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.
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3 comments:
1. Don't assume the woman was rejecting you. She might have been embarrassed. Or, if these stairs lead to a parking lot, then if you helped her get down the stairs then you'd want to help her to her car. Women are warned from infancy about dark parking lots and being aware of their surroundings. If no one stopped to help her when she fell, then no one would help her when she screamed when you turned out to be the Mad Stabbing Hacker. Seriously, this is what would go through my mind and I'm not a particularly paranoid person.
2. "equipment malfunctions" (they have pills for that, you know)
They're using them, but every time the train works for more than 4 hours they have to take it to the doctor.
Great touch with the last.fm! I forgot I was even subscribed to that until Dave sent me something about it.
Halethorpe is the best stop. I had forgotten all about the lack of a platform and people just kind of getting off into the dirt along the track. The way they pronounce it though was terrific - "Haaaaaaaaayl-thorp!"
I'd assume that most people don't want to help or be helped. The embarrassment factor alone would be enough to keep someone from accepting an offer of assistance. Don't you know that we are all self-suficient, self-contained living beings that have no need for personal contact with others!?
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