Commuter Hell

i have not had a lot of luck getting to work lately.  yesterday i barely missed my train, and drove in.  it normally takes me 45 minutes to an hour to drive at that time of day.  yesterday it took me 2 1/2 hours.  don't ask me why.  i do not know.  it was sunny.  the roads were clear.

this morning, i made it to the train in time, only to find out that the train was 30 minutes late.  this morning's temperature i believe broke a record.  3 degrees.  now i know that's balmy compared to what our northern neighbors are used to, but still it kind of sucks.  then finally the train comes.  we're riding along.  i've gotten to know this nice woman since we both sat huddled in the mini for warmth earlier on.  we're, i mean, the train is picking up passengers.  we're making calls to our jobs to let them know we'll be a little late.  just 30 minutes.  no biggie.

we pull into the last station before boston, and then we sit there.  FOR TWO AND HALF HOURS!!!   the train's broken, they're fixing it, it can't be fixed, we have to wait 45 minutes for an emergency train, emergency train doesn't come, but the next train in the schedule is coming and it'll push us into boston.  time passes nothing.  then two buses pull up.  two city buses for one multi-car commuter train.  my new friend and i luck out and get seats right away, but in minutes the buses are packed and it'll be another hour before more buses show up.  it's noon before we pull out of the station.  that's when we see that the next train on the scheduled is hooked up to ours-- but it doesn't look like anything is happening.   has our train of doom poisoned the 11:28? 

so now we're packed in a bus on the mass pike, and we're starting to get punchy silly.  and there's a woman up front making a fuss.  before leaving the station she had been yelling at a conductor, asking him for his name.  "WHAT IS YOUR NAME SIR...I WILL REPORT YOU." while on the bus, she was writing furiously.  my new friend wondered if she was an attorney.  was she writing an "i hate the mbta" letter?  was she scribbling down notes for a meeting later on in the day, was she sketching a design idea (that's what i would have been doing)?  WHAT WAS SHE DOING?

she was writing a petition.  she made an announcement, and passed it around for signatures: 

Dear Governor Romney, it began...

We have been sitting on a train for FOOR (sic) hours .....yadda yadda yadda ....  two buses .... packed like SARDINE (sic).

my train buddy remarked that one sardine in a can wasn't too bad of a situation.  *snicker snicker*

the lady got one signature.

1.  the mbta messed up this morning.  their emergency plan needs some work.  i may write them a letter, a courteous letter, spell checked and neatly typed.  but shit happens, and at least the conductors on the train kept us informed.  it's remarkable how if you tell people what's going on, that they very rarely throw a hissy fit, except for ms. hissy-fit-can't-spell-worth-a-damn.

2.  you don't send a petition to the governor of massachusetts that looks like crap and expect it to be taken seriously.  (even if he is a republican who has finally realized that if he wants to get re-elected he needs to actually do something for the state instead of spending all of his time stomping for bush -- how we got a mormon conservative in the state house i'll never know...)

3.  finally, a corrollary to item 1.  shit happens.  what happened today was an inconvenience.  no one got hurt.  i'm not going to get all hot and bothered when just a month ago a big wave wiped out 250,000 people!

HEY LADY -- IT'S JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT!!!!!!