Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice

The public transportation in this area needs some serious help.

On tuesday I left work early to go vote. But because of a thunderstorm that day, there were massive metro delays. I waited 20 minutes to catch an orange line train. The worst part was that for every one super crowded sharing your kidney orange line train that went by, two or three nearly empty blue line trains went by!! I don't understand why they didn't switch some of those blue to orange to help get people home.

So yeah, I missed my bus, caught the next one, and just barely made it in to vote.

Then yesterday, the same thing happened!!! I got to my bus stop just in time to watch my bus leave the station. Fantastic.

I decided to catch the 505 instead, which comes sooner than the next 552 but requires me to walk a bit further to get home. But when that bus arrived, it offloaded and went out of service! We were told we'd have to wait for the NEXT bus (30 minutes later). The people at the front of the line totally flipped out. They also called the driver's supervisor. After about 10 minutes we were on the bus. There was nothing wrong with the bus. The driver just didn't want to drive anymore that day. Grrrr.

All the extra walking and standing for the last 2 days has really aggravated my knee. I hurt it about a week ago. The internet says that since it is not swelling, clicking, or grinding, it is probably something minor and I just need to keep off the knee to give it time to heal. It had been feeling mostly better until this week. I think I reopened whatever damage I had going on in there. Sad.

In other news, my dog makes a terrible guard dog. I ordered pizza last night (got home so incredibly late, I could not cope with cooking) and when the delivery guy arrived, my dog barked very ferociously. But as soon as the door opened and she saw he was carrying food, she stops barking and starts wagging her tail at him as hard as she can. He was her new best friend.

Stupid dog. If anyone wants to rob us, they'll just need to bring a doggy treat.

I spent nearly an hour stuck in a tunnel this morning.

There was a door malfunction on the red line, which caused a major backup on the blue and orange lines. I'm not really sure how that happens because as far as I knew, the red line tracks don't touch the other two line's tracks.

The worse part was that the driver of my train kept inching forward then sliding back, then inching forward and sliding back. I was so amazingly motion sick by the end.

I got to work 15 minutes late and decided to skip my first meeting. I was already late for it and I couldn't promise myself I wouldn't throw up.

I'm feeling a bit better now.

It's so weird how I never get sick on boats, but put me in a car or a train and it's all over. Clearly I was destined for the sea!

- Stand to the right, walk to the left. Tattoo that mantra to your heart and never forget it.

- I absolutely love the "gentlemen" that knock me down or hit me with their bags as they run to catch the train. So polite of them. The best part? The next train is in two minutes. There's never a need to run.

- Also I love the people who push me down the escalators. It's not like I have anywhere to go. There are people in front of me too. I guess I can take solace in knowing the people in front of me will probably soften my fall.

- When men sit down next to me, they expand to take up all of their space and half of mine. When women sit down next to me, they hit me with their purse before sitting. I don't understand why they do this to me.

- Tourists, at 8am, we commuters are not as excited about the day as you are. Please use your inside voice.

- I don't understand why people get up to let me out of my seat before the train even starts to slow down. They end up standing around looking stupid because I'm not getting up until the train comes to a stop.

- I also don't understand the people who won't let me leave the train. They stand there like stupid cows, blocking the door as I shout "Excuse me!"

- And I wish just once that a businessman would offer his seat to the old, injured, or pregnant. I have a bad back but I still give up my seat because I feel guilty and none of the guys around me look like they plan to budge.

It really annoys me when people decide to jump in front of a train right before rush hour. Can't they find a cleaner, less obtrusive way to die?

Thankfully metro was able to clean this guy up in only three hours.

I still don't expect my commute to be easy tonight.

Metro deals with fourth derailment in two weeks


WASHINGTON -- It was another tough commute for Metro riders Wednesday morning after a fourth train derailment in two weeks.

A huge piece of maintenance equipment went off the tracks near the Cheverly rail station on the Orange Line.

"This is highly unusual," Metro spokesperson Steven Taubenkibel tells WTOP.

In the latest incident, the front wheels of a massive piece of equipment, known as a prime mover, popped off and damaged the tracks as it headed toward New Carrollton. A couple hundred feet of those tracks had to be fixed near the Cheverly station.

Two weeks ago, another large piece of maintenance equipment -- a vacuum truck that picks up debris along the rails -- derailed twice on the Orange Line. First in the morning near the Clarendon station, and in the afternoon near the East Falls Church Stop.

Metro says the wheels literally fell off the truck and it is still out of commission.

In addition, a team of investigators is taking a look at a section of track near the Mt. Vernon Square/7th Street/Convention Center station on the Yellow and Green lines. An empty, passenger train derailed at that station on the same day there were issues with the vacuum truck on the Orange Line.

Metro has had track issues at the Mt. Vernon Square/7th Street/Convention Center station in the past. In 2007, a Green Line Metro train derailment injured 23 people there.

One protective guard rail has now been installed along that section of track and another is scheduled to be installed in a couple of weeks.

No one has been injured in any of these episodes.

"These are all different in terms of the different type of equipment," Taubenkibel says. "Any time there is an incident we'll follow up, but the system is very safe."

Last night I had ben cut my hair, but I don't think I asked him to cut enough off. This winter was especially harsh and dry, so I have crazy split ends. I think next time I shower, I'll have ben take off another inch. That should help.

In other news, google docs taunts me. I learned that you can set it up so you have offline access to your files. This delighted me because then I could take my shiny little eee pc onto the bus and work on wedding stuff. EXCEPT you can only view spreadsheets. Not edit them. Curses.

( A TMI Train Story )

I thrashed so much in my sleep last night that I actually hurt my neck and back. I had a hard time falling asleep until I remembered that pain killers make the badness go away. It took me a long time to remember that though.

When I woke up, I discovered that my dog had peed an the floor in the middle of the night. She hasn't had an accident in such a long time! Why THIS morning???

After cleaning up the mess, I was behind schedule. I managed to get out to the bus stop on time, but then realize I forgot my badge. I didn't want to miss my bus though, so I didn't go back to get it.

30 minutes later, the bus was still not there. Another person waiting called to find out why. They said a bus broke down so there was only one running (very behind schedule) and they didn't have a spare driver to send a replacement. So they didn't know when a bus would be coming.

I got fed up and started to walk home to find my badge. As soon as I crossed the street, the bus arrives. And does not stop.

I couldn't find my badge because I put it "someplace safe" right before the holidays. I'll probably never see it again.

Eventually I gave up and started walking towards a different bus stop that I know also goes to the train station. I was about a block away when the bus arrived. And did not stop.

And then it started to rain.

30 soggy minutes later I catch the next bus. By this point I feel awful. Cold, wet, sleep deprived... And the heater on the bus is not working. *sigh* Oh, and then the bus got caught in traffic.

At least once I got to the train station, things stopped exploding. My biggest problem was a guy on a cell phone that was blocking everyone and was too into his call to hear us yelling at him to move. I'm at the point with these cell phone people that the next one is going to have his phone ripped out of his hands and thrown into the middle of the street.

I was only 2 hours late to work. I had over 200 emails waiting for me. I want to go back to bed.