My Year Almost Got Even MORE Interesting...

As most of you know, I'm a "commuter" - I take a train into work each day.

Some people were a little surprised that I continued to opt for the train over driving after I returned to work. However, it's more of a beating to drive from where I live.

Most of the time, the train is pretty convenient. The station is about 10 minutes from my house, and it takes 25 minutes for the trip downtown. Once on, I listen to my music... read... play games... or sleep.

For about 15 minutes of my trip, I'm underground. Yesterday was an odd experience... we came out of the tunnel to see a blizzard! Yep, we got snow. It was beautiful... and dangerous!

As soon as I was off the train, I realized that I shouldn't be walking around in the slushy mess. I'm nervous on wet sidewalks as it is! Anyway, nothing really scary to report - I made it into a building and took 2 skybridges to my office.

However, going home for the day... now THAT was an experience.

The snow had stopped early in the morning... so everything was dry. I was making my way down the sidewalk, approaching the crosswalk, in front of the Pearl Street station.

I could see the seconds tick down for the crosswalk... but there was a policeman there directing traffic. The crosswalk goes across a street and the tracks... the station is in the middle.

Well, the policeman (woman, actually) likes people A LOT more than drivers. She always says she's there for us, even though I know the building pays her to direct the departing cars.

Just as I approached her, the light changed... meaning, "Don't cross." However, she was holding up a big "box truck" and said, "Come on, baby! Go ahead and cross." I smiled... said "Thank you very much"...

And then the loudest HORN went off!

I looked up and coming right at me on my left side was the train! You see, she held up the box truck... but neither of us could see that on the other side was a train leaving the station!

I thought, "Sweet Merciful Crap" because that is what was in my pants now! That train was moving and it wasn't stopping. It was probably 10 feet from me when it blew the horn.

Well, once I'm moving, I can't stop easily... so my only option was to go forward. Unfortunately, I needed to pick up the pace so I busted out into my first run...

(Did you catch that? I had to run! I haven't run since April...)

Well, the train kept honking and I kept moving. I say "moving" because that's the simplest way to describe what I was trying to do. My knee was screaming at me, "HEY JERK! WHAT THE $&#&@(! ARE YOU TRYING TO DO TO ME???"

So, it looked like a cross between a trot and a hop. Not pretty. But, I guess if the alternative was getting hit (knocked down, run over, bumped, etc) by a train, I'll take that.

Anyway, I couldn't believe it. I immediately thought that this would have punctuated the year perfectly... ha!

How is the knee today? Dang sore. Swollen. Not happy.