I'm sure you're all eagerly awaiting to hear my decision on how to get to the airport from a few days ago. Well, I did literally the most ridiculous thing: I created a 4th option, a combination of 1 (risk squishing by taking Silver Line through Ted Williams tunnel) and 2 (risk road rage by driving). I drove, took a wrong turn somewhere on the detour in Southie, so decided to park at the $9 lot and take the Silver Line). It was the worst of both worlds. I need my head examined. The only interesting part was going through the Ted Williams tunnel. Going east toward the airport, the tunnel remains closed except for the Silver Line (which is actually a bus, for those of you not from Boston).
The first thing that happens as the Silver Line approaches the tunnel, is the bus picks up it's police escort (one can only assume that should the bus be squished from above, the 1 police officer in the car would rescue us all - ?). As we approached the entrance to the tunnel, we passengers on the bus all look nervously at each other, a mother grabs her 12ish year old son's hand (which he quickly snatches back with a cry of 'Mom!' and a look of embarassment). As we pass into the tunnel, we lean toward the windows, all staring up. Not a sound is heard on the bus. The ceiling appears to be fine, but the bus travels very slowly, allowing for lingering glances at the walls of the tunnel that never occur when driving through at 60 mph +. The spots where there have been leaks are really obvious at 20mph, the rust, the dripping, the skeeviness. Not exactly confidence building, I'll tell ya.
And let's just talk about the Red Line today. There was a medical emergency on a train ahead of mine, which turned out to be 2 people having heat exhaustion. So the train stops in the station, leaves all the doors open, which simultaneously lets all the a/c out and allows more and more people in, on a train that was already a billion degrees with a/c. People were sweating like cold beverage on a hot day. I turned around and there I spied a guy with wet patches all over his shirt. He just shrugged. Then the T sprang a leak. Water started dripping from the ceiling above some of the seats, causing people to jump up and even further crowd the space. I hate the train sometimes. On the way home, we had the small problem of needing to go slow because in this heat, the tracks can expand, increasing the derailment odds. Yes, my confidence in being able to get around is skyrocketing!
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