Commuting, heat, and knitting (it's all related, this time)

This morning I brought knitting for the commute, instead of a book. I was quite pleased about the idea last night, looking forward to knitting again, so of course the train this morning was super-crowded and barely air-conditioned, and there was no way I was going to knit, which made for an extra-unpleasant ride*. However, lunch-time found me sitting on the mall on Comm Ave and knitting, in the shade with a light breeze, and it was perfectly lovely.

*I feel a transit rant coming. Keep reading!

After this morning's trip, I got a frap' at Starbucks, since by the time I got off the train I was so hot that I felt kind of sick. It tasted fabulous, and I felt much better. I managed to stop myself from also getting a Morning Bun, though they are quite yummy. And because I used my Discover Card Cashback program to get a Starbucks card, I kind of didn't even spend money. (They "give" me cash back based on what I spend, and you can get a deal at a number of companies to get even more. For $40 of reward money, I got a $50 gc. Feels like free to me!)

Calorie-wise, it's a bit of a Lose, but it felt like a health Win, and not a finance Lose, so on balance it works out pretty well. (Not only that, I resisted their cunning program of temptation, whereby you bring in your receipt after 2 the same day and get another drink for only $2. So hard to resist a bargain!)

The scarf is coming along well: this is it at lunch, and I knit on the way home and waiting for the bus, too. Please note the emergency point protector, whose everyday identity is "rubber band from the celery". Sometimes the point protectors get spooked and hide just when you need one.


I do like how this pattern rolls up and down.


Speaking of lunch time, I noticed that my apple was a new brand.


Based on the afternoon, it didn't help me cope all that much. I wonder if something got lost in translation?

**********
The strangest thing happened at lunchtime yesterday, and I forgot to write about it last night.

I was sitting on a bench on Commonwealth Ave, finishing my lunch, when I heard sirens getting closer. A couple of fire trucks and a police car came along and started setting up shop on the corner.


Then a few more fire trucks came along, with a chief's car, and then an ambulance, and then a couple of big rescue units. They weren't moving frantically, but quickly and purposefully: a couple of guys on the ladder trucks raised their ladders, the ambulance guys got out the stretcher and equipment. The police car blocked off one direction of traffic, and the officer started directing it in another.


After a few minutes of this, with no smoke or rescuing or any progress being visible, they ... all just started putting everything away again. It was so odd. I don't know if it was a false alarm, or a drill, or what, but it's not every day* you see ten rescue vehicles acting this way.

*which I guess is a good thing

**********
And here's the rant
Honestly, the more I commute via public transportation, the less I like it.

Obviously, it's a great thing to have available, and for those without other options it's priceless. However, I have another option, and I'd prefer to be behind the wheel again. It isn't even all about the control and the schedule and the master-of-my-own-destiny* part.

*Ever notice how "mistress-of-my-own-destiny" just doesn't sound the same?

It's the actual riding experience. Some days are fine: not too crowded, move right along, totally whatever, no big deal. I can study the sociology of the ride: of five people across from me, two are reading paper books, two are reading e-books, and one is reading the Globe (an unusual sample, in that none of them had the Metro [free paper given away every morning and thus littering the entire T system] or was looking at their phone/MP3/electronic device).

But other days are super-hot and insufficiently air-conditioned, way too crowded, and generally disgusting. They are spent crammed in with other equally-hot people (yes, I do know I'm not the only one who isn't enjoying it), listening to repeated announcements to use all the doors, the train is full, there's another train right behind us, move out of the doors, move behind the yellow line, ding, ding, ding.

Being pressed against strangers, close enough that long hair brushes against my arms (which creeps me out severely, I'm not sure why). Trying to keep my book in my space, being annoyed by people who open their paper or their book into my space (there was a woman the other day who, well oof. I wanted to ask if she realized that her book was closer to me than my own was). Worrying that a jerk of the train will send someone sideways onto my foot (this is a sandal worry).

Feeling annoyed that the seats are small and I'm not, feeling slightly guilty when I choose someone to sit next to, but annoyed if they look irritated with me for sitting next to them. Sitting with my arms pulled forward because if I keep them by my sides, they're in the neighboring seats.

There's the claustrophobia of having people on all sides, and though I'm usually lucky enough to get a seat, that's only marginally better than standing, and does involve many people looming around me on all sides (did I mention claustrophobia?).

Even the bus isn't fun for the five minutes I'm on it. There's the waiting for it, the jerking and bouncing, the dozen stop announcements, the slam of brakes and veer around corners: it's all I can do to stay in my seat or on my feet.

I know someone who does the inverse of my commute time, a short ride on the T and half an hour on a bus, and I think I'd like that even less than my current program. (Which I hate.) Does this count as looking on the bright side?

/end rant

*************
Leslie commented that she hoped I wasn't eating outside in the heat this week. Sorry, yes, as the stories above reveal, I am just that crazy! I am not, however, walking around a lot, the way I was when the temps were somewhat lower. I walk to Comm Ave or somewhere with a bench in the shade, I eat, and I stroll back to work before I get too hot.

The thing is, I like hot weather. Like mother like daughter, you know. I had an "amen" moment reading blogs today, with this sentence about being in the hot weather:

When I do go out I am in a constant state of inelegance.

--Bibliophile Bullpen

Yes! That's the thing. I like being warm, don't mind hot, can even deal with humid, as long as I'm not expected to look like a grown-up, or heaven forbid a lady. That's hard enough to make me wish for cooler temps, except I don't actually want it to be cooler, so that confuses my instincts. It's the balancing the two that makes me crazy.

Today was nice. I enjoyed the trees framing bits of buildings.


And the sunlight through the trees.


And I think that's enough for one day!