8 Aug 07

Time:

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Money:

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More interesting things:

Undertook what should have been a quick subway trip to Grand Central but became a major quest to make it 50 whole blocks. Overnight, the rain had been so bad (it looked like serious electrical events were taking place in my living room) that none of the feckin' trains were running; consequently, of course, there was no room on the downtown buses and - duh - no cabs to be had. So I walked. It was hot, gray, wet, and generally disgusting, but it did enable me to see a variety of interesting things. One lady decided that since standing around with her arm up for the purposes of hailing a taxi was definitely not working, she'd trade the arm for a thumb and actually managed to hitch a ride with some plumbers. Another offered to share the cab that she thought she'd grabbed - she wasn't headed for Grand Central, but downtown in general was good enough for me at that point - but then found out that it had stopped for some reason besides getting rid of its current passengers. By the time I started seeing open cabs, I was practically where I needed to go anyway (and not even very late), so I was free to be amused by the giant orange road sign posted in reference to the steam explosion repairs but just as appropriate for that day: USE ALTERNATE ROUTE, which is of course exactly what I did. (I was also free to contemplate, in by-phone agreement with Ben, that it seemed like the kind of day you get after a hurricane.)

Saw... a snack car. I never saw anything like that on a non-Amtrak train, but there it was: sections of seats arranged under the windows near tiny round counters attached to poles, no series of rows to be found.

Realized that I had fallen into my own personal little Einstellung trap when I walked to 42nd Street (about 50 blocks) rather than 125th Street (considerably fewer, and better in line with a getting the train I'd planned for, although it turned out none were running before I'd gotten to Grand Central.) Still: duh.