I Should've Kicked Her Down the Stairs

With the weekend storm, it was obvious that commuting on Tuesday was going to be a struggle.  Thinking about it and talking it over with Dave, we figured given all the options, the train would still be my best bet because at least then I wouldn't have to deal with unfamiliar detours and crazy drivers.  I might be a little late, but I'd be safe.

I took an early train in and still got to work about 15 minutes late (so about 45 minutes past the regular arrival time for that train).  No big deal--they'd only had an opportunity to work on the rails for about 8 hours, in the dark and it was still windy and rainy.  I figured the evening would be about the same, but hopefully better.  Anticipating a longer trip in both directions, I brought my Kindle and a couple skeins of yarn to work on some crochet projects.

We got off to a good start going home, but at some point came to a pretty abrupt stop.  There were only two conductors (as opposed to three) and they weren't the normal guys for that train.  It had been slow going up to that point, so it wasn't a huge surprise that we stopped.  It happens in good weather sometimes.  We sat for about 15 minutes before the power went out. Now, it was about 5:15 pm or so, still cloudy and becoming stormy, so it was pretty dark.  Ridership was significantly down yesterday (people dealing with power out at home or at work, kids home from school or maybe just decided to drive instead), so there wasn't a huge raucous among the riders.  People were generally of the same opinion--we expected to be delayed.  What was odd, however, is that the conductors weren't making announcements about what was going on, especially since the power went out.

I'll interrupt here to say that on Monday, the MBTA--Boston's public transit--suspended service mid-afternoon,before the brunt of the storm hit us.  One of the statements I read from the MBTA said, "the safety of our employees, customers and infrastructure is our number one priority."  And I was glad to see that part of that safety meant not running trains in hurricane-strength winds.

After another 5 minutes, a conductor walked through the car I was in, but didn't say anything.  When he was almost out, a rider hollered, "What's going on?  Are you going to make an announcement?"  Apparently this guy didn't get the memo because his response (to a complete innocuous, reasonable, and mild-mannered question) was, "We're trying to get the train running!"  The guy, upset and reasonably so at that response, said, "Well an announcement would be nice!"  To which the conductor got the last word of, "We're doing our best."  Well, apparently not because we were still stopped and still in the dark, literally and figuratively.  We had no idea why.  A few minutes later, we learned we were being hooked up to the train behind us when a sudden bump jerked the train, rather abruptly.  Following that, the other conductor came through and made an announcement that we were hooked up and would be pushed to our destination.  But that would require our normally express train (ha!) to make all the local stops.

It took an extra 1 1/2 hours for me to get to my train stop last night.  And frankly, despite almost losing battery in my phone (I was down to 5%), missing an appointment, being hungry and desperately needing to pee, I was ok with it.  Yeah, it sucks, but I knew this was a risk when I chose to ride the train and luckily since the train wasn't crowded people were on their best behavior.

Until we were in line to finally get off the train at my stop.  A woman (older, maybe 60s?) who I see often and is generally cordial, polite and makes standard "train conversation" (random musings with people you don't know) with other train people (not me--I generally keep to myself) decided to engage me while standing behind me in line.  I was decked in my rain jacket, hood up and tightened.  My hood has a string that lets you adjust the fit of the hood not only around your face, but also through the back, so an elastic band hangs off the back of the hood. 

This woman pulled the string. 

Not once, but repeatedly for several seconds. And she wasn't just pulling the string, she was rocking my head and neck back and forth.

Woman: This is dangerous. (pulling the string, yanking my head)

Me: Yeah....(completely flabbergasted, then pissed) so why don't you stop pulling it.  Because touching someone you don't know is a real good idea.  You don't touch strangers.

Woman (dropping string): I didn't mean...

Me: It is never appropriate to touch a stranger.  Ever.

She didn't say anything else and then it turned out that the door behind us was being opened, necessitating that we turn around and now I was behind her.

How old were you when you learned it wasn't ok to touch a stranger?  Why do people feel it's appropriate to put their hands on someone else?  I have friends who are befuddled when someone they don't know thinks it's ok to touch their baby or child without asking.  I'm not sure which is more shocking--that someone would touch a child they don't know or a grown adult who might just deck them. 

I was completely ok with being stuck on the train for hours, in the dark, but why would another person in that same situation think it's a good idea to doing something so inappropriate and irritating to a complete stranger?  I feel confident that this woman has ridden the train for enough years (I've been on it for 5 1/2 and have seen her often), that she knows the one way train commuters get on edge is dealing with a late train.

All I know is that I hope she was scared as hell knowing I was walking behind her as we exited the train.  Because it was all I could do to not kick her down the stairs.

We Survived

Well, luckily Hurricane Sandy didn't hit Massachusetts nearly as hard as was anticipated.  It was forecast to be so bad that the governor closed all schools, colleges & universities.  Which meant that the university I work at closed for the first time in almost forever. Possibly since World War II.  Basically this place never closes.

Anywho, the storm came and didn't directly hit the coast, instead doing much more damage south of us.  We did go through heavy rain and extreme winds.  I'm pretty sure the wind didn't stop all.day.long.  It was so bad that when we went to bed last night, after things were starting to calm down, I said to Dave that I could no longer tell if the wind was blowing because the sound was so constant I'd become immune to it.

But the best part of the whole thing is that we didn't lose power.  YAY!  After last Halloween's freak snowstorm, I wasn't looking forward to a hurricane damaged version of the same. It was still dark when I left this morning, but I don't think we lost any trees.  Just a lot of leaves and small twigs and branches littered the roads nearby.  A lot of people in our town and towards the coast are dealing with much worse clean up, so my heart goes out to them and I hope they remain safe. 

Thinking of all my friends and family closer to the impact of the storm:  Hope you all are safe and well!

New Rule

When at the gym, if you insist on walking around the locker room buck naked (no towel, no bra/panties, buck.naked.), please have the decency to follow common etiquette of walking on the right in the hallways. 

I would prefer not to turn the corner and run into your boobs.

Really.

This Post Would Be Better With Pictures

Last Saturday, Dave and I went kayaking, but I didn't think to take my camera or my phone, so I have no pictures.  Which would make this story far more interesting.  I'll try with words instead.

We dropped into the Concord River not far from home and thought we'd paddle south toward the Old North Bridge.  We were going against the current and the wind, apparently so we'd have an easier time getting back (HA!) but we never actually considered how far that would be.  Seriously we thought it would be an easy little jaunt down the river.  The day was gorgeous, sunny, and warm with a slight breeze, and the leaves on the trees along the river bank were starting to turn in to pretty yellows and reds.  A few fishermen were out and a couple other kayakers, but for the most part the river was empty.  Empty enough that we saw a few heron at different points, apparently "fishing" for breakfast.  Nice and tranquil.

Until we were paddling for about an hour and still weren't at the bridge.  Three times I thought to myself, "It should be just beyond this bend."  Each time I was wrong.  We reached a fork in the river and Dave, ahead of me, asked me which way.  I honestly thought we were supposed to go to the left and said so.

Again, I was wrong. 

Turns out it was just a large cove. so I turned around, paddled out of the cove and almost made it to the turn to continue back down the river. 

Now at this point, my arms are sore because I'm not used to paddling for so long against the current and wind.  I'm starting to get blisters on my thumbs from the grip (and because I forgot my gloves and don't have squishy paddle grips,yet).  So I won't lie that I was mildly irritated when Dave called me from the back of the cove.

Dave: Colleen, come here.

Me (muttering to myself): This better be good.

I turned around and just as I started to paddle back, something popped up out of the water. And I swear it looked me in the eye.  We had a moment where I thought, "What the hell is that?" and it thought, "Ahh! I'm gonna die!"

I paddled back to Dave and saw he was looking at some sort of wooden, branch-like plant that was home to probably half a dozen turtles sunning themselves.

Ok, it was good.

There was another smaller plant of the same type of to the right.  It really just looked like leafless tree branches poking out of the water and there were a bunch of 4-7 inch turtles, I think they were painted turtles because they didn't look big enough to be snapping turtles.  Apparently we paddled not into a cove but into a turtle sanctuary!  We probably saw about 30 turtles either on the branches, dropping into the water or poking their heads out of the surface (must've been what I saw when I turned my boat around to come back).  It actually made me nervous to paddle out because I didn't want to hit any of them.

So after spending a little while watching the turtles and getting out of our paddling groove, we decided just to head back since our bodies were communicating their exhaustion.

By the way, I do not think it was easier on the way back.