Loping to Tartarus

I keep getting emails from one of those "Find Your Old Classmates" sites. I check it out on occassion, but am not a "Gold Member" (maybe Aluminum?), so my benefits are pretty much limited to getting listed on the site and having a "profile" (Lane Tech '79). One can have a photo of "now", and one from "then" -- so I did post a recent pic of myself, and for "Then" I put this:

Ha, Ha -- this is a drawing of Johnny Revolto: Man About Town an idea I had for a culture/restaurant critic. Golly -- I crack myself up!! Well, I may have actually looked something like that after sophomore foundry class...

Friday's Work day did not start out too well at all! I left home with plenty of time to get to the Metra station for the 3:05, or so I thought -- after half a block realized I'd left without my "reading glasses" (a weaker pair I use for reading), so ran back home to get those. Of course now I had to do some running to get to the station so as not to miss the train. Well, turned out the train was late anyway - pulled in about 3:17 -- no problem (not actually that unusual), can still get to work with time to spare! NO, WAIT. The conductor gets off the train and says there is some kind of fire down a ways south, and the train isn't going anywhere till all is clear.

Last time I had a major problem with the Metra, I got to work at 5:30 (I start work at 4:00), so I decided I'd better take the CTA to work (almost guaranteeing I'd be late, but at least it would only be 10 or 15 minutes). There's five blocks to go to the Lunt Entrance of the Morse Red Line station, so I start running (and I really don't do a lot of that!). Some kid on a skateboard yells after me "WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!!" -- At that point I was just running to catch the traffic light, but from the sound of the kids voice, I think he thought the train was going to blow up or something. Well that'll be HIS big story to tell for the day. When I get to the train entrance, I'm greeted with this:

OF COURSEWell, it was just another block to go, but it did make me feel like Jack Lemon in The Out Of Towners.

This is the little stretch of Glenwood which was the last leg of this segment of my journey.

Train was just pulling into the station as I tripped on the last stair up to the platform. When a sat down on an available seat, I was pretty much drenched in sweat (very humid day!), and felt like everyone was staring at me (OK - only half the passengers were staring). The CTA Redline ride was it's usual beautiful experience: slow, dirty and noisy.

Clocked into work 10 minutes late, and got a comment about "whatever happened to MR. PUNCTUALITY?!" Ha, Ha -- Mr. Puntuality -- That's another story !

Oh, and while I was setting up my cart for work, I managed to both jam and cut a finger! Yes blood everywhere! Well, maybe not everywhere...

Yes, a perfect day.

Let's have another old doodle!!