Can You Believe It?

I received a couple emails from GO this afternoon. One saying "The 1653 train trip from Union to Oshawa (1738) is CANCELLED due to operational reasons (crew)" and another one apologizing for the delays yesterday and noted "Delays may continue into this evening. Because of yesterday evening's events, some train crew members have now exceeded federal regulations limiting the number of hours they can work. We will make every effort, along with CN, to avoid delays."

The smart thing would have been to cancel all service last night when there was an actual issue and save the crews for today. Instead they continued to try to run yesterday and had their crew sit idling in no man's land for countless hours wasting their hours. I am all for restricting hours for drivers of any vehicle (I've watched enough Seconds From Disaster shows on National Geographic channel), don't get me wrong, I just think GO Transit could have used their heads and planned more appropriately.

On the Rail to Nowhere

Yesterday us Eastbound commuters got yet another taste of how little customer service and intelligence GO Transit really has. I was working away at my desk, totally unaware that my bad day was about to get a lot worse, trying to get through my last hour. Just as I found something to occupy my remaining time with, an email notification pops up from GO Transit mentioning something about service suspension. I believe it said there was a major fire in the Victoria Park and Danforth area and all Lakeshore East service was suspended so find your own alternate trip home. Nice! Don’t bother to get buses arranged at Union or anything. Or give us some possible alternatives. This emergency preparedness on the part of GO shows just how much they care about their service. With this kind of attitude, people will look for permanent alternate travel plans and take their dollars elsewhere.

Anyhow, back to the story. After a few frantic seconds of thinking I was going to be stranded in Toronto for the night (the worst torture I can think of), I took a deep breath and came up with a plan to get myself home. I was going to take another train line and my mother agreed to pick me up. The only problem with this plan is that there was a good chance I was going to be late in picking up my son from daycare so when I got another email notification from GO saying the service had resumed I was ecstatic. Since no one was being that specific as to where this fire really was I was not expecting any hitches getting home.

I walked to Union and was able to get on a train going East and once the train pulled out of the station I called my mom and told her she was off the hook for the night. After a slow ride for about five or ten minutes, the train comes to a stop and there was an announcement saying we are waiting for some trains to go through and some signals and we would be on our way. About ten minutes later another announcement boomed through the speakers. There was a change of plans, the track has been closed by the fire chief and we were heading back to Union Station.

I called my mom once again and arranged for her to go to the daycare and I would meet them at home whenever I got there. After sitting in the same spot on the tracks for another fifteen minutes or so, a third announcement came on changing the plans for the third time. We are going to wait on the tracks in the middle of nowhere until the morons at GO Transit figure out what to do with us cattle.

After waiting for about another thirty minutes, and twenty minutes after I am usually home, the train was finally moving…East. At this time, I was extremely irritated by the indecision of GO Transit and that only intensified when we passed the fire area. They should never have resumed service on that line at all last night. The train crawled through the affected section mere inches beside some fire trucks parked on the rail grade. Firemen were only a few yards on the other side of the grade trying to extinguish the fire. Although, how they saw anything in that thick “toxic” haze of smoke I’ll never know. Someone could lose sight of their hand in it if they extended their arm out. All evening long, service was on again, off again until they finally stopped around 10 or 11.

This was the second incident this week for GO Transit as well. This most recent episode, although not started by GO Transit, was compounded by the lack of decision by GO. I would have much rather been anywhere but stuck on a train with no room to move around. This is just another example of how few options the train commuter has once on the train and how many outside factors can influence the fate of a commute home. With the fact that GO cannot keep their equipment running properly and their lack of customer service I don’t know why I am still using them. Maybe it’s time to start driving.

Good Deeds Don't Pay!

This is sort of a sad post for me but it does contain some humour.

A few weeks ago I found out a co-worker has a defective cd player in her computer. This happened when I brought in a cd that she wanted to listen to. I let her take it for the day and continued on with my work. About a minute later she comes back and tells me it doesn’t play in her player. I thought that was odd so I went to check it out. It turns out the cd player was not installed into her computer…interetsing.

After that encounter, I decided to put the songs onto my iPod, along with other songs I knew she liked, and I would put the songs directly onto her hard drive at work even though it is against company policy. So sometime last week I did just that. I added Great Big Sea, ABBA, and Glass Tiger to my iPod and added it to her computer. She enjoyed it, and I could hear GBS playing all day.

That night I was going to remove the ABBA songs and add ones that I would enjoy. Unfortunately, it was a long day at work so I was too tired to do anything when I got home. Same with the next day. The weeekend came and went without me doing anything about my iPod. Finally Monday rolled around and I decided it was time to switch up the songs. I double clicked on my iTunes icon on my computer so I could pick some songs before I attached my iPod but nothing happened. I clicked again, and again but still nothing happened so I decided to restart my computer. The only problem with this is that my computer didn’t restart.

Now it is Thursday, my computer doesn’t start and I am stuck with ABBA on my iPod. Luckily, I at least have Great Big Sea to keep me sane on my trip to and from work. The lesson I have learned from all of this…good deeds don’t pay! The smile and joy I brought to someone else by doing this unexpected deed does not make up for the pain I am feeling now.

I still need to figure out what is wrong with my computer though because I have a lot of pictures on my hard drive that I had not had a chance to save to disk yet. There are also some excel files that are dear to me that I would like back, but those are not life and death.

Boredom Looms Large

Just a quick update on nothing really. These weeks are coming and going without any incidents (or at least nothing worth posting about) and without any real inspiration. I've been trying to follow the Mann Cup but since the games are being played in BC, I am unable to stay up to 1 AM to watch (not that they are being shown on tv) or even listen to the games. On the positive side, the Ontario Hockey League is only a couple weeks away and they are currently playing some exhibition games. The Provincial Jr. A's and the Jr. B's and C's seasons have begun as well so there is a lot of decent cheap hockey to watch. And if fighting is what you enjoy about hockey, there are no better fights these days then those in junior hockey.

Other than the anticipation of junior hockey, there is nothing exciting going on in my life. I will continue to update my quotes and hopefully soon, I will have more to say. So until then, I hope you all have found something else to do to occupy your time at work.

August 2007 Quotes

In case some of you missed any of my quotes last month, I decided I will combine them all and put them in a separate post at the end of each month. Hope you've enjoyed them so far.

Dyin' ain't much of a livin' for the young. - Jon Bon Jovi (Dyin' Ain't Much of a Livin')

But it’s a sad man my friend who’s livin’ in his own skin
And can’t stand the company - Bruce Springsteen (Better Days)

Well, I wrestled with reality for thirty-five years, doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it. - Elwood replying to Dr Sanderson (Harvey 1950)

I'd kill myself for you
I'd kill you for myself.
– Pantera (This Love)

My love is yours to take
My heart is yours to break
- Stompin' Tom Connors (Lover's Lake)

On the surface, all is illusion. Sometimes, you must risk all to reveal the truth beneath. - Caine to young Peter

The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it but what they become by it. - John Ruskin

If you watch a game, it's fun. If you play it, it's recreation. If you work at it, it's golf. - Bob Hope

Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people. – The Refreshments (Banditos)

Humans, for the most part, don't have a clue. Don't want one, either. They're happy. They think they've got a pretty good bead on things. – Kay talking to Edwards (Men in Black)

A person is smart. People are dumb. - Kay talking to Edwards (Men in Black)

What I’ve felt
What I’ve known
Never shined through in what I’ve shown
Never be
Never see
Won't see what might have been
What I’ve felt
What I’ve known
Never shined through in what I’ve shown
Never free
Never me
So I dub thee unforgiven
- Metallica (The Unforgiven)

I wish to wish I dream to dream
I try to try and I live to live
And I die to die and I cry to cry
- Soundgarden (Somewhere)

The time is always right to do what is right. - Martin Luther King Jr.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young… - J.K Rowling (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

All my life I've been searching for somethin'
Somethin' never comes, never leads to nuthin'
Nothin' satisfies, but I'm gettin' close
Closer to the prize at the end of the rope
- Foo Fighters (All My Life)

Yesterday has been and gone
Tomorrow will I find the sun
Or will it rain
Everybody's having fun
Except me, I'm the lonely one
- Ozzy Osbourne (Goodbye to Romance)

Don't want to be bored no more
I know there's so much more
Don't know what I was hoping for
I feel like feeling better than I ever felt before
- Soul Asylum (Hopes Up)

Without hope I can't go wrong
- Soul Asylum (Hopes Up)

Summer's End?

With the night’s darkness holding the morning sun hostage a little longer every day, everybody is ready to give up on summer. For a season that a lot of people claim is their favourite, they sure are eager to see it leave. The autumnal equinox, and hence the end of summer or, more appropriately, the beginning of autumn (fall for those laypeople out there), is still almost a month away. September 23, 2007 is the day of reckoning for summer, not September 1. Quit your whining and get outside and enjoy the summer season in its entirety. Once summer is over it won’t be back for another 272 days (give or take).

Castle Shuster is now Complete!

Some roadwork began on my street a few days ago and the road, or more specifically, some curbs and part of some driveways has been dug up. Of course, my house was one of the lucky ones. About a foot of my driveway and my adjoining neighbours driveways have been ripped up leaving a big trench stretching across the front of my house.

This has been a nightmare as my driveway is unusable, along with several other driveways on my street and the surrounding streets, so trying to find parking is a challenge to say the least. Not to mention trying to drive down the street, avoiding not only cars on the side of the road but pylons and in some areas even trenches. I guess this is a small price to pay when owning a house. At least the City is doing something with my tax dollars.

Anyhow, this morning the skies opened up and unleashed a flurry of rain amid cracks and flashes of lightening and booming thunder. Since I am inside and have no place to go, it was a nice sight. I don’t mind a little storm every now and then and God knows the unpaved desert like ground in front and behind my house desperately needs some moisture (although I am not going to ask for any because then we will get more than can be handled and my basement might turn into a swimming pool).


As the rain subsided, at least for a brief period, I looked out the window to see if the rain had merely slowed or if it had stopped altogether. As I watched the river flow down my driveway, I noticed the trenches had gathered the rain nicely and instead of an ugly eye sore, the absence of ground became a protecting moat. Sure, it is only about two feet across but that is enough protection in times without horses, including the fabled Trojan horse. My little residence has transformed into a stunning, well-fortified castle in the matter of a couple days. Now if I could just get some crocodiles or alligators I would really have no worries. I hope the City is not going to charge me for the added security they have unknowingly provided.

Letter re GO Transit

I have yet to actually send this letter to anyone and chances are good that I will never actually send this but here it is for your enjoyment anyhow. Feel free to recommend any changes and hopefully I will find someone to send this letter to and get it done. Once again I have proved that I am a thinker not a doer. I get these great(?) ideas but never act on them. Maybe someday I will change this but I won't be holding my breath for this to occur.

For years it has been the government’s objective to reduce carbon monoxide emissions from vehicles by promoting car pooling and public transportation. The Federal government has even gone so far as to give monthly commuters a tax break for their part in reducing harmful emissions (and as an incentive for others to start commuting). In the greater Toronto area, a lot of people work in downtown Toronto and rely heavily on GO Transit to get to and from work. For many of these commuters, any service disruption is not just an inconvenience but it results in lost income or added expenses to them while GO Transit escapes without having to reimburse these riders for the lack of service.

Infrequent delays are understandable and can be overlooked but riders should not have to accept frequent service disruptions like the ones during the period of June 4, 2007 to June 15, 2007. During that brief period there were daily delays and even some cancellations affecting almost all rail corridors GO Transit services. I understand that some of these disruptions were caused by events for which GO Transit had no control over (i.e. police investigations and inclement weather) but other disruptions were caused by events that GO Transit referred to as “equipment problems” (see attached email). GO Transit needs to be held accountable for service disruptions caused by the inadequate maintenance of their trains.

As much as public transit needs to be extended, the need to improve the services currently offered is greater. More needs to be done to try to ensure service schedules are followed and disruptions are kept to a minimum. I am asking you to investigate this situation and bring this topic to the attention of all others who can help. GO Transit riders are supporting the government’s green initiative and do not deserve to be taken advantage of. Please do what you can to ensure GO Transit is held accountable for avoidable service disruptions.

New Feature

I just wanted to announce that I have added a new aspect to my blog. I am sure you have noticed it already but if not, look above this post to see my 'Quote of the Day' section. I doubt I will update it everyday like the title suggests but we will see. This section will reflect one of several things, 1. how I feel that day, 2. song lyrics that catch my mind on the ride to work, or 3. bits of speeches that are humourous, serious or stupid. I hope you enjoy this new 'feature'.

The Testing Begins

At the beginning of our trek home, or at least near the beginning on our walk to Union Station, this afternoon, we noticed what looked like an ice cream cart with people handing things out. Thinking it was some kind of ice cream snack being handed out, we made our way towards it but once I realized that it was not some ice cream treat but instead a new kind of flakie, I turned aside and waited while Stinky T took advantage of the free item. During the remainder of the walk to Union, Stinky T looked over the flakie and decided she did not really want it.

We boarded our train and Stinky T, realizing she still had the unwanted flakie in her hand, decided to place it on a vacant seat expecting someone to come by and pick it up. We both sat there watching the people board the train and notice the solitary flakie waiting for someone to take it. This took a humourous turn as a couple ladies sitting in view of the filled pastry snack looked longingly at it like some look at a lover. We thought for sure one of these ladies were going to break down and grab it but their resolve was stronger than we thought and the flakie remained.

About halfway to the end of the line and my stop, Stinky T detrained and the flakie was still where she left it. I thought this was unbelievable and had begun to think the snack was going to take up permanent residency on that seat. By the time the train reached the end of the line, there were only a couple other people in the coach beside me. Just prior to the train stopping, I had decided I should pick the flakie up and put it in the trash but I did not get that chance. The person occupying the seat beside the treat, who had left it untouched for almost an hour, ended up taking it. I don't know if she ended up just throwing it out but from the way she took it, I fully suspect that she did not toss it to the trash.

As I was preparing to get up and grab the flakie and take it to the trash, I noticed a coat on the seat and I knew what was coming. Seconds after my observation, this mystery lady picked up her coat and then bent down and picked something else up. Of course it had to be the flakie but assuming things makes an ass of pretty much everyone (you know what I'm talking about) so I needed visual confirmation. I had to see it to believe it (or not see it in this case). My eyes, unless they deceived me for that split second, rested on nothing but the blue corduroy of the seat. The flakie was finally taken.

It is too early in the testing stage to come to concrete conclusions but I am going to go out on a limb here (did I put enough cliches in this post yet?) and say that even though a flakie is irresistible, the need to not be perceived as cheap is greater. Had that train been empty sooner, the flakie would never had stood a chance. Once again, perception proves to be everything.

We have ideas for further testing, once we get some funding from the government ($500,000 should suffice), we can begin to test some more elaborate cases but until then we may start our monetary test, starting with a twenty-five cent piece (or a quarter if you prefer).