i have become one of those annoying self-obsessed people who has embarked on a 365 project – OF MYSELF. yes, i am pledging to take and post one picture of myself every day for all of 2010. well, i don’t have to take the picture per se, but it has to be a picture take of me on that day.
for example, this particular picture of me was taken by justin when i didn’t even know he was on the bus.
they’re all being uploaded to flickr (the flickr iphone app makes this 365 thing about one million times better) and some like this one of me walking the dogs are incredibly boring, but i had to get a snap and nothing bolted throughout the day.
anyway, you can view the whole project here in this flickr gallery.
so here is the truth: i like commuting in the cold. i don’t know why, but there is something so urban about taking public transportation in the cold weather. wearing a scarf, standing at a bus stop, staring at the other riders as you walk past them in the train station exchanging that look of ‘knowing’ that you are doing something most people scoff at, there is just something so intrinsically city about that.
of course remembering the marta cold rules is critical to surviving the winter. the number 9 was absolutely scorching hot when i boarded it. speaking of the number 9, i have riders in my complex now. two brothers who are taking marta to school somewhere. i certainly intend to investigate further to see if i can get the scoop. the 140 i am on right now is also jacked up hot. the t.e.a.c.h. kids didn’t get their own bus so we have both a super crowded vehicle and the driver has jacked the heat up. always pays to remember the marta cold rules.
plus, i will take it any day over sweating in a muggy five points station in the middle of august. NOTHING is worse than that.
as i have written about riding marta in the winter has its own set of challenges. most notable too if you ride buses and have to spend any period of time waiting outside for a bus. i have dubbed this set of circumstances and the appropriate reactions to them “marta cold rules.” it took me me trail and error through my first winter to really figure it out.
here is the rub. it’s cold at the bus stop. ears, face, hands, they get cold. the easiest solution is to just bundle up for the cold. there is a problem with that though. the colder it gets the more the buses are going to feel like jamaica in june.
the thing is the bus drivers have to sit right by the door opening in and out of the cold all day. so they jack the heat up as high as it will possible go. so there is no way to wear some massive parka on the bus. that results in sweating out about a gallon of fluid sitting in the scorching heat with a ski jacket on. trying to manage moving around carrying one of those jackets isn’t easy either.
so i have settled on the hoodie. it’s perfect. i can wear it at the bus stop for some warmth, cover my head with it if it’s super cold and still wear okay on the bus. or if it is really scorching take it off and stuff it in the backpack.
if it gets really cold i add gloves, a taboggan cap and a scarf – again all easily stuffed in the back pack. in fact i am sitting on the #140 right now which is warm, although not as warm as it was on the #9 i picked up this morning and i have a hat stuffed in my bag right now.
“the cold rules,” just another quirk learned after two years of riding the rails and the buses. my psa to you should you decide to give our marta system a try.
we have a new driver on the #140 headed home in the evening, on the run that goes past my office around 16:15. she hates the route, btw, although that tidbit isn’t important to the post, having complained pretty loud to us on her second or third day that traffic along the #140 route was insane. and i can’t say that i disagree. the light at old milton parkway and north point parkway could be one of the most absurd locations in the city.
she also told the t.e.a.c.h. kids that if they weren’t at a stop she was “going to leave them on the side of the road.” not a bad start.
well anyway, yesterday afternoon on the way home from work, she keyed her microphone and told the assembled passengers that she wanted to ask them a question. i figured someone had done something to tick her off, but actually she just wanted to know if we wanted her to come by the stops on time or late.
silly question.
she then proceeded to explain that she ran on-time, that’s how she did her route, but the driver before her liked to leave from his staging area at windward parkway 10 minutes late (very true, i’ve waited on that dude before) and she was messing him up be leaving on time. i’m still not sure i catch the logic in all of that, but apparently her straw poll of the bus was designed to bolster her argument for the on-time theory of route running.
call me convinced.
also, speaking of clean commuting, the folks over at the clean air campaign passed this fun little video along. apparently a carpool wrote it one day and sent it in and the clean air campaign helped turn it into a video. it’s very clever so enjoy….
as soon as i hopped on the 140 this afternoon i should have known. i recognized the driver but couldn’t quite place why. i haven’t ridden on the really early 140 in a bit, but know as i sit here getting thrown fore and aft with every stop that has a person standing at it and at every traffic light, i remember now; it’s mr. whiplash.
mr. whiplash loves the break. dearly. he loves it so much that he must stomp on it at least three or four times prior to completely stopping the bus. and there is no smooth breaking either for mr. whiplash, when i say stomp i mean it.
i don’t know if he is the regular driver on this run now, but if he is i feel for all of these people that ride this one every day. there are lots of chiropractor appointments and neck adjustments in their futures.
and that’s mr. whiplash, just another fun character on your marta.
my headphones broke the other day. and who knows when i will get around to getting a new pair. while this is bad for my solo running and for my attempts to avoid the music coming from the headphones of others it does mean good things for this blog in that i will be listening more attentively to what is going on around me, providing, for sure, more blog and twitter material.
today was a perfect example. i noticed him at lindbergh. big stocky dude standing at the door of the train righ next to me. as the door opened he started yelling to someone on the platform.
“you think you s&^t don’t stank” and the like. loud too. loud i am assuming because he had headphones on himself. i figured he was involved in some form of lover’s quarrel taking place with someone on the platform at lindbergh because he continued to yell about this woman to everyone on the train all the way to buckhead.
and then at buckhead he started yellng at another woman. “you so fine,” “why you ignorin’ me” etc. and i realized he was simply yelling his affection at every attractive (in his mind) woman he saw and then expressing his displeasure to the rest of the train when they ignored him.
on this continued as we rumbled northbound; medical center, dunwoody, sandy springs, north springs. i had a chuckle as i thought to myself “how funny if he gets on the #140.” and sure enough…
he continued his super loud yelling, directing some of it at the driver all the way to the mansell park-and-ride. i personally am going with the wake-and-bake theory. it’s the one that fits occams razor the best.
the only amazing thing is that in almost two full years of riding marta it hasn’t happened sooner.
by the time i boarded the #140 at north springs this morning i realized something was horribly wrong. yes indeed, i had left my gym bag sitting on the train. most of you who know me may be relatively unsurprised by this. like i said, the funny thing is that it took so long.
part of it is being out of routine. i haven’t brought my gym bag to work in weeks. with the start of marine corps marathon training, however, i had it with me, and must have just spaced.
so i ran to the bus supervisor’s hutch at north springs, and he tried calling the train supervisor. he couldn’t get him, so he told me where to go and opened the secret gate in the fence so i could get through without tapping my breeze card.
i got to the train supervisor’s hut and sure enough they had pulled my bag. he had me describe what was in it and the smiled at me and said, “it’s all yours partner.”
seriously, with the exception of angry bus driver everyone i have ever dealt with on marta is super-friendly and very helpful.
kinda throws my whole public employee union worker stereotype out the window i guess.
the perfume thing is really, really strange. i don’t ever remember it being as bad last spring as it is this. not sure why that is, maybe it’s my sensitivity has changed, maybe there is a new brand of cheap perfume on the market, i don’t know. all i know is every day now, especially in the afternoon on the #140 and at the sandy springs station it arrives. the sickly sweet smell that i have grown to know and dread.
i have identified a few women that i consider the perfume brigade and have tried to adjust my riding habits accordingly. for example i know that about three members of the perfume brigade get on the southbound train at sandy springs and sit in the first car. so recently i have moved to the second car from the front to enjoy perfume-free air.
sometimes though it’s unescapable. and in that case i have developed the perfect ultimate weapon in the perfume wars. vick’s vap-o-rub. yup, just a small dab under the nostrils and instead of the special scent they are selling at kroger you are smelling overpowering menthol.
what is going on this spring? i sure do not remember the situation with the perfume being this bad last spring. i am wondering if it might potentially be linked to one or two new riders on the #140. i don’t know, all i know is that in the words of famous 90′s infomercial queen susan powter, STOP THE INSANITY!!!!
it was back again this morning. and i can’t understand how anyone in their right mind can think that this scent actually smells good. it is, in fact, nauseating. i really am a bit struck by what i can do. the thought i had this morning as i noticed the now sickeningly familiar odor wafting over me was to pack some vick’s vap-o-rub in my bag and put in under my nose like a club kid hopped up on x. silly, i know, but what is a guy to do.
the mature thing would be to determine the appropriate offender and politely approach her and discuss the situation.
then again, in two years, almost, of listening to the loud music of the t.e.a.c.h. kids i haven’t done this, so what start now?
they, by the way, were on the bus this morning and actually listening to music out of one of the kids’ laptop. it was great.
public transportation is like many things, it has it’s good points and then it has it’s down points. most days i love it and wouldn’t trade it for the world. other days, well let’s just say it leaves me longing for my car.
yesterday was one of those days. on days like yesterday the only thing that consistently runs through my head while i slog on my commute is “hell is other people;” the famous sartre quote from no exit, because generally it is.
and yesterday was no example. the trouble is i was dealing with a pollen headache that had only gotten worse throughout the day, so by the time i boarded the #140 in front of my office i was suffering. the first inclination things were going to get worse was the fact that the ac wasn’t working, meaning there would be little circulation except for windows open, leading, of course, to more pollen and bus exhaust circulating through the bus.
i can handle it though, i thought, and i booted up the laptop and popped in the 3g card to do a little work. then we hit north point parkway and the bus started to crowd up, and perfume woman sat next to me. perfume woman had not only lathered her perfume on with a paint brush right before boarding the bus apparently, but she was also wearing one of those insanely overbearing, super-strong perfumes that bear no resemblance to anything subtle.
and of course, traffic galore on 400, so i had to sit next to her for an extra long time.
and then i got on the train. finally, i thought, i have escaped the clutches. and then at sandy springs, perfume woman two sat next to me. SAME DAMN THING.
i missed the connection to the 6:20 pm #9 bus too and ended up hanging out at five points for 25 minutes. one of the truisms of marta is the bus is never, ever late when you are.
well c’est la vie. no one promised me a rose garden.
still better than sitting on 400 in my car not moving and having to pee.
Posted in 365, life | 
No Comments » | January 20th, 2010
