As promised… the new car!
It is a 1983 Mercedes Benz 300 sd turbo diesel. I’ve been told its motor is one of the top 10 motors of the last century… pretty cool eh? So far, I just feel like I’m driving a freight train down the road, but I’m sure I will acclimate… we’re bonding. The next step will be naming her…
I only just recently saw An Inconvenient Truth (it was about time, I know!), so it feels appropriate to write a green themed post.
First, about the movie:
Living with Josh, I’ve definitely been exposed to quite a bit. I’ve also picked up on a few interesting and useful resources on my own (I’m pretty sure these aren’t new to most people - I’m a bit behind):
Although I already take public transportation everyday to work, I’ve recently taken even more steps toward a green commute. I got a bike! $50 on Craigslist will actually get you pretty far. So now, I take the Minuteman Bikeway all the way from Alewife to Lexington Center (about 8 miles). I’ve done it twice so far; I’m a bit out of shape, but it wasn’t too bad. I’m really looking forward to increasing my stamina and decreasing my commute time. Right now, it takes me between 40-50 minutes to get to work by bike and at least an hour by T!
I’m really intrigued by this article at Yahoo! Finance, “Tapping the Power of Your Morning Routine.”
I am not a morning person
When I sent Josh the link to this article, his response was:
“ick, who wants to do all that?”
So, you see, I also don’t have any positive motivation to be a morning person. When I was in high school, my parents would literally have to keep a spray bottle of water ready to spritz me every morning to get me out of bed. I repeat, not a morning person. I also have never seen the fruits of such labor as alluded to in the article. Mornings have always been a frenzied dash for the door and the earlier I wake up, the more it seems there is to do. So, it just becomes a busier day… not a better controlled day.
Bottom line, I don’t believe these findings. The author brags about his 85% response rate. Of course he has a high response rate! If I were the VP of marketing or PR at any of these companies and I found out my CEO hadn’t responded, I would have gone on the war path! What a great soft PR opportunity! Also, if I were the PR person, or the CEO for that matter, there’s no way in hell I would admit to being a grouch in the mornings… I’m going to give him the answer that looks good. As far as Yahoo Finance is concerned, I’m Ben freakin’ Franklin. Not only am I going to give the answer that looks good, but I’m going to give the answers the journalist wants… the study is awfully leading and I don’t want to be the speed bump that irritates the journalist.
Now, to be fair, this guy never claims the scientific relevancy of his study. But, readers should also keep that in mind. Most importantly, I will keep that in mind. I will continue to sleep till the absolute last possible minute and I will continue to barely catch the bus every morning. I suppose, I may also continue not being the CEO.
Hurray! I’ve been waiting for a big, Boston-style snow. I don’t know why; I don’t even really like snow. I guess, I just missed it.
Yesterday’s snow wasn’t really a big, Boston-style snow, but snow none-the-less. It was a soft falling snow; the kind that floats around and hangs in the air. You have to be careful when you breath; otherwise, your likely to snort a flake right up your nose! I nearly choked on a snowflake yesterday morning.
Then, just to add excitement to my morning commute, I decided to fall down the stairs at the Porter T stop. OW! My entire backside and my head were killing me all day! Today, I have a rather large knot on the same leg that is permanently bruised from falling down the stairs at the Foggy Goggle, but that’s another story.
To all you red line commuters out there: Take extra precaution when descending the stairs to the outbound platform at Porter Square. Also, don’t expect any assistance or concern from any fellow commuters. Bostonians are rude!
Yesterday just wasn’t my day.
So, this morning, I read in the Metro that the T police and T employees have been given authorization to issue tickets to fare jumpers. If they catch you “jumping the gate” they can issue you a ticket with a $15 fine. Whats worse, though, is that at any time during your trip a T official could ask you for proof of fare purchase! WTF?!?!?!
In my case, I buy a montly Link pass. When I do this I do get a receipt, but do they expect me to carry that receipt around with me and my charlie card for the whole month?!? What if someone purchased a one way ticket and chose not to get a receipt. When most people use up their Charlie Tickets they throw them away (or throw them on the floor). How do these T officials expect us law-abiding, fare paying riders to distinguish ourselves from the 5% of riders that skip paying for their rides?
I understand the T is strapped for cash and their scraping the bottom of the barrel in an attempt to start balancing their budget, but is this tactic really cost effective? The metro article also mentioned that T officials were concerned that their employees would now face dangerous and confrontational situations on a daily basis; so, they will all need a little training on what to do = $$$. Also, theoretically, this is going to take time from whatever it is these employees are already doing. I assume they are working hard crunching numbers and balancing budgets when they are sitting in their little booths. And when their getting in peoples way at the fare machines? Why, that’s top notch customer service in action! Why would we want to distract them from such important responsibilities?
But, maybe I’m wrong about these hard working T employees, I can’t really ignore all of the countless blog posts and newspaper articles about how T employees aren’t the ultra-motivated, ambitious, go-getter types. So, where is the motivation for a bunch of T employees to start accosting strangers and asking to see receipts?
Maybe even more importantly, where’s the motivation for riders to pay the fines? The system will be like parking tickets; when you rack up a nice little tab at the RMV, they revoke your license until you pay. First of all, why should the tax dollars earmarked for the RMV now also go toward processing paperwork for the MBTA?
Also, Umm… I’m riding the T; why do I need my license? I don’t even have a MA license and, chances are, most people my age in Boston don’t. I don’t know the official stats on the number of daily T riders that are also car owners/drivers, but tying punishment to one’s license doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. Except for the fact that there’s really no other way to keep track of the delinquents and their fines and tickets. Really, if they wanted to motivate me to pay they should threaten to put a hold on my zipcar membership! That would kill me in one cruel, swift motion.
And What are you going to do do the under 16 crowd? Ask to see their hall pass? Issue a detention? Confiscate their school ID? Call their mommies?
The idea doesn’t see to be very well thought out if you ask me, but then again neither does the entire T system or the new Charlie system.
I live in Central Square, Cambridge (moving soon to Porter: more on this in a bit). I work in Lexington, MA. I don’t own a car. This leaves me only one option of transportation…. the T.
There seems to be a trend of people blogging about the T, so I thought I would throw my own opinion into the mix. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m known for my hellish commutes. Most days, I’m numb to the pain and inconvenience of having to chart out my day based on a bus schedule. Other days, it drives me crazy!
I try to make the best of my situation, but it isn’t easy. I listen to my ipod, but that has recently stopped holding a charge. I read, but I’m plagued with never having grown out of my childhood, “puke everytime I’m in a car,” extreme motion sickness. I people watch, but it is always the same people (many of whom forget to bathe, so I can’t even breathe!).
So… sticking to my optimistic outlook, I took to the charlie ticket system with ease, hoping it would make my commute easier. I used a combo pass because I take the T and the bus twice daily; the pass is the cheapest option. However, paper passes are not meant to withstand month-long usage. Naturally, I was pleased to see the new card system launch. I even got up early on the central square’s “assigned” day to get a card. I got there well within the time frame and, this shouldn’t have surprised me, nobody was there; no signs, nothing. Never one to be easily discouraged, I got up early the next day to try to catch the Alewife card disbursement day. I missed it and let off a little steam on the nearest T official for it. They promptly produced a card to shut me up. Score!
I quickly learn though, the Charlie Card may fix the paper problem, but it also creates a new problem set altogether. My particular bus has two rates depending on your destination. With the basic coin operating system, I got to decide what to pay. With the pass system, I didn’t care what they “charged,” but with the card to onus is on me. If I don’t explicitly tell the driver my destination and expected far… they’ll charge me the maximum amount! ugh!
The T sucks…
Any seasoned Bostonian knows to expect complete havoc during labor day weekend. It really does look like the Uhaul convention is in town for the weekend. After almost two and a half years here I thought I would have learned my lesson, but there is one thing that I’ve consistently forgotten each fall…. the immediate and constant influx of traffic.
I first moved to Boston in June 2004; I lived in Back Bay and worked in Swampscott (I’ll have to complain about ‘reverse’ commuting on the T some other time). On labor day weekend that year, I moved to Fenway with my parents excursion pulling a Uhaul. Absolutely Crazy! The worst part though, was when I was late to work the entire following week; my already hour-long commute had turned into a two-hour long nightmare due to the huge influx of traffic on the green line. I learned to hate boston students while I was also learning to be one myself.
This year, I’m now working in Lexington. (I have a masochistic track record of working in Boston “suburbs:” Swampscott, Newton, Lexington. I’ve only worked in the actual city for 3 months, and oh how I loved that commute)! So, first I was taking the T to the bus to Lexington and my commute was about an hour. Then, Josh moved here with his car! Because parking in Cambridge is so ridiculous, I drive to work every day to take advantage of free parking. The month of August was amazingly easy. I loved my commute! However, immediately after Labor Day, it has become absolutely hellish.
Lesson learned: students suck, especially the ones with t-passes or cars
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