Miscellaneous Irritants Of The Day

You may have noticed I haven't posted in about a week. I've been suffering from a case of writer's block. It's hard to believe I've had nothing to say about the train for this long. But today, I'm back.

If you've been following for a while, you understand the importance of things going just right on my commute. It means so much to me. When frustrating things happen, I log those events. Sometimes I report them to you immediately, and sometimes keep them on ice until there's enough to make an interesting post.  I'm ready to share a few of my pet irritants.

Speaking of irritants, the woman next to me is blabbering on her phone. She's hiring two photographers and they've sorted out the menu for the event. Thank goodness. Happy Bar Mitzvah, Louis.

Hey Conductor! Open the friggin' doors! I don't think the train conductor's job is especially complex. Check the tickets, punch the tickets. Open the doors, close the doors. Make announcements. So why is it that the conductors are nowhere near the door controls when they need to be? Why do I stand in the vestibule at my destination, train stopped for a minute or two, and the conductor goes running past me to open the doors? Is it so hard to stand at the controls BEFORE the train gets to the station? When the train stops, open the doors. Easy, no? Maybe I'm missing something.

Punched ticket shrapnel just missed going INTO my coffee. Look at that picture. Just look at it. Can you see what happened here? I was sitting in my seat, minding my business. I flashed my monthly train pass to the conductor. The person sitting next to me was not a regular commuter, and handed a ticket to the conductor. What did the conductor do? He punched it right over my coffee. Look at where the punched part went! It missed the opening of my coffee by less than an inch. HORRORS! I'll put up with a lot on the train. DO NOT mess with my coffee.

Unstable person #829. Recently, I sat in the six-seater in the center of the train car. Across from me, diagonally, was a guy. A moose of a guy. Big dude. Thick neck. Short crew-cut. He kept rolling his head around, presumably cracking his neck. Then he started shadow boxing. Really. Then, out came the cell phone. He must have read something funny, because he commenced snort-laughing. He struck me as a bit unstable, so I considered moving. Then a family of four came and sat in the remaining seats. He got up and left. Problem solved. Or was it? More like being in the fire instead of the frying pan.

I'll stop here for now, although I have many more in my list of pet irritants. I'm going to make some coffee and refresh my story backlog. Please don't interrupt. You know what coffee means to me.

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Happy and safe commuting, and may you encounter uncommon sense.

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