Daily Bloggery 2009-04-21: Locomotive Breath

One of the ironies of not having a van anymore is that I am traveling more often now. Of course I now have a very good reason to travel. Most of my trips have been worry-free and generally fun. This trip, well, not so much. On the inbound bus-train-train-train run, I had travel issues of one sort or another on every single leg of the trip to Fremont and a doozy on the way home.

Bus to Light Rail: I try to board at my usual spot, and the driver is a snot. "Walk over there and wait till my break is done to board!" he snarled at me. I understand, drivers need breaks. I'd rather ride with a driver after his break than with a cranky one with an attitude problem.

Light Rail Leg 1: I get a guy behind me raving to and about his girlfriend, loudly, over a cellphone. I cannot wear the iPod earphones on LRT because I need to listen for the stop I need to get off for to catch LRT Gold to Amtrak.

Light Rail Leg 2: Guy on train wanted to sell me a bus pass for $1. Typical scammer. I get this all the time. Most people selling bus passes do not let you see the pass until they have your money, and by and large it is petty fraud. I needed another bus pass like I needed another nostril so I declined.

Amtrak: This one was a double header. Item the first is the guy who needed to borrow a power adapter to charge his cellphone. One of the reasons that Amtrack rocks is that every seat has a 120 VAC socket for charging portable electronics like cellphones and iPods. His phone has a mini-usb plug, so I lend him mine. I ask him what stop and he says San Jose. I tell him to drop it back by when the train reaches Hayward, the last stop before I get off at Fremont. I do not see him again until after Hayward, at which time I am now in need of my charger.

Item the second is of my own doing: I give Gwenny the wrong ETA for picking me up at the Fremont station . . . . Oops.

The trip home is a whole lot better thanks to chatting with Gwenny, and the iPhone app Bejeweled 2. Gwenny got he hooked on this app on Facebook -- the perfect non-demanding iPhone game. Too many iPhone games are way too demanding to play on a train, and I do not really want to whip out WarCraft 3 on the train. There's also the lack of network connectivity on Amtrak, so WoW is a non-option.

Anyway, things went smoothly for the three train trips, but while waiting for the last bus ride, this scruffy looking, excitable, strange little man starts talking to me about how his landlord's niece is trying to get him tossed into prison for "touching her" and how the cops would not believe him when he said he did not . . . how his cat ate half his Subway sandwhich yesterday . . . how the landlord's niece broke into his room and stole his lighter . . . and far more about the mechanics of meph use and prison rape than I ever wanted to know. I did not have my iPod on because I'm concerned about keeping my perception capabilities unimpaired. No transit cops in line of sight, naturally. I could not escape this clown because we were waiting for the same bus . . . once the bus got there I got on and got as far from this individual as I could. As far as I'm concerned, this guy is either a sad sack fishing for some sympathy, is enagaing in some kind of psychological projection or is actually having fantasies about the kid.

This visit had some real highlights: the walk to the local Internet cafe was nice, and the place had good brew and chow, even if the bandwidth was, shall we say, not so good. Jenni made us dinner on Sunday: beef Strogonoff with homemade noodles. SGL was in the 80-110 all weekend. There was the Naxx raid as well, with all the phat lewts (see last post).

Next trip there is Beltane weekend.

What Am I Thankful For?

A very partial list . . .

Physical: A great job, a roof over my head, enough cash to pay the bills, bandwidth and the means to use it.
Social: Mom, Dad, Ron, Sophia and Sam. Friends like Michelle, David, Kayla, Matt, Richard, Sammy, Duncan, Isabel, Tim, Kate, Sue, Rachael, Don, Rob, Kajir, Heather, Dave, Diane, Gene, Aries, Nika, Mystique, Harley, Rita, Bug, Shalyn and Hillary.
Other: An awesome health care team led by Dr. Nelson . . . the fact that the evil that is Shrub will be out of office in about a year . . . RT and e-Tran . . . PCJ and Panera . . .the music that helped save my life this year: Seanan McGuire, The Elders, Emerald Rose, Leslie Fish, James Blunt, Tempest, Escape Key, Flogging Molly, Roy Zimmerman, Loreena Mckinnett, Niel Young and Weird Al Yankovic.
Media: Serenity / Firefly, D&D, World of Warcraft.

SotR 2007-11-20

My cough is easing a bit but it is still not quite right. My doc says it cannot be allergens from the wolves here or I'd have reacted right away. She had the nurse take a culture of my throat. My right leg has three or four very small, shallow wounds left. The drainage is minimal.

On the lighter side, at least I've found a bus within walking distance of the house that runs on Sundays. Not only that, it also connects to the bus I need for work on Saturday! This is a big help, but the last bus from work still runs too early for me to use to get home. I am beginning to feel a bit housebound on Sundays when I don't game. Not to mention that I'd really like to see Beowulf.

/checks eTran schedule . . .

Nope, no way to get to either PCJ, but it looks like I may be able to make it it to Panera Bread on Howe on Sundays. Bus 56 to Meadowview Light Rail to Marconi Arcade and Bus 87 up Howe Ave. Just like my basic wound care run every Monday.

Slight change of direction here: you remember my rant about transit the other day? I received more unwanted insight into human sexuality today from one side of a too-loud cell phone call. What is it with you people? What transpires in bed between you and your partner(s) should be between you, them and the Gods. Why in the name of Freya do you have to talk about it so loudly that no passenger lacking headphones could avoid hearing about your happy times in the sack?

Don't get me wrong: I have NOTHING against sex. Consensual sex is nothing less than sacred. Nor is the annoyance from what I overheard the result of frustration in a guy who is currently not in a relationship. I'm annoyed at the sheer inappropriateness of having this conversation in a public place.

This week's going to be a fun one . . . hell-i-day off Thursday for Turkey Day, and Wednesday I get off at 4 or so, Finally, a day where I can catch the bus home without the quarter-mile "I hope I get there in time" walk! The geekend will be bizarre with Friday and Saturday being either very busy or kind of slow.