Public Transportation

If you want to see it all in a morning commute you need to take your car to a park and ride, get on a bus to an underground tunnel to a subway to another tunnel and into the office. And, since it was freezing cold today I did just that. I was so cold at the bus stop that I had tears from my freezing eyeballs streaming down my face. Once on the bus we had the usual experience plus an added detour because the bus driver felt like it. The ride was lengthy, but I was warm and that was all that mattered. By the time I got off the bus it was late, but it did not stop me from following the slow maze through the tunnel to the midtown shuttle. Along the way there was a man singing and playing the guitar. He sounded good until I got close enough to hear the words to his song- something like: I have a shotgun…I stay drunk all night…if you don’t like…get rid of that Wall Street Journal… Um yeah- not sure. Then there were the usual religious activists that try and hand things out and have their microphone to scream out the word of God or just sing hymns. The singers are my favorite since they don’t have any background music and they just sing it- no tune necessary- just singing in the tunnel. There are far worse things that could happen inside the tunnel, and these people at least have good intentions, but I often wonder what possessed them to go and sing in the tunnel? There is another lady I see almost every night in the port authority that claps and sings and when she is not clapping she is waving her American flag as she sings. Again, harmless, but I just can’t imagine waking up thinking I would go and sing in a bus station. As long as it is not the person yelling the world is ending I am just fine. The crowded dirty tunnels would not be the same without all of the faithful people who come and speak to the masses. I can only imagine what the ride home will bring. Since it is only 7 degrees out I will take the underground route again. Public services- there is nothing like it.