My BART Adventure

Whew! I'm finally home.

This afternoon we had a going-away party at a local diner for a collegue who's leaving (even though she was sick and couldn't come). I hadn't eaten lunch so I ordered some breakfast for an early supper. I was ready to go about 5 or so but still had a few things to do at work so, instead of heading home like a smart person, I went back to the office. Big mistake.

About an hour later I headed home but when I got down to the BART station there were crowds around the gates. People were only coming out and not going in. I hung out a bit to see what was going on and heard a BART cop say the station was closed. As I left to go back to the office to wait it out, I heard someone say that a train had run over someone. Oh, no!

I checked online to see what was going on. One website said there was a person under a train, condition unknown. They figured it might be a couple hours before the trains were running through the station again. In the meantime, trains were being sent back at the neighboring stations.

The next station in my direction is pretty close so Gunther and I decided to hoof it. It only took a few minutes to get there but the lines to get through the gates were ridiculous. Gunther was reluctant to stand in line and was getting hungry so we went to a nearby Chipotle. I was still pretty full from my early diner breakfast but couldn't resist sharing a basket of crunchy tacos with black beans and rice. Yum!

That wasted about a half hour and by that time the lines had dispersed and when we got down to the platform the trains were running in both directions again. My train came in about 5 minutes so I left Gunther in the City and settled in for my commute. I even got a seat!

But that wasn't the end of my evening's adventure. We were in the tunnel in Oakland when the train pulled to a stop and an announcement came over the PA system that there had been an earthquake so we had to hold there for at least 5 minutes. I didn't think that would be so bad but after each earthquake they have to do a track inspection so we had to go very slowly for a long time. I overheard a station announcement when the doors were open that the quake was a 5.6 centered in Alum Rock down near Fremont where I used to live. That's pretty big.

Hootie Dooty Jury Duty

I had jury duty today and the nice thing is that I can check the courthouse website the evening before to see if I have to actually report the next morning. Lucky me, I didn't have to.

The bad thing is that there's an afternoon session as well so I had to wait until 11am to see if I'd have to go in. So I did a little work at home in the a.m. then checked the website at 10:50 and they already had updated the page to say no one was needed for the afternoon either. Lucky me again!

I showered and headed out for work. I checked the closest BART station for parking spots but there were none so I went my usual station figuring I could park in a nearby lot and walk in if there weren't any places in the BART lots. I checked a couple of the closest lots anyway just in case. And lucky me, there was a spot just waiting for me!

I made it to work before 1:30 and worked until about 7:30. I didn't check the BART schedule to see when the next train was and at that time of night I could be waiting 20 minutes if I just miss one. I got down to the platform and a train was sitting there waiting with the doors closed. A minute or so later, the doors opened again. Now if you think I'm going to tell you that was my train, you'd be wrong. But the next one, a couple minutes later, was. So it was the perfect end to my lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky day.

Just Missed

I was happily working along last night finishing up a few items before leaving for our brief one-day midweek holiday when I remembered I needed to get to my library before it closed at 8pm. I had two books on hold that I wanted to pick up to read today.

I hurried as much as I could all the way back home: from rushing through the July 4 holiday vacationers in the City, to pre-walking through the BART train so I was positioned for a quick departure from the station, to speeding along the surface roads and taking the highway, to just skimming the back end of a yellow light...

but I was 5 minutes too late. The lights were off and the sign read "Your Library Is Closed." I'm just glad the date by which I must pick them up or risk paying a fine is Saturday. I still have some time.

Hard to Ignore

I was sitting near the door of the BART train yesterday morning—just one stop away from the end of my trip—when the nastiest-smelling person came through the door across from me. She was dressed in long grey robe-like clothes and carelessly dropped several huge shopping bags which thudded down by the door. She grunted to the woman sitting beside the door to "Get out! Get out!" while gesticulating widely. The seated passenger slid over but still the newcomer continued her diatribe of rejection: "Get out!"

I concentrated hard on my book trying to avoid any kind of eye contact in case she might decide to give up on her chosen victim and come after the seat I was in. I wasn't so lucky.

She started gesturing and grunting in my direction but she really wasn't speaking very loudly—nor was she making any sudden moves my way—so I was able to sucessfully ignore her. The train soon began to slow and I was proud to get up out of my seat and quietly leave the train without having given in to the unreasonable demands of a crazy person.

Note to Self: Take a Book

TagFest: BART

The BART lines split just south of the station I go to every workday. One line comes my way and I actually live closer to a station on that line but I like not having to wait so long for a train (since twice as many trains flow through my station) so I drive the three miles over the hill.

After 7 or so in the evening, one of the lines stops running and the trains are spaced further apart (up to 20 minutes) so if I'm at work late I only have half the trains as usual and often have to wait longer for them. If I were smart, I'd check the schedule before leaving work.

Tonight I didn't check but it turns out I would've just caught a train had I not been stopped short just as I went through the fare gates. My friend Corrina was heading home from work in the Mission and we just happened to accidentally coordinate our schedules. We chatted for a couple minutes and when I got down to the platform the signs said I had 18 minutes to wait for my train. Ugh. I hate when that happens. At least I had a book.

Things People Should and Shouldn't Do

1. People should have their headlights on when it's raining.
2. People who have the right-of-way at a four-way stop shouldn't wait until my car has come to a complete stop before they lazily move out into the intersection.
3. People should go the speed limit unless they have a really good reason not to.
4. People should have their left-turn-signal on while waiting at a red light when I'm turning left across from them.
5. People shouldn't smoke and walk slowly in front of me down a busy sidewalk.
6. People shouldn't abruptly stop walking forcing me to run into them or others.
7. People shouldn't come out of a shop door at full-speed without checking if there is traffic on the sidewalk.
8. People should play their music quietly on BART.
9. People should save their loud, boring phone converations for when I'm not sitting directly in front of them trying to read quietly.
10. People shouldn't walk into the restaurant where I'm eating lunch and loudly harrass the staff with colorful epithets.
11. People should learn more than one song before spending all afternoon singing outside my office window.
12. People should learn not to slam their apartment doors.
13. People should leave me comments about other things people should or shouldn't do.

Yuck

I saw vomit on the stairs at the BART station on my way home. I'm not thinking I really need to eat supper tonight. Maybe some popcorn later. Maybe.

BART Station Face-Off

Now competing for your musical attention...

In one corner, a solo cellist outside the Starbucks is featuring the soothing melody of classical refrains...

While over by the exit to the plaza, a mariachi guitarist sings songs of his people.

Who will win? Or will the cacophony serve only to alienate the transit-riding public?

Thoughts of the Day

I'm still not at 100% and it seems the lingering super-phlegm is interfering with my ability to read comfortably on BART. So on the way home today, instead of reading -- and feeling nauseous -- I just sat there and thought about...

Identity
The new gameshow, Identity, premiered last night. The premise is to match up 12 strangers with 12 identities which may range from sumo wrestler to shark attack victim to professional bull rider to retired English professor. If you match all 12 you get $500k. Some of the strangers have obvious visual clues (a sumo outfit or cowboy hat) which the player can easily match to one of the identities on the list, while others are less obvious but still have visual clues (white-bearded, argyle-sweater-wearing older gentleman, dark-haired woman in a bikini top with a long Hawaii print wrapskirt).

Then the potential matches get harder and it's pretty much just guessing at that point. I found it entertaining for a little while but the easy matches irritated me with their predictability and the hard guesses annoyed me because really there wasn't much intelligence involved with guessing. I won't be watching it again, I don't think.

Korma Revisited
Yesterday while walking to the burrito shop, we walked by one of the four Indian restaurants within a few blocks of my office. I checked out the menu in the window and they have chicken korma for $8. Woo hoo!

The place I went to for lunch last week didn't have korma so I ended up getting chicken tikka kabaab which was too hot even when I told the guy I needed it mild. Paul got the chicken tikka masala and his was milder than mine. Plus the Bollywood music was hellaloud. We checked out the closest place to the office on the way back and they're quite pricy with korma at $13. Paul and I will be going to Little India on Thursday and I will report back on the $8 korma. I hope it's good! There's only one place to go after that.

Loud Music on BART
I like listening to my iPod on BART. The headphones discourage strangers speaking to me and the tunes provides a nice background to whatever I'm reading or thinking about. I don't listen to it very loud; I like being able to hear any announcements that might come over the PA system, you know, in case of emergencies. There aren't any signs banning it or anything but most people know it's not nice to play a boombox or radio out loud on BART.

Unfortunately the guy sitting behind me this morning didn't get that particular memo. I don't like calling attention to myself so I wasn't about to turn around and ask him to turn it down. No one else was brave enough to do it either so we all suffered through his jams the whole way in. It's sad because the more we let people like him get away with being rude, the more he's going to think he can do it. Or he just doesn't care.

The Nerve
Speaking of not respecting social boundaries, my phone rang on Saturday night around 10pm and the second ring was a higher pitched tone meaning the number was known to me. Now all my close relatives live in either in the Eastern or Central time zone and I don't really talk to my friends here on the phone that much so I couldn't think of who it might be. Of course, my first thought was that something bad must've happened somewhere to have someone calling me that late (which would be much later for most people I talk to).

But it wasn't a friend or a family member. No, when I checked my Caller ID the phone number was my office number. Say what??! Just who would be at work on a Saturday at 10pm much less calling me from work on a Saturday at 10pm!! Obviously, someone really really needed my help.

I thought, well, maybe our new IT guy wasn't back from his father's funeral in Oregon yet and something serious had happened to a computer. I could see someone calling me for that. But no, there was no computer emergency. There was no emergency at all.

In fact, as I listened to the never-ending message being left, I couldn't understand why this person would be calling me at all. It turns out she was asking about a situation she had talked with me about on Friday. She had shown me a letter to see if it made sense. It seemed okay to me but I had no experience in the matter so I didn't see how I could help her that much. I just don't know why she thought calling me about it, much less on a weekend, late in the evening, was appropriate. Really, the nerve.

Up & Down Day

This morning...
I was late leaving the house for work...
but then...
I got green lights the whole drive to BART.

At noon...
I saw some drunk guy pissing right on the sidewalk*...
but then...
The steak burrito I had for lunch was delicious.

Tonight...
The BART car was full when I got on after work...
but then...
I got a seat at the next stop.**

*Seriously! We were walking back from picking up our burritos when all of a sudden this guy pulled it right out and starting peeing right into the base of a tree. It was so disgusting. I nearly lost my appetite.

**Another woman and I were about equidistant from the open seat and she made a move towards it at about the same time as I did but she caught my eye and mouthed "Do you want to sit down?" Now I could've been nice and said no, but I had six more stops to go and I wasn't about to stand the whole way if I didn't have to.

BART Detour

Just my luck tonight I got stuck behind a train that had a medical emergency. I was in a full car and people weren't very happy. We had to go three stations north of where our route normally goes, then reverse back through those stations to get back on track (so to speak).

BTW, I really don't think you need to be calling your friends every five minutes to give them an update on which station you're at and bitch and moan about still being stuck on the train. Take a chill pill! It's not like you can do anything about it. Just relax!

Of course, I had my iPod on and my nose in a book. Sure pays being prepared.

Is Fainting Contagious?

This morning when I got on BART there were no seats to be had. So I leaned up against the wall near the doors and took out my book. When we got to the Coliseum, a bunch of people got on, probably coming from the Oakland Airport. So we were rather tightly packed in.

The woman standing to my left was having a hard time staying upright. She kept losing control and almost falling into me as her eyes would close and her head would drop. Several times I had to put my book up to block her falling into my face. I don't know if she was feeling faint or just falling asleep.

Whatever her problem was it must have been catching because when we were in the tube and not quite yet to Embarcadero I started feeling weak and tingly. I began to sweat and my skin felt cold. I was losing touch with my world, its edges fading and spinning. I turned and faced the wall, closed my eyes, and tried to concentrate on breathing in and out, in and out. I really thought I was going to black out.

I was able to hold it together until we arrived at Embarcadero and I snagged a seat freed up by the exodus of commuters. As soon as I sat down, I felt better. My vision began clearing and my heartbeat slowed down though my feet began to tingle. I was glad to have a couple stops to rest a bit before heading out into the sunshine and work.

Since I've here at the office I've had a headache the whole time and it's been hard to concentrate. Yeah, I'll be leaving work early today, no doubt.

On My Way Home

On the platform of the BART stations, as you're waiting for your train, occasionally they announce over the PA and the displays when the next trains will be. I can take trains from two different lines so I don't have to pay attention to any timetable. I know a train I can ride will come along every 5 or 10 minutes with the trains from the other two lines in between.

Tonight when I reached the platform around 5:15 I was shocked when the displays announced the next train to arrive (one I could ride) was 13 minutes away. There was a delay right during the highest commuting times. Yippee!

When my train finally pulled up, it looked pretty full already but I was one of the first ones in so I wasn't pressed too closely to my fellow travellers. And I must be having good karma cuz two stops later, a guy got up to exit and I got a seat. Good thing too as I'm reading a hardcover and you know they're not the easiest to read while standing and holding on at the same time.

There are several routes I can take driving from the BART station to my house. At one point I can go either straight or right. There's no left turn lane at this intersection so when there's a long line in the left lane I normally take the right turn option to avoid getting caught behind slow vehicles turning left. That's what I did today. Might not have been the best choice.

A couple intersections later traffic was really heavy. I didn't think that much of it since it was around 6 and there are a lot of cars on the roads at that time of day. But then I saw the flashing lights and the fire truck. The right lane ahead of me was blocked and a sheriff's bubble-top was blocking the left turn lane facing me. I was glad I was in the left lane and I made it through with not too much delay. I hope whoever it was is okay.

Later I crossed under the highway and then drove parallel to it for a few hundred yards. Boy, I'm sure glad I didn't take the highway option home. There were flashers and ambulances up there too. It looked like traffic was down to one or two lanes. People sure weren't getting home on time for dinner tonight.

This Morning's Commute

I thought I was ahead of the game this morning when I caught the last eight-car train into the City. Little did I know I would be lagging far behind by the time I got into work this morning.

We were just outside the West Oakland station (the last East Bay stop before heading underwater through the tube to San Fran) when the train operator came over the PA system to say we'd be stopping for just a few minutes. But when we arrived at the station, we were told that the train was heading back the way it came, that there was a fire outside the Embarcadero station (the first SF stop), and that no trains were going that way.

So I got off and continued to read my book out on the platform. It was quite windy and cool so I wove my way through the crowds and took the escalator down to the station to get a bit warmer. I found an empty bench and thought I'd wait it out until I could see what was going to be happening.

Well, I wasn't the only one to find that bench. Soon an entire school of first-graders (okay, I exaggerate) was sitting beside me, yelling and bumping me. So I got up and went to wait elsewhere. I'm glad I did because soon I heard my name and there was my boss, having also found himself kicked off his train on the way to work.

He had heard that we should go back one stop and take a bus over the bridge so we went up on the opposite platform. As soon as we got there, they announced, "Everyone needs to leave the station. Shuttle buses will be coming soon." So we went outside the station to wait. And we waited. And waited. Then they moved us over to the other side of the station and we waited. And waited. At least it wasn't raining today.

After while I started hearing announcements coming from the station, so I told my boss I'd go over and see what I could find out. Sure enough they were starting to let people back in and trains would soon be heading through the tube. So we shuffled in and hurried up the stairs. We were lucky and got on the first train before too many people were on the platform. Fifteen minutes later we were at work.

I left home a little before 9 and arrived at work just before 11. I can normally do it in less than an hour.

A Friday Morning

I woke up this morning just before the alarm was to go off. I love that feeling. I'm more rested and haven't had any lovely dreams rudely interrupted. This morning I was dreaming about the book I'm reading so I was excited to get on the train and start reading.

I had a fried egg with a whole wheat English muffin, a small glass of V8, water and my supplements (multi-vitamin, fish oil, C, calcium) while catching up on baseball scores from yesterday. My favorite pitcher, Jeff Weaver, now with the Angels, pitched two innings, had one strikeout and gave up one hit.

When I hit the road it was cloudy and there were a few raindrops. At one point in my drive to the BART station, I turn over an overpass and I can see the City with Mt. Tam in the background. This morning the sun was streaming down on the City and it shone like the Emerald City. Very pretty.

With it being Friday I thought I would check the parking lot that's almost under the BART tracks providing a nice shield from the rain for my walk to the station. It was full when I got there so I parked in my usual street spot and walked in. It's my daily concession to the need for excercise. I'm so bad.

I like to ride in the first car as it's normally the least crowded in the mornings and I can get a seat. This morning was not the case. I think an entire high school was on the train. I had to stand the whole way. It sucked. I was really looking forward to reading my book and it's hard to read a hardcover and hang on at the same time.