Most days, getting to and from work is not a problem. Oh, I might miss the connection from subway to light rail by the merest of seconds (like yesterday, where I was five seconds late to get aboard the train), but for the most part, things go smoothly.
Except when they don’t.
This evening was one of those times.
South of Lutherville, the lights on the train went out and the train slammed to a halt on the tracks. The compartment smelled of ozone. The train was restarted twice, but nothing happened. The train was stranded, somewhere in the wilds between Lutherville and Falls Road. Eventually, another train came up beside, and the passengers from my train crossed over to that train. Something burned out. Hopefully, tomorrow, everything will be fine.
Then, the subway.
There was a drug bust on my car. Two plainclothes transit cops took a man into custody, and this held the subway train up for a good five minutes.
All told, a half an hour was added to my commute home. And I’d already done the Sudoku puzzle in the paper… :-/
Fortunately, I had other reading material. Like Andrew Sullivan’s editorial in the Sunday Times on the need for a Nuremburg-like Truth and Reconciliation Commission to make public the crimes of the Bush administration, not only to close the book on a shameful chapter of American history, but to demonstrate to the world that America stands for something better than the last eight years of lawlessness, of torture, of inhumanity.
I don’t miss those moments. I used to work in Philly back in ’97-98, and I hated rushing either way and missing the train. Back then I wasn’t smart and didn’t carry my Walkman or a book with me on the train, so I was usually bored stiff waiting.