The only thing worse is driving

CTA's on a roll!

Last night, heading back from the Middle Eastern concert in Block 37 (will post about that, promise!), the driver of the 147 missed the turnoff at Foster. She took the Bryn Mawr exit, pulled over, and yelled back, "CAN ANYONE TELL ME IF I CAN GET OFF AT FOSTER?" A woman in front of us was saying, "Just turn right!" [onto Sheridan, she meant]. monshu had to point out, "But some of us want to get off south!" A chorus of riders convinced her she could, even though there's no exit onto Foster going southbound, so she executed a very tight turn and got back on the drive. monshu started to tell me stories of other express drivers who didn't seem to know where to get on or get off the Drive. This one had to go all the way to Lawrence and then again seemed unsure where to go. However, a woman standing near the front door helped pilot her onto Marine going north. "Sorry for the joy ride," she called out.

This morning, I managed to miss the Linden from the Howard station. (When the Express is late, they'll often run a local from Howard.) It used to be that they never announced them; you just had to keep your eyes peeled. But, lately, they've even been announcing ETAs for the Express over the loudspeakers, so I was lulled into trusting them. Never again! Fortunately, another Express came along shortly. However, when we got to my stop, the driver managed to open the doors with the train not all the way into the station.

I know I've cursed past drivers for pulling up too far; I always get in the last car because it should end up right by the exit, but it's often a couple lengths beyond it. This is especially exasperating because if you've ever waited near the head of a station, you can see that there are bright yellow signs RIGHT THERE telling drivers where to stop a train based on its length (i.e. there are usually three signs, for 8-, 6-, and 4-car trains respectively; sometimes they're all on one post, sometimes they're staggered). A chimp should be able to get it right. But CTA employees aren't chimps--they're union. Still, this is the first one that's left me staring out into open space above the tracks. Luckily, the forward doors opened on to a narrow ledge behind the attendant's office and we all managed to squeeze out.

Ironically, the article I was reading before I got off was one by Miner in the Reader, talking about how thousands of people were trapped on trains for 90 mins. or more during a breakdown two weeks ago and how neither of the local papers got the story. I have to give it up for the CTA riders. I had half a mind to get on the intercom and chew out the driver, but everyone else was stoically filing out and I realise how futile that would be. Last night, many were positively bemused at our peregrinations. (Those that weren't were mostly dead tired from a full day of work.) Really, the CTA doesn't deserve the customers it gets.

Maybe I'll walk home...

What the hell is all this nonsense?

I wonder if I'm going to regret not having kept more of a journal of the construction around here. Earlier, when they were seemingly ripping out every chunk of concrete within spitting distance of my office, it would've sounded too much like bitching. Also, with temporary walls up, it was hard to tell what was happening anyway--and, of course, I'm just to shy and retiring to chat up one of the hired brutes and find out.

The walls came down (hey! isn't that an inspiration song?) last week, revealing a truly hideously-looking concrete floor smeared with not-even-god-knows-what. On one of the days (see what I get for doing this all in retrospect?) the smell of glue was so strong you could get messed up just standing there and sniffing. Now it's all covered up in a crazy quilt of carpet tiles. Literally, it looks like they just took whatever leftovers they could get from Carpet World and tossed them in the back of the van; however, I saw the workers making neat stacks of them and consulting plans as they did so before they laid them out flat, leading me to speculate that we actually paid some dude to come up with this exact scheme.

Also, it just occurred to me now that the assortment of cream, tan, gray, light brown, etc. looks like it was drawn directly from the Bear Flag. Tee-hee! Also, the bathrooms are getting retiled and they seem to have brought in a scruffy, grizzled bohunk to help out with that. He pales next to Mr Yellowcap and GreekDomeDaddy (really, who wouldn't?), but he's a decent addition to the local scenery all the same.

Work seems to have stalled behind the building. The huge pit is filled in again and someone was steamrolling gravel over it the other day, so I guess they've finished the sewer work. Something really odd happened next to it last week: Groundskeeping descended with half a dozen workers and stripped a huge area by the loading dock bare. Where once was a tremendous patch of juniper bushes undergrown and fringed with ivy is now bare black earth. Last Friday, the ground was swarming with gray squirrels--I counted about a half dozen at once--looking for tidbits. No idea what they plan to do next.

So you can imagine my concern when I saw surveyors out front just now. I asked one of them (the big, brown-haired, bearded, big-bellied bear one, natch) if we were getting a new, straighter road. No, they were just mapping the steam tunnels. There must've been a metal detector built into the poles they were using.