Well, it's December 26th, and I'm still here. I've survived another Christmas.
Almost, anyway. Savvy ^Desperate merchants are pimping today like a second "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving, since Christmas happened to fall on a Thursday and a lot of people just got a 4-day weekend out of it. Anyone want to stock up on red velvet things, strings of lights, and wrapping paper you can only use in December (but God forbid you accidentally wrap someone's late-December birthday present in it...) for next year? Yeah, me neither. We put a tree in the condo this year and all it did was dry out. I'll be depositing it in the trash today and attempting to vacuum up the 7 lbs. of pine needles the cats assisted in dislodging from the tree later.
So, yeah. I think we're officially in the holiday season until January 2. That's typically when places tend to go back to their usual hours of business. But Christmas is over, and like I said, it didn't seem quite as horrible this year. Maybe because July was already the insurmountable lowest point of my year... who knows. Did I tell you I almost went for a swim in Tempe Town Lake? With some cinderblocks?
Anyhow, now that I've got the shock-you crap off my chest, let's see... The light rail opens on schedule tomorrow (Saturday). Apparently, they're giving away free rides until New Year's or something. I won't be riding it. I'll be busy working and stuff. But it will be interesting to see the kinds of crowds they draw tomorrow. I'll only be pissy if they interfere with my ability to get to work. Oh, and it's supposed to be near freezing the next two mornings, so... hope people have fun standing on those uncovered outdoor platforms for hours waiting for a chance to catch a ride on Opening Day. Heh heh heh.
I have no vested interest in the light-rail system. It's just been such a massive thorn in my side for the last three years, I'm glad to see it be done and ready to run. You know, of course, where I work, and the tracks sliced right down the middle of Washington. I've had to cross the construction zone 4-6 times a day, five to six days a week, for 36 months. Mbleh. It hasn't been AS bad these last few months, as they finished the parts near the track first since the railyard isn't far from there (the track, 40th and Washington; the railyard is by the riverbed and the 202 just before the Priest exit, and empties out onto the main Washington line just east of 51st Street), and have been completing construction fanning out in both directions from the railyard.
As referenced by my last post here in June, largely they've been running test trains on our section of the line since then, but for the last three months they'd been closing Washington at 44th intermittently to put a bridge across Washington for the future airport People-Mover system.
Their decision made sense -- running the light rail itself through the airport would have made the train ride take forever, waiting for people to get on/off with baggage and every stop, so they're constructing a second, smaller train which will pick people up at the 44th Street station and will ferry them into the airport. However, for some reason, the airport train won't be operational until 2013 and won't be complete until 2020.
Huh?
You'd've thought that for one of the biggest purported features of this train -- "Just get on the Metro by your house and ride it to the airport! No need to hitch a ride with friends anymore!" -- they'd've wanted to have that last link ready to go... but whatever. In the interim, they've constructed a loading lot on the SW corner of 44th/Washington for shuttle buses and will run shuttles from there down into the airport... which I think sounds like a fine idea, rather than building a whole 'nother train... but I'm not in charge.
Anyhow, the airport train will climb up a steep slope and will pass over eastbound Washington, and its loading point will be high atop that bridge, which dead-ends at an elevator shaft whose bottom is at the end of the station platform for the 44th Street light-rail stop. They probably wanted to get that first part of the bridge done while there weren't any trains actually running. But yeah, that's more or less done now, too.
It's official, by the way. I know way too much about stuff that no one cares about.
Let's see, what else... No more radio show, although judging by our numbers, you probably weren't listening anyway, or even aware of its existence. It was far too expensive for the track, who had to purchase the whole hour from the radio station each week AND pay the host/production staff (don't blame me, I volunteered my time). So, I'll be scrubbing that from my profile here pretty quick.
Also, I didn't do choir this semester. I've been telling everyone I was too busy with work and it's been nice getting full rest again, but in reality I just didn't feel up to it. Hell, I've largely quit watching television, I quit blogging... I quit leaving the house for anything but work, really, and when I'm here I just stare at my doggie blogs, as Parks used to call them, and check espn.com over and over waiting for new stories to come up. Meh. I know I'm complaining about something only I can change, but I don't have the strength to do it, so I'll just continue on with it. While I didn't go through with anything back in July, I'm pretty sure something in me died regardless. Work's all right, but I'm just lying to myself. Eventually it's going to collapse, probably sooner than later. Cooking isn't an option as far as starting a new career in this economy. I talked to a few people after that blog post, and this fact was revealed to me pretty clearly. So, I'll keep slugging away doing what I'm doing, and when it's done, it's done, and I'll have outlived my usefulness. I'm a throwback to a different era in a world that just keeps moving forward. Stay in school, kids.
Oh, one other thing. The cats are doing fine. That IS one thing that keeps me coming home every day. Gary, Boo, and Squeak can't open cans of food by themselves, and need someone to sift the poopbox now and again. Plus, the two boys love me unconditionally, like a good dog would (Boo is getting better with me, and will probably be all over me while Jon's in South Carolina for a week here over New Year's, like she was while he was in Italy during the summer).
--CG
