| The Train August 31, 1998 Chris Maus [RAMBLE INDEX] |
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| My Web Archive |
To all who want to take the time to read all of this...
I started a new assignment on August 13. It's been quite the adventure to get in the groove of my new commute. The site where I am assigned right now is about 35 miles out from the loop where I live. The challenge, not having a car, was to get there. Well, I contemplated my alternatives and came up with a solution that gets me some exercise and limits my time at home to the degree that I've started looking for a new job downtown in the loop. This assignment is only "suppose" to last two months... But my experience in playing the "contractor" game in the I.S. field means that if I do a good job they'll keep me around a little longer... Anyway, my weekdays go something like this... I get up at about 5:00 AM. (I did this morning anyway.) Make a pot of coffee or nuke some that was left from the previous morning. I sit and write for a half an hour or so. Drink some coffee, smoke some cigarettes and pseudo psyche up for my day. The train leaves for Fox Lake from Union Station at 7:06. Union Station is about a 15 minute walk from my apartment so I leave at about 6:45. The train ride is an hour to Libertyville (I've taken to calling it Nowhereville) The kicker is, The office is 3.5 miles from the strain station in Nowhereville. There is a bus that "would" get me within walking distance of the office BUT it doesn't run until 9:05. I could walk in that amount of time but then I'd be getting started a little later than I'd like to, My first day on the job was a Thursday and I was still trying to figure out how I was going to get there. There was a meeting that morning which the site lead from Paranet was going to attend and he wanted to meet for coffee before hand. I asked him to meet me at the Caribou Coffee Shop right next to the train station and he agreed. So I got a ride to the office that morning. It also left me stranded three and one half miles from Nowhereville and a hell of a walk back to the train station. I knew this ahead of time and so I stuffed my Roller-Blades in my backpack for the trek to the train station. Friday was payday and my cash supply was pretty much GONE... I could maybe have afforded a cab ride the next day but since this was a two month assignment I chose to experiment with the Roller-Blades. What a miserable failure that experiment was! I had been considering the purchase of a bicycle to leave at the train station for the duration of this assignment and made that decision final after my first day. I strapped on my blades after work the first day and headed across the asphalt ocean between the office and Highway 41 (Milwaukee Avenue). 41 is THE ONLY ROAD between Nowhereville and the office. It's a 4 lane highway with curbs and NO SHOULDER! And no sidewalks for about a mile. I didn't realize this until my blade trip to Nowhereville that first night... After walking through the grass in my Roller-Blades and skating down the miserable sidewalks once I got to them, I knew I had to get a bike! There is a bike shop across the street from the train station so after the hour it took for me to get there I went in, dripping with sweat and inquired about their "Used Bike Sale". There was a sign in the window. The guy who helped me went in back and brought out a Trek 7000 mountain bike. I asked, "How much?" And he told me $180. I said I take it and I need a lock for it. He added everything up and I gave him my Amex Card. I was DECLINED! I was mildly annoyed... So I asked him to hold it for me until the next day or Saturday. He asked if I could put any cash down as a deposit and all I had was $5 so he tried putting $20 on the Amex Card and it worked. Now I had another problem. The bike shop's hours were 9-5 on Fridays. So, either I would be late for work or have to leave work early. I stewed on my options for the hour long train ride back into the city. I came up with asking my friend Emilee if I could rent her car for the day. If she needed her car I would cab it to and from the train station. Or, I would hangout for an hour at the bike shop on Friday morning and be late for work... Fortunately, Emilee didn't need her car on Friday and she let me rent it from her... I got up that Friday and hit the ATM for $500 (I wanted a some extra cash for myself) The total with taxes and a lock came to somewhere around $220 and I told Emilee I'd give her $50 for her car. So with bucks in my jeans I hit the road in Emilee's Pontiac Sunfire at 6:00 AM. I figured I get there early and leave early. It took 45 minutes. BUT it took 90 minute for me to get home that night... I was definitely NOT going to buy a car just to get to and from this assignment after that drive. So, that Friday evening I got to the bike shop before they closed and picked up my new-to-me bicycle. I took it for a spin and locked it up at the train station so it would be there (hopefully) Monday morning. It's taken a little getting used to, but I can now get from the train station to the office in about 15 minutes. The ride from the office to the train station is about 20-25 minutes. The office is downhill... I don't think there is a problem with bicycle thieves in Nowhereville. People don't lock their bikes up as tightly as I do and I have yet to see any signs that someone has messed with my bike. I guess being that far out of the city cuts down on the bicycle thievery... Hell, nobody wants to ride a bike up there anyway. I can tell because there is nothing but CAR DEALERSHIPS between the station and the office. Oh, there is a major shopping mall too... Well, I'm writing on the train and I've made it to nowhereville so I'll continue on the ride home... Ah... I made it through Monday... So, where did I leave off? I guess that pretty much describes my the commute to my new assignment and I can ramble about something else now. I think I mentioned my upcoming concert at the SweetCorn Playhouse... Well, it came and went in less that a whimper. (A borderline moan is more like it) I will say it was one of my better performances and I'm glad Alison, Patrick and Stephanie got to enjoy it. (They were the only people there!) I played anyway because I liked the way Alison and I got my sound system set up. I'd say the sound was perfect for the venue and I played most of what I CUT from my set list. I had carefully prepare and rehearsed all "my" songs for the weeks prior to this event. (I wasn't going to play any covers except 2 or 3) Anyway, my meager audience appreciated it. (I think) Lot's o covers and a bit of twisted commentary. I've even revived "Leaving on a Jet Plane" I want to do it with the distortion cranked... The other major event that will be occurring in my life is Alison will be moving in with me. I'll be getting on a plane on Saturday (9/5/98) with my one-way ticket to Minneapolis and driving to Chicago with Alison and her stuff a few daze later. There's some of you on this mailing list that have not met her and I like the mystery it creates for you ;-) Our plans are fairly sketchy right now so there aint much else beyond her change of address at this point. We will be looking for a bigger, less expensive place to live once she gets to know this city. So the tedium of my life continues and I'll go back to writing in my "the train" file. It's how I have been passing the time on this major chunk of my commute. Hell, it may even produce a short story or something. It definitely primed me for a major "Ramble..." |
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