Procrastination

Dear J—

Look at that, not even a month and I’m already procrastinating on a bunch of stuff for work and professional development. I want to just be done already, y’know? I want to just declare that this is done and I won’t have to touch it again and that’s just that, right? I can’t, unfortunately. Maybe if I had smaller goals, or took more time to actually do work instead of procrastinate, then I’d be … naw, that’s madness, right? Smart mouth. The joy of crossing things off a list shouldn’t be underestimated, since that feeling – accomplishment – feels so alien lately. What do you do when you turn off the lights at night? Do you regret what has been done, or is there joy in everything you do and say instead?

Mike

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Days Off

Dear J—

Different conducting crews have their own style; the crew we had before on 102 would walk up and down the train together, chatting and recognizing passengers as we passed through, and now, there’s just the one guy – who I do recognize – but the other one, who handles the announcements, is as anonymous as any other voice on the train.

It’s also ridership survey time, as I see the contractors there at the doorway, making marks for when I get on and off the train. I suspect it will be a fairly high count this year, as the weather is mild and ridership has not suffered from the rain (what rain, right?) this year.

Once again I have failed in my quest to ride the special celebration train on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – it’s a ten-car consist hauled up from San Jose, stopping at Palo Alto and San Mateo on the way to San Francisco to participate in a march and activities. It sounds like fun to me, but I suppose it sounds like education to the kids, who have their own suspicions about it. Perhaps I can convince them to go with me to the New Year parade in February, but that’s probably a hard sell as well. These long weekends with no activity are starting to wear on me.

Mike

One Stop

Dear J—

I still want … many things. I have … no allowances left. Therefore, I …

Those blanks are obvious and should be filled in, right? I also have so much to do at work and so little motivation to be making numbers march in an orderly fashion around a spreadsheet, or making works apply to various items as we have a thousand different procedures and precedents and God help us all if there’s some conflict that means you can’t exactly do what you said you would. Follow through on your promises, c’mon, it’s not hard.

Mike

New Year

Dear J—

So there is some confusion here: they ran a six-car gallery set, which means the bike car becomes the third back from the locomotive, not the second. I got on the wrong car with my bike and was confused by the closed door, doubly so when the car was filled with seats in both directions, though thankfully I was able to hustle down to the right car while it was still on the platform.

There’s also a slightly different schedule, as I understand it, and of course all of this will be subject to change in the upcoming year, so let’s keep that in mind too. New Year brings new and interesting experiences, thankfully.

Mike