
Maybe I need to start a Parking Wars blog.
What the fuck would have been more like it.
The commute itself really wasn’t all that bad I don’t guess. Save for the dude on the MARC ride home who was the type we’ve discussed here before, wearing dark sunglasses on the train when we haven’t seen the sun here in several days. If it was anymore gray outside, it would have looked like, well, I don’t know, something that looks very gray.
But anyway, he spent most of his time staring at the girl (she was maybe 23) in the seat across the aisle from us – who, while very pretty and not particularly overdressed, probably didn’t deserve to be mentally stripped by sunglasses boy. He was also one of these super annoying people who carry on way too much stuff for a commuter train. Part of his stuff went up into the little compartment above the seats, which is usually about big enough for a wallet and small raincoat. But he kept a notebook, a radio, a bottle of water, a cup of coffee, and his umbrella in his lap. Seriously, either dude had way too much lap or way too much stuff.
When the train came to my stop, this also created a problem for sunglasses dude, because he then had to move all this stuff to try and get out of the way so that I could exit. And he didn’t even bother getting up out of his seat, which A) would have made it easier for me to get out, and B) got him closer to the girl of his dreams. He was just all around an inconsiderate little bastard. But that’s pretty much normal service when it comes to public transportation, I guess.
More fun awaited when I left the BWI rail station. The trick at BWI is that they have two parking garages, and for common folk, it costs $9 a day to park. That’s kind of exorbitant but whatever. Supposedly, however, if you are a monthly ticket passenger on MARC, this fee doesn’t apply.
Well, that’s true except for me, apparently.
Because when I got to the gate and showed the dude my ticket, he said, “That won’t do you no good here.” Now, bless this guy’s heart … he’s probably never held another job in his life. He seriously looked like he’s been manning this parking lot booth for a long time. I mean, he probably watched his Colts beat the Giants in the ’58 Championship Game right from that very booth. But his rationale was that I didn’t have the special ticket that you have to get “mailed from Florida,” and that he could give me an application. Which, of course, does me no good unless I want to then turn around and spend all the money I saved by saving up the metrochecks to then send it to some clandestine place in Florida that apparently has the parking lot racket all squared away. Nevermind that I had a monthly ticket, too, I guess I didn’t have the “right kind” of monthly ticket. The dude’s last words (before I left, I didn’t kill him) were, “Yeah, there’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this whole deal.” I told him it was because the deal was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard, and I drove off.
So, now I get to fight with the folks I bought my ticket from because as far as I’m concerned, that rail ticket is useless, since I have no intention of paying $9 to park every day when I can drive to work and fight the same level of crazy people for parking places for free.
Maybe I need to start a Parking Wars blog.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Welcome to February
Well, first of all, to put to rest one vicious rumor ... I'm not dead.
I also was not on the MARC the morning of the Great Derailment at Union Station, was not pinned between train cars, did not fall beneath the tracks into the bottomless pit of derailed dreams, and I haven't broken my neck breakdancing (remember that rumor about Alfonso Ribiero from school?).
I also have not been signed to a 6-year, max contract by the New York Knicks and I was not traded to Baltimore in the Erik Bedard trade.
I also did not have to appear before Congress to explain my possible use of HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs. That's right, folks, I write all this shit on natural, God-given talent. Hell yeah!
But I've spent most of the month in bed.
Yeah!!!
No, don't get excited.
From the onset of Super Bowl weekend till about, I don't know, now ... I've been sick with pneumonia. Or at least that was the first guess by the doctor I saw. Another said I didn't have that, but didn't say what I have, who knows. I'm going with the pneumonia diagnosis for right now because I've never had it before, I've never been sicker, and I think the first two doctor knew a hell of a lot more about what she was talking about than the second one did.
So the product of being sick is that for the month to this point, I have commuted by rail exactly twice, and one of those was only a half-day, so there wasn't much to tell there - other than having to go to something known as Track 28 at Union Station to get my train home. I think I actually walked to Ocean City before getting to the track where the train was. It was so far out that once I got there and got on board, I was quite sure I was on the wrong train and was going to end up in Red Deer, Alberta, four days later.
There really wasn't much to tell from today's commute, either, other than to say that the 5:10 express train experiment may just be working for MARC, but it's hard to tell. The 5:20 train was still fairly crowded, and there were some people standing, but it wasn't as overpackafied as usual. It wasn't difficult to find a seat and there wasn't any one standing in the aisle today trying to sit on me or eat their dinner or whatever.
It was a little annoying that apparently the person actually driving the train was the 87-year-old grandmother of 21 from those Life Alert commercials, as the train never got above about 41 mph and we were late getting in at Halethorpe.
As a consequence, it's 6 minutes after 11 p.m., I feel like I just got home, and it's time to turn in already.
Oh well.
At least I'm not dead. Or traded.
Yet.
(Well, as far as I know. I guess I could have been dealt to Grand Forks for 20 hockey pucks and a blog about missile silos to be named later).
MDR
I also was not on the MARC the morning of the Great Derailment at Union Station, was not pinned between train cars, did not fall beneath the tracks into the bottomless pit of derailed dreams, and I haven't broken my neck breakdancing (remember that rumor about Alfonso Ribiero from school?).
I also have not been signed to a 6-year, max contract by the New York Knicks and I was not traded to Baltimore in the Erik Bedard trade.
I also did not have to appear before Congress to explain my possible use of HGH and other performance-enhancing drugs. That's right, folks, I write all this shit on natural, God-given talent. Hell yeah!
But I've spent most of the month in bed.
Yeah!!!
No, don't get excited.
From the onset of Super Bowl weekend till about, I don't know, now ... I've been sick with pneumonia. Or at least that was the first guess by the doctor I saw. Another said I didn't have that, but didn't say what I have, who knows. I'm going with the pneumonia diagnosis for right now because I've never had it before, I've never been sicker, and I think the first two doctor knew a hell of a lot more about what she was talking about than the second one did.
So the product of being sick is that for the month to this point, I have commuted by rail exactly twice, and one of those was only a half-day, so there wasn't much to tell there - other than having to go to something known as Track 28 at Union Station to get my train home. I think I actually walked to Ocean City before getting to the track where the train was. It was so far out that once I got there and got on board, I was quite sure I was on the wrong train and was going to end up in Red Deer, Alberta, four days later.
There really wasn't much to tell from today's commute, either, other than to say that the 5:10 express train experiment may just be working for MARC, but it's hard to tell. The 5:20 train was still fairly crowded, and there were some people standing, but it wasn't as overpackafied as usual. It wasn't difficult to find a seat and there wasn't any one standing in the aisle today trying to sit on me or eat their dinner or whatever.
It was a little annoying that apparently the person actually driving the train was the 87-year-old grandmother of 21 from those Life Alert commercials, as the train never got above about 41 mph and we were late getting in at Halethorpe.
As a consequence, it's 6 minutes after 11 p.m., I feel like I just got home, and it's time to turn in already.
Oh well.
At least I'm not dead. Or traded.
Yet.
(Well, as far as I know. I guess I could have been dealt to Grand Forks for 20 hockey pucks and a blog about missile silos to be named later).
MDR
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Thank You Sir, You'll Have Another ...
That can be the only explanation to the news this week that Metro ridership is up 3% in the wake of their fare increases that went into effect on January 6. Whoever is responsible for Metro perhaps ought to think about running for President of the United States. Because somehow, this person has convinced the public that it really is a great deal to pay more for fewer parking places, pay more for the same lousy customer service, pay more for the same unreliable trains, and in some cases, get roughed up (allegedly) by Metro workers! This is the kind of marketing touch that you just can’t find anywhere on Madison Avenue.
Metro officials say it could be that ridership is up because of gas prices. Nevermind the fact that the fare increase in many cases probably outweighs the gas increase from last year to now. But it’s not as if anything has changed. People are still unruly on the trains themselves, inconsiderate, and even abusive in some cases. Then there are deals like yesterday afternoon when I was riding home, and we sat at a station for 5 minutes while the doors to the car opened, closed, opened, closed, opened, closed, opened, closed, opened, closed. This in itself wouldn’t have been all that unnerving, had the automated voice not been going along with it, announcing that the doors were opening, stand back they’re closing, opening, stand back they’re closing, opening, stand back they’re closing, you get the picture. You are probably just as annoyed by simply reading that as I was having to watch it.
And yet, we are paying more for it. And we are doing it happily.
We are a beaten consumer with no heart.
But … at least some of us know how to pay for Metro! (see next post for details)
MDR
Machines and Lines
The American public – you know, the one that is currently going through the state by state process of picking the nominees to be the next President (you know, because the Metro marketer guy probably won’t run) – has become so overwhelmed by the world in which they live that fare card machines have become a source of great befuddlement. Yesterday, I had to stop at one at Union Station to refill my SmartTrip card. I usually do this with Metrochecks (if I have one handy). There are two machines on the one side, and there was one person using each, with one person each behind them. Fine, it’s not like I’m in a hurry to get to work. At about the same time, both folks finish their transactions and move along. That leaves a person at the head of the line for each machine, with me waiting for the one on the left. The woman who was using the one on the right may very well still be there – I forgot to look this morning when I walked past them. She was trying to figure out how she could add change to her card. I think she was trying to add a quarter. Now, I’ve seen people do this before and hey, whatever, if you need a quarter to get to the next stop, you do what you gotta do. Yeah, no … this woman had $121.35 on her SmartTrip card.
And she was trying to add a quarter.
$121.35.
Quarter.
These are the people that the Metro workers should eject from the station. What could you possibly do on Metro that would cost that much, where $121.35 wouldn’t cover it, but $121.60 would? The average Metro fare is what, $3? What good will the extra quarter do? And why does this need to be done in the morning when about 31,000 other people are in the station trying to get on with their day?
Then there was the woman at the machine in front of me. She seemed like she knew what was going on, and she was even pretty. Yeah – didn’t help. Upon putting her money in and doing everything it seemed she needed to do, there then started a long bout of staring at the machine. I thought maybe she was praying (because it doesn’t hurt to do that when you’re about to board public transportation these days). But no, she had either missed her train of thought or her motor stalled. I peaked somewhat over her shoulder and realized that she didn’t know how to get her card that she paid for. So I reached over and hit Button C, which is what you have to hit to get your card. Maybe I should have just said something, and maybe pushing the button for her was embarrassing, I don’t know, but I was kind of afraid she was going to be stuck there for hours and maybe she might die. So in a way, I saved a life. She laughed and was very appreciative. That’s nice. Good deed for the day.
Because it’s more fun, I’m going to blame this whole incident on the fare card machine itself, in retrospect.
MDR
And she was trying to add a quarter.
$121.35.
Quarter.
These are the people that the Metro workers should eject from the station. What could you possibly do on Metro that would cost that much, where $121.35 wouldn’t cover it, but $121.60 would? The average Metro fare is what, $3? What good will the extra quarter do? And why does this need to be done in the morning when about 31,000 other people are in the station trying to get on with their day?
Then there was the woman at the machine in front of me. She seemed like she knew what was going on, and she was even pretty. Yeah – didn’t help. Upon putting her money in and doing everything it seemed she needed to do, there then started a long bout of staring at the machine. I thought maybe she was praying (because it doesn’t hurt to do that when you’re about to board public transportation these days). But no, she had either missed her train of thought or her motor stalled. I peaked somewhat over her shoulder and realized that she didn’t know how to get her card that she paid for. So I reached over and hit Button C, which is what you have to hit to get your card. Maybe I should have just said something, and maybe pushing the button for her was embarrassing, I don’t know, but I was kind of afraid she was going to be stuck there for hours and maybe she might die. So in a way, I saved a life. She laughed and was very appreciative. That’s nice. Good deed for the day.
Because it’s more fun, I’m going to blame this whole incident on the fare card machine itself, in retrospect.
MDR
I Think I Met a Terrorist Today ...
I had to run to catch the MARC today, and if you know me and have ever seen me run, you know that wasn’t a pretty sight – but anyway, that meant that there wasn’t exactly the pick of the litter of seats left on the train. But I found a seat on the aisle open, and the dude on the inside seat was working on his laptop. Fine, he’s busy, all I want to do is sleep, it’s all good.
Yeah, no.
I think dude was a terrorist. Not in any way to be stereotypical, and I couldn’t even tell you if his descent anyway – but you know how when they show stories on the news about such and such being blowed up somewhere and then they say, “Government officials believe this man may have been responsible, or an operative,” and they show a guy’s picture from the neck up?
It was this guy!!!
He had a hat, dark glasses, and for all I know, he could have been using the computer to blow up an embassy in Karjackhistan. But that really wasn’t the unsettling part. Well, the sunglasses were. What need you have for sunglasses at 6:30 in the morning on the train when it’s still dark out – because, presumably, that means you had them on when you boarded the train somewhere north of Baltimore, at like 6 in the morning, when, yes, it still would have been dark out – is unknown. Maybe he was using his computer to try and score a night on the town later that will end with him carrying a 12-pack of wine coolers and talking to the guy from “Dateline” on NBC.
No, what really was unnerving about this dude was his gum. Look, I ain’t the brightest person in the world, and I’m sure I have some bad habits. But chewing with my mouth open isn’t one of them. I learned at any early age how to chew gum, dammit. If you can work out the thought processes in your head that are going to signal your brain to say that it’s OK to wear sunglasses at 6 in the morning, then you should have some way of being aware how to chew gum with your mouth closed. Seriously, his chewing was so loud, it trumped the woman sitting behind me talking on her cell phone with a friend about who another friend of theirs slept with last night. Ain’t that some shit?
I didn’t hear his gum chewing as much, though, when, possessing the outside seat, I waited for everyone else to leave the train at Union Station before I went to leave. I don’t think he liked that much.
Course, if he took his computer back out (I wasn’t watching), he also might have blowed up my apartment.
Shit.
MDR
Yeah, no.
I think dude was a terrorist. Not in any way to be stereotypical, and I couldn’t even tell you if his descent anyway – but you know how when they show stories on the news about such and such being blowed up somewhere and then they say, “Government officials believe this man may have been responsible, or an operative,” and they show a guy’s picture from the neck up?
It was this guy!!!
He had a hat, dark glasses, and for all I know, he could have been using the computer to blow up an embassy in Karjackhistan. But that really wasn’t the unsettling part. Well, the sunglasses were. What need you have for sunglasses at 6:30 in the morning on the train when it’s still dark out – because, presumably, that means you had them on when you boarded the train somewhere north of Baltimore, at like 6 in the morning, when, yes, it still would have been dark out – is unknown. Maybe he was using his computer to try and score a night on the town later that will end with him carrying a 12-pack of wine coolers and talking to the guy from “Dateline” on NBC.
No, what really was unnerving about this dude was his gum. Look, I ain’t the brightest person in the world, and I’m sure I have some bad habits. But chewing with my mouth open isn’t one of them. I learned at any early age how to chew gum, dammit. If you can work out the thought processes in your head that are going to signal your brain to say that it’s OK to wear sunglasses at 6 in the morning, then you should have some way of being aware how to chew gum with your mouth closed. Seriously, his chewing was so loud, it trumped the woman sitting behind me talking on her cell phone with a friend about who another friend of theirs slept with last night. Ain’t that some shit?
I didn’t hear his gum chewing as much, though, when, possessing the outside seat, I waited for everyone else to leave the train at Union Station before I went to leave. I don’t think he liked that much.
Course, if he took his computer back out (I wasn’t watching), he also might have blowed up my apartment.
Shit.
MDR
New MARC Schedule: Hit and Miss
As previously discussed here, MARC had announced plans to add new trains in February – including one in the afternoon rush from Washington to Baltimore, and one later train at night for folks who want to have a night on the town in DC and then get home while they are still all inebriated and what not.
That schedule was released yesterday, and goes into effect on February 11. It is, in some ways, a bit of a disappointment. First – the rush hour train was set for 5:10 p.m. to depart Union Station, 10 minutes earlier than the current 5:20 p.m. express that makes no stops between Union Station and BWI, and is woefully overcrowded just about every night. What’s unfortunate, however, is that this new train will do very little, if anything, to relieve the overcrowding on the 5:20 train. The 5:10 will stop at New Carrollton and Seabrook (places the 5:20 doesn’t stop anyway), and then will terminate at Penn Station in Baltimore at 6:01. It won’t even stop at BWI. Nor will it stop at Halethorpe (making it useless to me). Not to mention, since it won’t go past Baltimore, it also doesn’t offer an alternative option for riders who go beyond Penn Station to Edgewood, Aberdeen, and Perryville.
So, all those folks (which make up about 90% of the train most days) are still going to be on the 5:20 train. Hundreds of people exit the train at BWI and Halethorpe, and the train looks like the Ghost Express when it leaves Halethorpe, with many of the folks that are remaining on board headed to points beyond downtown Baltimore. What MARC has basically done is add a train that is useless to the majority of its riders, not to mention adding one more train that can now break down or suffer some other sort of failure right before the 5:20 departs, which will throw off its schedule, as well.
The new late night train leaves Washington at 11:45 p.m. and makes all stops. On the surface, this isn’t bad. I don’t know how many people will use it, but it’s nice to have one additional late-night transit option for getting between DC and Baltimore. However, it still leaves the annoying gap between 8:40 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. during which there is no MARC service northbound. This is what really needs to be addressed. A 9:45 p.m. train would be perfect. There is an Amtrak 10 p.m. regional to BWI, but if you are using one of the smaller stops along the MARC line, this does you no good (and it costs $12 one way, last I checked).
There was no announcement about weekend service, which is something I think that is sorely needed, even if it’s only a couple trains a day to start. But that also requires additional funding and such. We should see this in the near future since the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill yesterday that taxes breathing in the state.
OK, that’s not true. But I wouldn’t be surprised.
Quickies
* When walking to a set of the machines you show your pass/insert your card to in order to ride or exit Metro, and you are headed for one, don’t suddenly decide at the last minute you are going to use the one I’m going to instead, forcing me to stop and wait for your sorry ass. This has happened 3 times this week, and the next time it happens, I’monna trip ya.
* Dude, when you are on the MARC, and your stop is up next, you don’t need to be right by the door of the train to get out. It will give you plenty of time to exit. But when you are a jackass that not only stands in the doorway, but has two bags with you and puts the bags down in front of you, thus taking up the entire aisle – don’t get bitchy when someone comes along and accidentally (perhaps) kicks one of your bags into the middle of next week because you didn’t give them any room to get by.
* IPod chick on the Metro this morning – not only was your music on your headphones way too loud … it really, really sucked.
MDR
Monday, January 21, 2008
Metro's New Stuff
So the other day, Metro put a note on its web site talking about the next design of subway cars they are looking at having constructed. These would be the 7-series, or all cars numbers in the 7000s. The 1000s were the old original crappy ones that are still out there breaking down all over the place.
You can see the article here ... http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/story.cfm?ID=1655 ... They are supposed to be sleek and silver on the outside and feature ergonomic seats on the inside. Oh ... sleek and silver, catchy. The cars would only have 64 seats and there would be no more carpeting on the floor. The first thing that strikes me about this is it seems apparent that Metro doesn't actually want you to sit down. I'm not for certain, but I'm pretty sure 64 seats is less than what is currently offered, and as anyone who has ever ridden the crowded trains knows, it's when everyone is crushed in standing that people get hit with a severe case of the stupid. Or they crowd the doors, or they run over people, etc. It seems like the new cars give people more room to fight their battles by the doors. How nice.
Some of the new cars are supposed to have bench seating, as well. I can't wait to see how that goes over. People battling over a bleacher seat by the door on a crowded rush hour commute is just going to be beautiful to watch. Or, people putting their fat butts in one part of the bench, their bag in another, their purse in another, etc., when other folks need to sit down (elderly, disabled, etc.). Or people on the bleacher seats being thrown forward or backward or sideways and into other people, starting a big old fight when the car comes to a sudden stop and/or lurches forward, since about half the drivers on these things appear unable to stop or start or train without it stuttering forward or backward several times at every station.
In addition, Metro says: "There would be interactive, linear maps automated announcements stating the station names the trains are servicing and security cameras on all rail cars."
Forget the grammar thing - but just think, this is what your fare increase is going to. New flashy maps and cars where no one can get a seat.
But think of it another way ... what Metro hasn't told you is the following:
1) How they are going to keep their trains from breaking down,
2) How they are going to address the "door" and "smoke" problems that they haven't fixed, and
3) How they are going to actually make it so their trains are on time.
The fare increase to do all those things is probably coming later this year.
You can see the article here ... http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/story.cfm?ID=1655 ... They are supposed to be sleek and silver on the outside and feature ergonomic seats on the inside. Oh ... sleek and silver, catchy. The cars would only have 64 seats and there would be no more carpeting on the floor. The first thing that strikes me about this is it seems apparent that Metro doesn't actually want you to sit down. I'm not for certain, but I'm pretty sure 64 seats is less than what is currently offered, and as anyone who has ever ridden the crowded trains knows, it's when everyone is crushed in standing that people get hit with a severe case of the stupid. Or they crowd the doors, or they run over people, etc. It seems like the new cars give people more room to fight their battles by the doors. How nice.
Some of the new cars are supposed to have bench seating, as well. I can't wait to see how that goes over. People battling over a bleacher seat by the door on a crowded rush hour commute is just going to be beautiful to watch. Or, people putting their fat butts in one part of the bench, their bag in another, their purse in another, etc., when other folks need to sit down (elderly, disabled, etc.). Or people on the bleacher seats being thrown forward or backward or sideways and into other people, starting a big old fight when the car comes to a sudden stop and/or lurches forward, since about half the drivers on these things appear unable to stop or start or train without it stuttering forward or backward several times at every station.
In addition, Metro says: "There would be interactive, linear maps automated announcements stating the station names the trains are servicing and security cameras on all rail cars."
Forget the grammar thing - but just think, this is what your fare increase is going to. New flashy maps and cars where no one can get a seat.
But think of it another way ... what Metro hasn't told you is the following:
1) How they are going to keep their trains from breaking down,
2) How they are going to address the "door" and "smoke" problems that they haven't fixed, and
3) How they are going to actually make it so their trains are on time.
The fare increase to do all those things is probably coming later this year.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
I mean, seriously, this is crazy
Anyone who is signed up to the special service that previews what I'm going to write about late at night knows today's offerings don't feature much originality.
Without further of the adieu, let's geaux.
1. Ignorant-ass mother fucking people
* Look, nevermind the people that get into one car on the MARC train via the stairs, then walk into the other, cutting off the people getting up those stairs. It's an asshole move, but everyone does it so whatever. ... But when you get into a train, and you see seats are open not near anyone else - take one, sit down, shut up. OK, that's a little cruel, but here's what you don't do, you don't crawl over 2 other people to get to a crowded seat, along the way getting close enough to one of those people that you might be legally married in Arkansas. I'm not interested in being that close to you, and the next time you do it, I'm gonna bust a knee cap in your jigglies. That'll cool your jets. Not to mention the fact that when you do sit down, the dude next to you has no room, because you insist on carrying your bag in your lap, which means your arms have to be at your sides, which means you elbows are going into the other dude's ribs while he's trying to catch a few minutes of sleep. There's nothing in your bag that important, save for maybe your Dungeons & Dragons charts and the lunch Mom packed. Your desire to be that close to people that early in the morning is annoying, and frankly, frightening.
2. Ignorant-ass mother fucking people
* But all that said, dude looked like a saint once we got to Odenton and a whole new crop of valedictorians got on the train. For this portion of the entry, I give you the long-awaited return of Army Woman! All dressed in the normal uniform, she was back in normal form today, her ankle looking none the worse for wear. She was off on another run, talking about her kids and God knows what else, and the person she was talking to wasn't even in her row! And of course, she was at the top of the stairs, so, in theory, the whole train could have heard her talking about her daughter getting new pants at TJ Maxx ... except:
3. Ignorant-ass mother fucking people
* She was completely muted just about by a trio of gossip machines that stood in the middle of the aisle next to where me, sleeping dude, unknown woman and space invader were sitting. These three were talking about everything and anything with little regard for humanity. The ring leader of the deal started by talking about some guy who wouldn't give her the time of day or something, wrapping it up with the rhyme, "I don't care if I don't catch his eye, I'm still pretty fly." Not to dispute the point too much, but let's put it this way ... if her backside was any wider, it would have been dark blue with COWBOYS written across it in silver and Terrell Owens would have been dancing into it. She was anything but fly. But she had more material on this day .... between Bowie State and New Carrollton, she informed us about this couple she saw at Wal-Mart - who she apparently didn't know from Adam, Eve, Tootie, Jo, or Natalie. Anyway, apparently the couple were having a discussion about one buying something for the other or what have you, really not something where outside opinions are necessary - so of course the crux of the story was about Fly Cowboys Butt Girl giving them her opinion and dressing down the guy for whatever reason. She then went on to share with all the train residents about how bad the guy's teeth were, like some of them were sideways and some of them were gone and they all kind of pointed the wrong direction.
So yeah, this is what I want to hear at 7 in the morning.
But it got better! Remember the point earlier about there being plenty of good seats available? Well, this was still the case at this point, and when Conductor Spivey (that's his name, that's not a joke) came along to collect/inspect tickets, he made mention to the Gossip Girls that they could go sit down - and they all said no! "We wanna stand here." ... "and annoy the shit out of all these other people, even space invader guy." OK, I added the last part, but you get my drift. Worse yet, they were right in front of the stairwell, and wouldn't move out of the way for Conductor Spivey to get through. He's trying to navigate the gossip gauntlet and I said, "These people don't make life easy for you, do they?" ... "No, they surely don't," he responded with a shake of the head.
An individual person can be brilliant. smart, whatever. People are intellectually deficient morons. It's one thing if you want to annoy me while I'm trying to get to work in the morning - but when you are going out of your way to fuck with the people whose whole job is to walk through the train collecting tickets hour after hour, day after day, then you might as well turn in your humanity card to the front office in Accident, Maryland, and leave the Earth for good. It's just stupid. Why make that dude's life harder because your fly fat ass is too lazy to find a seat?
Sorry.
This post wasn't very funny.
But people really showed in a lot of ways just how classless and stupid they can be today - and they deserve to be called out for it.
I may not like a lot of my life, and I ain't perfect (far from it) ... but I'm glad I'm me and not them.
Happy New Year!!!
MDR
PS: I hope you enjoy the last.fm widget that I've added. I'll be changing the key band from time to time (as it is, the first song will always be a Gin Blossoms song), but we'll keep it around if people dig it. I think it's a nice addition and it was easy, so that's key.
Without further of the adieu, let's geaux.
1. Ignorant-ass mother fucking people
* Look, nevermind the people that get into one car on the MARC train via the stairs, then walk into the other, cutting off the people getting up those stairs. It's an asshole move, but everyone does it so whatever. ... But when you get into a train, and you see seats are open not near anyone else - take one, sit down, shut up. OK, that's a little cruel, but here's what you don't do, you don't crawl over 2 other people to get to a crowded seat, along the way getting close enough to one of those people that you might be legally married in Arkansas. I'm not interested in being that close to you, and the next time you do it, I'm gonna bust a knee cap in your jigglies. That'll cool your jets. Not to mention the fact that when you do sit down, the dude next to you has no room, because you insist on carrying your bag in your lap, which means your arms have to be at your sides, which means you elbows are going into the other dude's ribs while he's trying to catch a few minutes of sleep. There's nothing in your bag that important, save for maybe your Dungeons & Dragons charts and the lunch Mom packed. Your desire to be that close to people that early in the morning is annoying, and frankly, frightening.
2. Ignorant-ass mother fucking people
* But all that said, dude looked like a saint once we got to Odenton and a whole new crop of valedictorians got on the train. For this portion of the entry, I give you the long-awaited return of Army Woman! All dressed in the normal uniform, she was back in normal form today, her ankle looking none the worse for wear. She was off on another run, talking about her kids and God knows what else, and the person she was talking to wasn't even in her row! And of course, she was at the top of the stairs, so, in theory, the whole train could have heard her talking about her daughter getting new pants at TJ Maxx ... except:
3. Ignorant-ass mother fucking people
* She was completely muted just about by a trio of gossip machines that stood in the middle of the aisle next to where me, sleeping dude, unknown woman and space invader were sitting. These three were talking about everything and anything with little regard for humanity. The ring leader of the deal started by talking about some guy who wouldn't give her the time of day or something, wrapping it up with the rhyme, "I don't care if I don't catch his eye, I'm still pretty fly." Not to dispute the point too much, but let's put it this way ... if her backside was any wider, it would have been dark blue with COWBOYS written across it in silver and Terrell Owens would have been dancing into it. She was anything but fly. But she had more material on this day .... between Bowie State and New Carrollton, she informed us about this couple she saw at Wal-Mart - who she apparently didn't know from Adam, Eve, Tootie, Jo, or Natalie. Anyway, apparently the couple were having a discussion about one buying something for the other or what have you, really not something where outside opinions are necessary - so of course the crux of the story was about Fly Cowboys Butt Girl giving them her opinion and dressing down the guy for whatever reason. She then went on to share with all the train residents about how bad the guy's teeth were, like some of them were sideways and some of them were gone and they all kind of pointed the wrong direction.
So yeah, this is what I want to hear at 7 in the morning.
But it got better! Remember the point earlier about there being plenty of good seats available? Well, this was still the case at this point, and when Conductor Spivey (that's his name, that's not a joke) came along to collect/inspect tickets, he made mention to the Gossip Girls that they could go sit down - and they all said no! "We wanna stand here." ... "and annoy the shit out of all these other people, even space invader guy." OK, I added the last part, but you get my drift. Worse yet, they were right in front of the stairwell, and wouldn't move out of the way for Conductor Spivey to get through. He's trying to navigate the gossip gauntlet and I said, "These people don't make life easy for you, do they?" ... "No, they surely don't," he responded with a shake of the head.
An individual person can be brilliant. smart, whatever. People are intellectually deficient morons. It's one thing if you want to annoy me while I'm trying to get to work in the morning - but when you are going out of your way to fuck with the people whose whole job is to walk through the train collecting tickets hour after hour, day after day, then you might as well turn in your humanity card to the front office in Accident, Maryland, and leave the Earth for good. It's just stupid. Why make that dude's life harder because your fly fat ass is too lazy to find a seat?
Sorry.
This post wasn't very funny.
But people really showed in a lot of ways just how classless and stupid they can be today - and they deserve to be called out for it.
I may not like a lot of my life, and I ain't perfect (far from it) ... but I'm glad I'm me and not them.
Happy New Year!!!
MDR
PS: I hope you enjoy the last.fm widget that I've added. I'll be changing the key band from time to time (as it is, the first song will always be a Gin Blossoms song), but we'll keep it around if people dig it. I think it's a nice addition and it was easy, so that's key.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Happy Holidays, Knuckleheads
I haven't been on the trains much with the holidays and all going by and such, but the last couple days, as usual, brought no shortage of material. I seriously don't know what goes through these people's heads, but here we go.
1) Seriously, I was just trying to help
* So I exit the train at Halethorpe Wednesday night like usual, and it's dark, and it's windy, and it's cold. If you are not familiar with this station on the MARC system, there are no platforms. When you exit a northbound train, you have to climb 48 stairs to an overhead road bridge, then go down 48 stairs on the other side to get to the parking lot. It's not at all handicap accessible, but that's a story for another day. Anyhow, I was walking down those stairs last night thinking to myself how I might want to get my next monthly pass for BWI rail station instead, so I wouldn't have to deal with these stupid stairs. They aren't really safe, especially this time of year when there can be ice involved and what not, not to mention Halethorpe is a busy stop, so you have 250-300 people on the staircases at any one time.
Well, no sooner did all these thoughts go through my head than the young woman in front of me go ass over heels headed down the stairs. In grabbing the railing, she damn near threw herself over the side, dangerously close to power lines and a 20-foot drop. She collected herself enough to avoid that unhappy ending - but she crumpled to the cement in a ball of pain. I did what anyone would do, I hope, and stopped and asked if she was OK. She said yes, then said no (like one of my dates). Meanwhile, every other cocksucking prick in the crowd kept on walking. Oh, why stop and help, you know it's cold. Fucking losers.
Anyway, she tried to stand up and I offered to wait to make sure she could clear the 24 remaining stairs. She got ready to walk, I figure everything's fine, story over. Till she can't walk. She busted up her knee pretty bad apparently. So, we've made the point clear now that she was in worse shape than she thought, right? Smart people, when that happens, ask for help. Instead, she refused. It was kind of against my nature to just leave her there by herself in that weather and such, but I did. I guess she got down eventually - she wasn't there this morning. But it just struck me as odd. And it kind of reaffirmed my own personal belief that I probably come across as creepy. If I came across as normal, she would have been more willing to get help. As it was, I was probably just some crudhead in a funny green jacket. Whatever.
Oh well. I hope her knee wasn't hurt too bad. No one fell today. But someday, mix in a little ice and such, and them stairs are gonna kill somebody.
2) Metro Metrics
* OK, so if you're not kind of geeky like me, you might not enjoy this part of the entry very much. Hell, the Russian judge only gave it a four (it's a good thing I guess that he didn't try to poison me, but anyway). I have mentioned before about the "Service Disruptions" page on Metro's web site (http://www.wmata.com). There, you can read about current issues on the system (if they bother to tell you about them, which they don't necessarily), or you can go back to prior dates and read a recap of all the things that got screwed up over the course of a particular day.
Well, with the new year, I've decided that I'm going to track these. This is what my life has become ladies and gentlemen - spending free time tracking subway fuck ups. But, I think it's for a good cause. Metro trains are delayed or terminated for all sorts of reasons - door problems, smoke on the tracks, "equipment malfunctions" (they have pills for that, you know), brake problems, etc. That came to mind this morning at I think it was the Van Ness/UDC station, when we were ordered off our red line train just short of 8:00. This didn't come as a surprise, as for about 5 stops before that, there was a Metro employee going apeshit in various cars looking for something under the seats. Dude was actually pulling seats up out of the floor to look for something. Maybe it was a bomb, maybe it was a dog, maybe something else was up. I did overhear a radio transmission about the driver seeing a "flash," but that could be anything. I was actually kind of relieved that we were ejected from the train for a "mechanical problem." If that's their story, hey that's great.
But we're gonna track it anyway. And we'll keep you updated here so you know that when you aren't reading stories any more about smoke problems on the track - yes it's still happening. We'll show you the results at the end of each month.
I blog about trains, and dammit, I owe you my best.
3) There is no 3. It was going to be the part about the "flash" on my train, but I covered that already.
So, I'll just tell you that I expect this to be a great new year of train blogging. That's somewhat unfortunate in a way, given the crap I have to go through every day that ends up being the material for this blog - but I'm willing to go the extra mile for you, the reader.
Signed,
MDR
PS: I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't trip the young woman in order to make a blog post out of it.
1) Seriously, I was just trying to help
* So I exit the train at Halethorpe Wednesday night like usual, and it's dark, and it's windy, and it's cold. If you are not familiar with this station on the MARC system, there are no platforms. When you exit a northbound train, you have to climb 48 stairs to an overhead road bridge, then go down 48 stairs on the other side to get to the parking lot. It's not at all handicap accessible, but that's a story for another day. Anyhow, I was walking down those stairs last night thinking to myself how I might want to get my next monthly pass for BWI rail station instead, so I wouldn't have to deal with these stupid stairs. They aren't really safe, especially this time of year when there can be ice involved and what not, not to mention Halethorpe is a busy stop, so you have 250-300 people on the staircases at any one time.
Well, no sooner did all these thoughts go through my head than the young woman in front of me go ass over heels headed down the stairs. In grabbing the railing, she damn near threw herself over the side, dangerously close to power lines and a 20-foot drop. She collected herself enough to avoid that unhappy ending - but she crumpled to the cement in a ball of pain. I did what anyone would do, I hope, and stopped and asked if she was OK. She said yes, then said no (like one of my dates). Meanwhile, every other cocksucking prick in the crowd kept on walking. Oh, why stop and help, you know it's cold. Fucking losers.
Anyway, she tried to stand up and I offered to wait to make sure she could clear the 24 remaining stairs. She got ready to walk, I figure everything's fine, story over. Till she can't walk. She busted up her knee pretty bad apparently. So, we've made the point clear now that she was in worse shape than she thought, right? Smart people, when that happens, ask for help. Instead, she refused. It was kind of against my nature to just leave her there by herself in that weather and such, but I did. I guess she got down eventually - she wasn't there this morning. But it just struck me as odd. And it kind of reaffirmed my own personal belief that I probably come across as creepy. If I came across as normal, she would have been more willing to get help. As it was, I was probably just some crudhead in a funny green jacket. Whatever.
Oh well. I hope her knee wasn't hurt too bad. No one fell today. But someday, mix in a little ice and such, and them stairs are gonna kill somebody.
2) Metro Metrics
* OK, so if you're not kind of geeky like me, you might not enjoy this part of the entry very much. Hell, the Russian judge only gave it a four (it's a good thing I guess that he didn't try to poison me, but anyway). I have mentioned before about the "Service Disruptions" page on Metro's web site (http://www.wmata.com). There, you can read about current issues on the system (if they bother to tell you about them, which they don't necessarily), or you can go back to prior dates and read a recap of all the things that got screwed up over the course of a particular day.
Well, with the new year, I've decided that I'm going to track these. This is what my life has become ladies and gentlemen - spending free time tracking subway fuck ups. But, I think it's for a good cause. Metro trains are delayed or terminated for all sorts of reasons - door problems, smoke on the tracks, "equipment malfunctions" (they have pills for that, you know), brake problems, etc. That came to mind this morning at I think it was the Van Ness/UDC station, when we were ordered off our red line train just short of 8:00. This didn't come as a surprise, as for about 5 stops before that, there was a Metro employee going apeshit in various cars looking for something under the seats. Dude was actually pulling seats up out of the floor to look for something. Maybe it was a bomb, maybe it was a dog, maybe something else was up. I did overhear a radio transmission about the driver seeing a "flash," but that could be anything. I was actually kind of relieved that we were ejected from the train for a "mechanical problem." If that's their story, hey that's great.
But we're gonna track it anyway. And we'll keep you updated here so you know that when you aren't reading stories any more about smoke problems on the track - yes it's still happening. We'll show you the results at the end of each month.
I blog about trains, and dammit, I owe you my best.
3) There is no 3. It was going to be the part about the "flash" on my train, but I covered that already.
So, I'll just tell you that I expect this to be a great new year of train blogging. That's somewhat unfortunate in a way, given the crap I have to go through every day that ends up being the material for this blog - but I'm willing to go the extra mile for you, the reader.
Signed,
MDR
PS: I know what you're thinking, and no, I didn't trip the young woman in order to make a blog post out of it.
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