People I know seem to have popped out of reality, or maybe it is I who has made a quantum shift into a different world. It all began on Friday, August 13, 2010 around 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
The plan was for a quorum of the Car 5 Gang to meet at the Center Café in the Great Hall of Union Station. Trish has circulated the agenda and itinerary for what was supposed to be a grand sendoff for The Princess. She had been a multiyear personality in Car 5 for several years. Princess Carly has celebrated her 21, 22 and 23 birthdays while maintaining her membership in good standing. Several weeks ago she announced that she would be moving to South Carolina to go back to college and finish her undergraduate studies. All our celebrity hopes were dashed when She announced that She could not make the party due to previous engagements.
Bobbert, for one, was incensed and deeply hurt that Princess Carly Muffin would blow off all her commuter family in favor of a few unworthy friends who could see her any time she came home to roost.
The anticipated attendance at the retitled Generic Happy Hour dwindled. Trish and Billy and I confirmed our plans. Sandy was running late with Metro Moments. Three of us were there when Trish got the message from Bobbert that he had forgotten about a medical appointment and would not be coming.
In the end, the four of us held up the ceremonial ritual of a few drinks and a bit of snack while toasting the departure of a friend. So long, Princess.
We all wended our way to the 7:40 train and impressed a few strangers with the camaraderie we four had. At the station we parted our ways for the weekend and each headed home.
Sometime over the weekend the imperceptible shift happened. It might have happened coincident with a flash of light that might have been lightning or a quantum perturbation that sent me into a different world. The small differences were not readily discernable at first. There were hibiscus blossoms blooming in my front yard in Mid-August. The grass was greener or maybe I just thought so.
Monday I caught the train and quietly perused my email on the way into work. When I got back to the evening train and boarded at my usual spot, the wheelchair lift was already in place like they were actually expecting me. I got on and waited for the regular gang to arrive. The train lurched out of the station on time at 5:20 (a rare occurrence). I looked around and nobody I knew was there. Strangers populated Car 5 around me. They were self absorbed and silent. It was ominous and too quiet.
I had heard nothing of vacation or change of work schedules that would account for this change.
I turned to my BlackBerry and thumbed through the late day emails and Twitter messages that proliferate and collect there. At first I was confused. The most unlikely of facts became evident. Somehow, some way, the President of the United States was Black! Over the weekend I was transported into this reality where things are really different. In this reality John McCain didn't win over Hillary Clinton and a whole different Democrat candidate, an African-American from Hawaii or somewhere got enough electoral votes to be President. Wow! America is a hugely different country in this universe.
I spent the entire next day pouring over the Internet to see what all was different in this world. I haven't discovered exactly what it was that stopped it, but Israel hasn't bombed Iran, and a three-way hasn't taken place between Iraq, Israel and Iran. Only the US is fighting useless protracted war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Global financial markets did a meltdown during the Administration of George Bush's son! Son! I couldn't believe it. That man couldn't even talk straight. We made him President. Twice!
Well so many things are different in this reality. I suppose that I will have to get used to it being this way. Having seen what it is like in that other Universe, man have we gotten ourselves into some deep stuff.
When I arrived back at the evening train, there was the lift perfectly placed once again. I boarded and waited for the gang to arrive. 5:20 pm arrived and the train started out of the station with 4 of the 6 mezzanine seats still vacant. Two strangers sat across from me. Once we were underway, the 4 seats were taken by the people passing through from one end of the train to the other. No Car 5 Gang turned up. No messages from them lit up my BlackBerry. They all seem to have been left behind in that other universe.
Throughout the remainder of the week I came to realize just how many things remained the same. The train ran slow due to mechanical problems and other mysterious causes. WMATA scheduled the elevators at Union Station to be out of service for a three month renovation. If this were the universe I had come to know that elevator work would actually take six months and the escalators would be stopped at random intervals due to poor condition. I was beginning to wonder if this reality had a Princess Carly at all or a Big Bob, Trish, Mikey and all the other usual suspects. Maybe I will get shifted back to the old reality or an even better one.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Two Days on MARC and Metro
The last two days on MARC and Metro have been a true challenge even for the most seasoned of commuters. First the good news: For Candice it's going to be a girl. Well I guess it is already a girl, but the arrival is only imminent at that point in time.
Princess Carly gave her notice. She is heading to South Carolina to continue her education. Two weeks is all that remain for commuting for her. She claimed that she would not miss the MARC and Metro with all its delays and uncertainty. I told her, "you will miss it; every chance you get." It is so much like having ones own child head off to college. Her sunny disposition and honest naiveté all the while being a wild girl and The Princess will remain legendary in the chronicles of the Car 5 Gang. Although she will not be an intrepid commuter any longer, she will always be the Princess.
Mikey, suggested that Shelly might fill that position. Carly snapped back, "Oh, no no. There is only one Princess." I am afraid she is right. A farewell happy hour at the Center Café is scheduled for Friday the 13th (for everyone who remembers to not drive that day.)
The week was a nuisance every day but the snafus reached a climax by Thursday. Garage 1 at BWI reopened, the northbound platform work has not been completed, the northbound track replacement seems like it should have been done by now but hasn't and the second set of elevators to the pedestrian bridge are underway giving us all yet another bottleneck until the track work is done.
Thursday, an Acela train broke down at BWI and we got snagged behind three other MARC trains. How fortunate that Amtrak trains break down IN the stations while MARC trains breakdown between stations. Okay, that is an unfounded supposition, but that is the way is seems to us. 40 minutes late, we get out to face the bed bridge and the stairs.
Friday, the afternoon fubars began at Metro Center with the backlog of Red Line trains at 4:30. One needs to get going earlier and earlier as the quality of WMATA service suffers. After waiting 11 minutes for a crowd to amass on the platform, the train finally arrived well loaded with people who were not getting off at Metro Center. After a few did exit, we began the daily ritual of packing ourselves in as best as PM attitudes would permit.
We were treated to a particularly jerky ride and stops at Gallery Place and Judiciary Square. On our way to Union Station from Judiciary Square the operator made a particularly hard stop. Everyone was propelled forward as the train decelerated. With a collective reflexive step to keep from toppling the odor of cluster-fart wafted through the car. The vapors of a dozen lunch time selections filled the air. Nobody looked at anyone else hoping to avoid the uncomfortable position making eye contact after such an event.
We had a few regulars on the way home. The train crawled along behind several leading trains. There were no reports of breakdown but we still arrived 20 minutes late.
I was treated one again to the "rain on the train that falls mainly on the brain…" On the brain, that is, it I am leaning forward. Otherwise the ceiling mounted HVAC Condenser dribbles into my lap and hands when I try to catch it before I get soaked. Nobody knows exactly how rank and foul that water is after it has been backed up in the unit long enough for it to spill over and drench a passenger below. Sandy provided hand sanitizer to mitigate whatever might be lurking in that brew.
Ah, another week, come and gone.
Princess Carly gave her notice. She is heading to South Carolina to continue her education. Two weeks is all that remain for commuting for her. She claimed that she would not miss the MARC and Metro with all its delays and uncertainty. I told her, "you will miss it; every chance you get." It is so much like having ones own child head off to college. Her sunny disposition and honest naiveté all the while being a wild girl and The Princess will remain legendary in the chronicles of the Car 5 Gang. Although she will not be an intrepid commuter any longer, she will always be the Princess.
Mikey, suggested that Shelly might fill that position. Carly snapped back, "Oh, no no. There is only one Princess." I am afraid she is right. A farewell happy hour at the Center Café is scheduled for Friday the 13th (for everyone who remembers to not drive that day.)
The week was a nuisance every day but the snafus reached a climax by Thursday. Garage 1 at BWI reopened, the northbound platform work has not been completed, the northbound track replacement seems like it should have been done by now but hasn't and the second set of elevators to the pedestrian bridge are underway giving us all yet another bottleneck until the track work is done.
Thursday, an Acela train broke down at BWI and we got snagged behind three other MARC trains. How fortunate that Amtrak trains break down IN the stations while MARC trains breakdown between stations. Okay, that is an unfounded supposition, but that is the way is seems to us. 40 minutes late, we get out to face the bed bridge and the stairs.
Friday, the afternoon fubars began at Metro Center with the backlog of Red Line trains at 4:30. One needs to get going earlier and earlier as the quality of WMATA service suffers. After waiting 11 minutes for a crowd to amass on the platform, the train finally arrived well loaded with people who were not getting off at Metro Center. After a few did exit, we began the daily ritual of packing ourselves in as best as PM attitudes would permit.
We were treated to a particularly jerky ride and stops at Gallery Place and Judiciary Square. On our way to Union Station from Judiciary Square the operator made a particularly hard stop. Everyone was propelled forward as the train decelerated. With a collective reflexive step to keep from toppling the odor of cluster-fart wafted through the car. The vapors of a dozen lunch time selections filled the air. Nobody looked at anyone else hoping to avoid the uncomfortable position making eye contact after such an event.
We had a few regulars on the way home. The train crawled along behind several leading trains. There were no reports of breakdown but we still arrived 20 minutes late.
I was treated one again to the "rain on the train that falls mainly on the brain…" On the brain, that is, it I am leaning forward. Otherwise the ceiling mounted HVAC Condenser dribbles into my lap and hands when I try to catch it before I get soaked. Nobody knows exactly how rank and foul that water is after it has been backed up in the unit long enough for it to spill over and drench a passenger below. Sandy provided hand sanitizer to mitigate whatever might be lurking in that brew.
Ah, another week, come and gone.
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