Freaking Metra

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had a horrendous commute. I left the house about 5:50 AM. AM! I arrived back home at 8:50 PM. PM! I was gone from the house for 15 hours. The sad part, well there are several sad parts, was I only worked about 9 of those hours. So I didn’t get to see my family AND I didn’t get as much done at work as one would hope being gone all day.

The story of my commuting woes began when I got a new job. Yay! The main downside with my new job is where it is located. It is about 40 miles from my house and there is no one direct path. So before I began my job I started searching for the best path. I spent a great deal of time searching the various web-sites and figuring out what my different options were. The question became should I take the train or drive.

My first consideration was time. What was the fastest route that started with me taking the train. This is where I ran into the first huh; about the Metra. Trains often do not stop at all stops. It turned out that on my way home the train NEVER stops at both the station I need and the one where my car is parked. So to come home I have to ride a bus, then ride the Green line, then ride the Metra. All said it should take about 2 hours.

The week before I started I did a take-the-train test run; I drove to the train station, rode the train, CTA bus to WMS, then the same bus back to the green line (CTA train), the green line to Oak Park where I learn they have a manned Metra station. I will have to make a note of that. Then I rode the train (Metra) to West Chicago and then drove home. It went pretty well. It takes more time but its more relaxing.

I decided I would drive the first couple weeks so that while I was brand new I would have the most flexibility. Then I would spend a couple weeks taking the train. With the plan being that I would decide which is better once I have done both.

The next big HUH moment was a two parter. ONE - You can’t buy Metra tickets anywhere expect manned train stations. You can buy CTA tickets lots of places. TWO – You can buy them “online”. To buy tickets “online” you have to down and printout a form that you then have to fill out and snail-mail it back to them, then wait for them to mail you an ID in. THEN you can go online and buy tickets that you then have to wait for them to mail you!

Now lets fast forward to this week; my first week riding the train:

MONDAY –
The plan was to pay the full fare inbound and then on my way home I would buy a 10-ride ticket at the Oak Park station where they have a person on duty. The day goes well until, on my way home at 7pm, I get to Oak Park and see a sign at the ticket office: “OFFICE CLOSED; BUY YOUR TICKETS ON THE TRAIN”. A stupid hand drawn sign; a sharpie on a torn piece of corrugated cardboard. Something that one might do in an emergency if they had to leave in a hurry. I will learn later that the train stations are only manned from 5am until 1pm each day. So I get on the train expecting to pay the full fair and no one comes buy to collect my money. I don’t see a single conductor all the way home. BONUS.

TUESDAY –
I am resigned to, for these 3 days pay full fair on the train and I lament about this to my morning conductor while he takes my money. I tell him that I can’t buy any form of discount tickets and why. After a couple minutes he returns to me with a plan. He shows me a train schedule and suggested that if I show up a few minutes early Wednesday morning and ride the previous train I can then get off in Wheaton, where there is a manned station, buy my 10-ride ticket, and then get back on the next train, meaning my normal train, a few minutes later. This was a great suggestion by the conductor, Nick.

WEDNESDAY – THE DAY OF HORROR
I get up and hurry through my morning; I skip shaving and other things to get out the door early to catch the earlier train. I get on that train and the conductor comes by to collect my money. I tell him I am getting off in Wheaton, buying a ticket and then getting back on the next train. He charges me anyway for my trip to Wheaton which is about half my normal fare. I don’t care cause I am a man on a mission.

THRID HUH:
I get off in Wheaton and I am debating weather or not I should get two 10-ride tickets. One for my morning commute which is longer and cost more and one for my evening commute. (SIDE NOTE – I find it really petty that the Metra is all worried about how far someone is traveling. OH you are going 3 more miles than him 50 cents more please. They have a huge complicated chart to describe the different fares like you were going across country or something. The CTA is very clean and efficient. You pay to get on and then ride all you want till you get off.) The total for both will be about $80 so I pull out my debit card and the man at the manned station says “Sorry we don’t take plastic. We never have” WHAT! Isn’t this 2009? I don’t have $80 cash and there were no ATMs. AND what the hell do I care weather or not you ever have? What does that mean? “Well we never needed any of them new-fangled contraptions so I reckon we still don’t.” They do take personal checks though!

I am so livid. I don’t buy any tickets and then my train comes. I get on it and there is Nick. I tell him his plan was great except YOU DON’T TAKE PLASTIC. I actually didn’t yell at Nick. “I have worked here 35 years and we have never taken plastic” WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?! (Should an emotional sentence end with a “?!” or “!?” ? I think the first one.) How is not moving into the 21st century a good thing?! Ugh. Then he reminds me that since I didn’t buy a ticket at station where there was a manned man he normally should charge me the $2 surcharge on top of my normal fare but he decided to let me off this time. He also said “You should have bought a full the first time and told the guy you were just hopping off to get back on the next train. Then I would not have had to buy two tickets. Ugh.

I made it to work without anymore incident.

I decided to leave 30 minutes early to get home in time for dinner with the family for a change. On my way home the wait for the green line was longer than their scheduled 7 to 10 minutes. When it does arrive I get on and I look at my watch. I had just enough time to get to the Metra station to catch my train. There is nothing I can do about it either way since I am committed. Just before we get to where I get off the CTA train comes to a stop and we sit there. An announcer tells us that we will be going again shortly. I then see my Metra train pull up along side us, stop, and then pull away. I now have 30 more minutes, yay!


(This next part is not the Metra’s fault. I take the blame.)
So I grab a Danish, a Pepsi, and a bench near the bottom of the platform. About 6 minutes before the train is due I hear what I think is the train but while I was waiting I heard many trains come and go so I am not sure. I start heading up the ramp to the platform when someone at the top opens the flood gate and dozens of people are now headed my way. The ramp is very narrow and its difficult to get through. Right as I get to the top the train closes their doors and pulls away. I now have 60 more minutes to wait for the next train. I cant believe I just missed the train twice.

Before I started this process my expectations were that the Metra would be excellent in all things and the CTA would not be. I also expected the train would be cheaper than driving and its not for me once you figure in everything.

On one side they have a really haphazard way to collect the money. If the conductor walks past you before you get off you have to pay them. If he doesn’t then it’s free. On the other hand these people are so worried about you tricking them with internet shenanigans.

Carpe Diam

Missed Opportunities

I spend a great deal of time taking care not to miss an "important opportunity". I have gotten really good at seeing them coming. This is not to say I am great at this. I think I used to be pretty dense and only in the last decade really begun to develop this skill.

For example. The other night I was at a basement poker tournament. It was approaching 2am and we had been playing for 6 hours. Only 9 people were going to get paid from this tournament and there were 10 of us left. I was currently in 10th place.

The host told us we were to take a break before all starting the final table. While we all stood around stretching our legs and getting some refreshments, it was brought up (maybe by me) that we could just chop the prize pool 10 ways. I said it half joking cause it was pretty clear that without a miracle I would go home a looser. To my surprise no one laughed and a couple people said "that’s not a bad idea". Even the host said "We can do that if you guys want". No one said it was a bad idea. Mostly people just looked at each to see if others wanted to.

When the break was about half over and most people had fallen into small talk, I asked the host to figure out how much it would be to chop the pot. The answer was $210 each. This started the topic again. It seemed like most would go for it or at least go with the crowd. I asked the crowd "Should we take a vote?" and that is when it happened. No one answered the question, but as I looked around the room time slowed down to almost a stop. My mind was racing. I knew that if just pushed one more time I would get my chop and leave a winner. All I had do was follow up my question with "Raise your hand if you want to chop".

I didn't do it. I let the moment pass and time resumed. A few seconds went by and someone said "let’s just play it out". Three poker hands later I was out and everyone remaining at least moneyed.

In that frozen moment I decided that it would be pushy. That people were there to win yes but they were also there to see if they could win. I know that if it were reversed I would not want to chop but would have gone with it if the crowd wanted to.

I do take away from it the knowledge that I saw the opportunity knocking.

Carpe diam.

The great "Wheel of Fortune" conspiracy!

Recently I went to Florida to see my dad. On some levels it was a fruitful trip. I learned lots of things about lots of things; this was one of the lighter ones:

Soon after I arrived I learned that he had no TV service. The story goes my dad got in an argument on the phone over his Comcast bill. At some point during the discussion he said something like "Why don't you just take it out of here then?" and they did just that.

So I went to Best Buy and bought dad a pair of rabbit ears. If you are younger than 35 rabbit ears are TV antennas you attach to your television set so you can watch normal broadcast channels. I hooked it up and did the whole rabbit-ear dance. In the end I was only able to get a couple not-too-fuzzy channels and 3 just-a-little-fuzzy channels.

Later that day I asked Dad why he was watching Wheel of Fortune? He replied "Its what is on". That's when it occurred to me. I think there is a wheel of fortune conspiracy going on. Somehow the makers of Wheel of Fortune are electronicly interferring with broadcast tv in certain areas of the country. They are eleiminating the channels with really interesting content.

I think pepole have not noticed this conspiracy because they equate rabbit ears with old technology and it just makes sense that something old doesnt work very well. So people just live with it and pick from the best of the fuzzy channels.

But these were no cheap rabbit ears. They plugged into an outlet and had "gain"! There should have been serveral clean clear channels!

Think about it; when the show first comes on it goes "WHEEL", "OF", "FORTUNE" nice and slow brainwashing the elderly.

Is Wheel of Fortune really popular or is it "just whats on"?

What great fun brilliance can be

This past Sunday I participated in something brilliant. I don’t mean that lightly.

I belong to a small study-group of 6 families from our church. For 2 hours we filled bags with food for the starving children of Zimbabwe. In fact we filled 23 boxes of 36 bags each. Each bag contains 6 meals. So in 2 hours we made 4968 meals!

Our small group was part of about 150 volunteers for the 2 hour shift. The shift made about 157 boxes or about 34000 meals! At the end we learned that 34000 meals will feed 96 kids for 1 year! NINETY SIX.

Now I lied a little. For the first 15 minutes we received an orientation and then some training. Then when we had about 15 minutes remaining we were stopped and instructed to clean up and then pray over the food. So we really only had about 90 minutes. Ninety-Six kids eat for ONE YEAR; ninety minutes work.

I have not gotten to the brilliant part yet. Over half the 150 workers were kids. How do they do this? Robots? Packing machines? No and no. They have the whole process down so very simple and yet the final product is very professional.

We made bags of carefully measured ingredients, that all fall within a specific range of grams, nutritious, and tasty. Also they were vegetarian meals. We learned that there are more people in the world that don’t eat meat than those that do. There were only 4 ingredients at the production level. A chicken flavored powder, dried vegetables and vitamins, soy for protein, and rice for energy.

The whole process worked like this: There was a metal funnel. One person put a bag on the bottom then said “GO” then 4 people that were waiting with their ingredients already measured out added them to the funnel in the correct order. Then the bag is weighed. If the weight is out of range they make adjustments. Then the bag is heat-sealed and placed in the packing area waiting to go into a box. When there are exactly 36 bags in the packing area someone puts the bags in the box and seals it.

Finally someone says “1, 2, 3” and our entire group would yell a chant that we came up with to inform other volunteers that we have a box ready.

All the while they blasted out with Mowtown classics. It was great. We were singing and dancing while we worked.

The 20 something’s that ran the shift were from an organization called Feed my starving Children. They were very intelligent, articulate, well informed, funny and passionate. When it was over they gave us a small sample of the food and it was tasty.

Our branch of our church made over 200k meals over the weekend. We were the first branch of our church to do this. Before the month is over it is estimated that the whole church, all the branches, will make 3.5 Million meals.

As I understand it 2003 was the year they started this. Their total was 3 million meals that year. Over the years they have done progressively more and more. They hope to do 50 million this year and 100 million by 2010.

It was a total blast and beyond satisfying. Feed My Starving Children is a brilliant bunch.