The calm before the storm
Today is very, very cold. Well, cold for Portland, anyway. This bone-chilling cold (currently 28 degrees) apparently makes public transportation stupid.
Portland Trimet system has this thing called “transit tracker”. If you know the stop ID where you will be getting on the bus or MAX, you can call their number (or look it up online) and find out when your bus will be arriving. Very often, they say things like “#35 arriving in 6 minutes”. And, in theory, that means that the #35 bus will be arriving in six minutes. Sometimes they say things like “#35 scheduled at 7:05” and then you know that they have no idea where the #35 is, or when it will be showing up, but they want you to know that it is scheduled, and may show up.
This morning, as I always do before walking the 1/4 mile from my house to my bus stop of choice, I called transit tracker. It was 6:59 AM. My bus (which is not, btw, the #35) was arriving in 6 minutes. It takes about 4 minutes to walk to the stop, so off I went. I arrived at the stop at 7:04 – a minute before the bus was to arrive. The bus had not come by early (I would’ve seen it and also there was someone else at the stop), so I waited. At 7:08 (i.e. 3 minutes after the bus was going to be arriving), I called Transit tracker again. My bus was arriving in 5 minutes (and another one was right behind it arriving in 7 minutes). Apparently the Trimet buses travel is some weird space-time continuum where a minute of bus time is equal to 8 minutes of human time. At 7:15, no buses had yet arrived. I called AGAIN. Two minutes. At 7:22, I got on the bus.
I had to transfer downtown. The bus I transfer to is a frequent service (arriving every 5 minutes during morning rush hour). I waited for 15 minutes (and I think it was colder downtown than at home). In that time, in addition to the bus that I got off, 3 more buses from the same line drove by.
It took 2 hours to get to work this morning. And guess what? There is no heat in my hall! YAY! I may never thaw out.
Tomorrow, I will be working from home. I will try to come in Thursday (and honestly, I think I can successfully come in on Thursday), and then I have Friday off.
Today is beautiful (although cold), but tomorrow is supposed to be yucky again….all this crap weather -what can it mean? If you guessed “the gazelle’s parents are coming to town” you win! It’s weird, but whenever they visit, we have bad weather. They visit in August, and it’s cold & grey. They visit LA, and it rains. They are weird, bad weather bringers. I’m just lucky that the architect’s father, who gneerally brings weirdly good weather, also came to our wedding – the two balanced each other out. (Also, note to self, never take tropical vacation with parents, as there would likely be a hurricane.)
So – expect some awesome shoe porn tomorrow, as I will be working from home, and will feel less guilty about my internet breaks.
I am going to try to get to the gym tonight on my way home – if just to warm up between bus rides.
This week’s plan:
Sunday – run 7 miles (I ran 5 – it was cold & icy)
Monday – Bikram yoga (they canceled class, I did 50 minutes on my elliptical instead)
Tuesday – run 3-4 miles, lower body weights
Wednesday – yoga (at home); 90 minutes
Thursday – AM gym; XT for 30 minutes, upper body weights for 30 minutes
Friday – run 3-4 miles, hopefully outside
Saturday – yoga or elliptical
