“When You Do Not Have To Drive”

Two days ago, I stood on the Rogers Park Metra UP-North platform, waiting for the train, and one of the fellow passengers greeted me. It was cold, and the snow just started to fall, sparkling and beautiful. A passenger said: You know, when you do not have to drive, you can enjoy it! It’s beautiful!

Public Transportation News

I didn’t know about it, but there is a way to request new bike racks at specific locations. I learned about it from the newsletter of our new, about-to-open coop, Wild Onion Market, and I requested a bike rack close to our about-to-be-open coop.

Another thing that is on the news: Chicago has had the largest increase in bikers for the past several years compared to any other US city, but bikers’ safety is among the worst. And those who are in Chicago do not need to be reminded about it!

As for other means of public transportation, the Metra line, which I use for my commute (UP-North), has launched a new schedule. First, there is now one extra stop between mine and the next one towards the city. That’s more bad than good news for me because it now takes longer to get to the final destination. There is also some good news, though: several trains were added to the weekday schedule. The one which I really wanted departs Rogers Park Station at 6-30. I took it on Monday, the first day of the new schedule in effect, and there were only four people except for me who got on this train at Rogers Park. I think that there will be more, and I hope that it will offload some people from the 7 AM train.

Speaking of which, I took a 7-15 AM today because I wanted to have a longer bike ride before work and also because I thought that 7-15 would be less crowded. But alas, I still had to stand all the way to the final stop! Tuesdays are impossible! I don’t know who is “not in the office” these days.

There is one more extra morning train (8-10), which I believe should ease the morning commute for the second morning wave, and also an outbound 4-50PM. And also, Kenosha finally becomes reachable during the day, which means that we can drop-off/pick-up my granddaughters there. The only remaining issue is how to get to work on Tuesday and have a bike ride before that 🙂

The Series Of Unfortunate Events

It was an ideal morning for a long bike ride. I left the house before dawn with all intentions of having the first long bike ride of the season. I had gloves on and a bag with wipes so that I could fix the chain if it fell off. I was biking and thinking about how well I was prepared, how I had an injury last May that ruined a big chunk of my summer, and how it would not happen again.

And then…. I ran over a small branch on the bike path and got a flat tire! It was so dumb that I could easily avoid it! It was 28 minutes into my ride, which means I was pretty far into it! The closest CTA stop was Thorndale, and I started my walk there. It was not much fun when I needed to walk the bike, and it took me pretty much the same time to reach the station. When I climbed up holding my bike (no elevator), I looked at the train tracker and saw that the next train was in 27 minutes!!! I cursed – but what could I do?! I stood at the platform for the train in my direction and suddenly saw a train approaching from the opposite direction! I thought – well, that looks like there is a problem somewhere on the tracks, I guess I need to wait. Five minutes later, I saw a train in my direction, going on the far track without stopping! I was: what’s going on?! I still waited, the tracker showed 23 min, then, one more train in the wrong direction stopped, and one of the passengers told me: you need to go in that direction and then go back!

It was only then that I opened the CTA web page and read the Red Line alerts: they were doing track repair, and the trains in the North direction didn’t stop “from Thorndale through Jarvis.” I cursed again but now had to wait for the next train South. (And Sunday trains are, to put it mildly, not so frequent). Finally, the train arrived, and having checked the CTA website (Thorndale through Jarvis), I stepped out on the platform and brought my bike down again to switch to the opposite direction, and only when I was down, and I didn’t see others stairs up, I remembered, that Bryn Marw works only in one direction until the new station will be built. So, I had to bring my bike up again and wait for yet another train South. The next stop, Berwyn, is closed until God knows what time for renovation, so I could only exit on Argyle. Then there was one piece of good luck because the train North was standing on the other side, and at least I didn’t have to go down and up again. Only when I was on board and heard the announcement did I realize that “thorough Jarvis” meant that it would not stop at Jarvis! So… I had to go to Howard, and escalator up and stairs down, and wait again, and finally got home, plus one more stairs down.

I returned home two and a half hours after I left in the morning, having biked for less than half an hour!

This post attempts to make lemonade from lemons, so please, no condolences!

In spite of my best efforts, I didn’t miss my train

My trip to an oil boom town in North Dakota started off on a pretty nerve-wrecking note.

I feel like, at this point, “in spite of my best efforts, I managed to make my Amtrak train” has become a running joke. For every time I made it onto the station with plenty of time to spare, there are two times when I caught it pretty close, either because I didn’t leave as early as I could, or there were transit issues, or some combinations of both. But even compared to all that, catching the Empire Builder today felt like miracle.

My plan was to do what I usually do when taking the Hiawatha train to visit my sister. Since I usually head down to Milwaukee on Friday, I take Red Line/Yellow Line/Pace Route 210 combination to the Glenview Amtrak station. It just feels silly to go down to Chicago Union Station only to go back up again on Amtrak when you live in Rogers Park. That’s not an option on the weekend, since none of the Pace bus routes serving Glenview run on weekends, so I just take the train down to Union Station and take Brown/Red line train combination up to Rogers Park.

Continue reading “In spite of my best efforts, I didn’t miss my train” →

:)

On Tuesday, I was on a very crowded train on my way back home (who is still saying people are not back to the office?!). The conductor walked into our car, and walking all the way through the car, he was saying: Take out your phones, open your apps, let’s make it quick. When he reached the other end of the car, he turned back and said: And now, everybody, raise your phones!

Everybody laughed and raised their phones, and he waved: OK, everybody’s fine!

Amtrak Travels

The thing that I always forget when I take Amtrak to Ann Arbor is that there is one big reason for delays – a single track for a very long stretch. Because of that, if a train traveling in the opposite direction is delayed, your train will have to wait for a very long time. This time, on our onward journey, we waited for a record one hour and forty minutes and then were delayed a little bit more for the crew switch. In addition, the air conditioning was brutal, and Boris and I were completely frozen. The only thing that saved us was the dining car, which was open.

This announcement came as a pleasant surprise because it was the first time after the pandemic that I encountered an operating dining car. On the way back, I already planned on that and then had to listen to announcements about how they were quickly running out of things.

Stayin in the line in the dining car, I heard that they were out of burgers and then – out of breakfast sandwiches, and then they said they are “out of food,” although I overheard that they mentioned “veggie boxes.” When my turn came, I asked whether they still had veggie boxes with hummus. They said – yes, and they also had fruit cups, but “they were out of food.” 😀

CTA Accident

Just found out that I didn’t publish this post on Sunday when I wrote it (and was wondering why everybody reacted to my lost nail, and nobody reacted on this one). Anyway, publishing it now.

Today, we went to the matinee performance of West Side Story in the Lyric Opera. “Us” included me, my mom, and my neighbor. I chose a matinee performance for this show a long time ago because I thought that that was the show that my mom would enjoy.

She did; she liked it to the extent that she didn’t make any negative comments. But I wanted to share something else about this outing.

Most of the time, I try to take Uber when I take mom out; however, the last couple of days were impossible with all the road construction and Taylor Swift concerts, so after consulting with my neighbor, I decided that we would take the Red line and then a bus to Lyric opera.

We started way in advance, and the train was on time. However, as it often happens on the Red line, a person asking for “some change” appeared. I give to people on the streets most time, but I never give on the CTA, because that’s a violation, and there are many other places where people can ask for money.

I ignored the requests. Requests turned into hysterical crying (Anybody! Anybody! Any change!!!) Since this is not an unusual scene, and since I had mom with me, I didn’t pay much attention to the development of the event, and the next thing I realized (after the fact) was that this woman tried to commit suicide and managed to almost completely open the doors while the train was running.

The CTA crew stopped the train, then they came and escorted this woman to the front of the train and called for police assistance. We were very close to Sheridan station, but we could not move until the train crew received confirmation that the police arrived and were ready to take this person into custody.

We sat there for 25 minutes with the train engine off (and consequently the A/C off). I was afraid that we would be late (my neighbor was waiting for us by the Lyric entrance), but also, this whole situation was so horrible and hopeless…

Rail Cars Reception

On Thursday, Igor and I attended the Annual Rail Car Reception organized by Historic Pullman Foundation. It was a benefit event, and since neither Igor nor I had time to go to Pullman Days this year, I thought I could support Pullman financially and see cool cars simultaneously. So I got two tickets for both of us.

I thought that there would be some programming, but it was literally a reception held in the old cars. It was nice because you could go through three different cars from the late 40s and 50s, but I hoped for more words :).

Also, for some reason, we were almost constantly passed on food (it was mostly finger food, and waiters were walking back and forth with the trays passing us:).

Igor spent a lot of time taking good pictures, but he still didn’t sort them and didn’t share with me, so I will only post the pictures I took

The coolest part was that we could enter all the cabins, and touch everything, and even touch the silverware and menus!

I am not sure I will do it again next year, but it was a very interesting experience!

Uber Crisis

Recently, I often have had trouble getting an Uber ride right away. I first noticed it after the late evening concerts, and I learned that I have to wait or start walking away from the venue or both. But last Friday, I could not get Uber to go to the airport for more than 20 minutes, and then we hit the rush hour!

I had a very interesting conversation with the driver. He told me that the share Uber pays to the drivers is relatively small and does not reflect what the passenger pays. That’s why, he continued, drivers no longer want to pick the airport rides. He said that he is considering becoming a CTA bus driver. He mentioned that the bus driver’s pay used to be very low, but now they are paid $40/hour and have insurance and other benefits. I asked him whether Lift or any cab service would be better, but his advice about getting to the airport was to use the train!
I need to think about it 🙂

Today In The City

(Just realized that my yesterday’s post was left unpublished, so there will be three today :))

I saw on Instagram that the previous two weeks of escorting were brutal. My fellow escorts told me they saw up to fifty antis altogether (in shifts). The clinic requested police presents, but honestly, it was a farce.

Today was relatively quiet; there was only one group of four antis with an amplifier. The shocking part was that the police seemed to protect them, not us.

When a guy on a scooter shouted something in the direction of the amplifier, a police officer gestured for him to stop. When antis were done and packed their equipment, they shook hands with both police officers, and right after this group was gone, police left as well.
But at least it was quiet today, so I can’t complain.

Also, it turned out that today was the 75th anniversary of the CTA celebration, and if I had known in advance, I would plan on taking a ride in the 1920s train car. Unfortunately, I was already on a tight schedule, but I hope it was not the last time in my life.