My friend J, who lives in NYC, sent this to me over the weekend. I find it quite funny as it would have been my luck as well. (I've done some editing to protect the innocent....)
Yeah...this was my morning. Starting this past fall I arranged to work essentially 3/4 time. Enough extra $ to help ends meet (mostly) but with enough flexibility to keep work on the (dissertation) moving forward. Currently I'm working M-Th, and spending Friday in the library or computer lab, or, as is the case today, babysitting for my friend so she can have some time to do stuff without baby. So, I run a few quick errands this morning and then get on the A train with more than enough time to get to D's before 10:00. Now D lives at 207 street, the end of the line, so it's pretty much put on the headphones and read a book until the train stops moving and doesn't start again. 168...175...181...190...200.........hmmm, it seems like it's been a while since that last stop. So I look up and my eye catches the destination sign and it no longer says Inwood / 207 street, it now says Not in Service. Oops. Well, no big, I figure, the yard is at 210. I'll get out there it will be a laugh. In the mean time, I'll move through the train until I'm in the car with the conductor and just let him know I'm there. So I head to the end of the car and discover the car I'm in doesn't have pass through doors - I'm stuck where I am. Oops. And the train isn't stopping. Until it does...but not in the yard, just somewhere in a tunnel. No cell service...hmmmm. Check the doors again, nope, they haven't magically unlocked themselves. And the train starts moving again. Until it stops...again. And the lights go out. oooh-kaay. Check the phone - hey! a signal!! Call 311 - City info and help line. Cause this really isn't an emergency per se. I'm not hurt, I pretty much know where I am, and I'm not particularly upset, (actually I'm having a hard time not laughing as I wonder just how I'm going to explain this to anyone) I just need to be sure that someone knows I'm here and will eventually make sure I get out. Except that I get stuck in 'press one for x' HELL - being told repeatedly that all customer service agents are busy and given a menu-options none of which include 'stuck in an out of service subway car'. So, hang up on 311 and decide to go with 911, and the train starts moving again, out of the tunnel and into the yard, (hey! that explains the signal!) And I have another idea, pull on the emergency brake. While I doubt it will actually stop the train it will likely at least let someone somewhere on the train know that someone else is there. As I'm explaining the situation to 911 and apologizing for not being a "real" emergency here comes a train guy, who enters the car, laughs and says into his walkie talkie, "Yup, we've got a package." He was very friendly, and I think since I wasn't panicking and/or bitchy and upset we chat a bit and the adventure continues as I get a narrated tour of the train yard, including a trip through the subway car-wash, a drive-by (train-by?) the vintage trains being prepped for holiday tourist use, the out of service cars being loaded onto barges for a trip out to Long Island Sound (and other sites on the east coast) for artificial reef building, the brand spanking new cars being prepped for addition to the fleet, and an insiders view of the current financial situation of the MTA. And then we complete the big u-turn that is the outer track of the train yard and head back into the tunnels all I'm thinking is I wish I had my camera. My life, no fear of ever being ordinary.
Any of you have a crazy story?????? I'll share mine in a new post.
1 comment:
nice morning
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