The Wind Ate My Hat -- and other tales of Winter Misery

This morning, after taking about 20 paces out of the unfortunately named Terminal Tower, one of those  75 mph gusts of wind that are all too familiar to those who work in downtown Cleveland (The City with the Hole in the Middle) blew my favorite baseball cap to its new home in a distant galaxy.

The week started off on a sour note anyway.

On Monday I drove, as usual, to Triskett Station to take the train into the city. That plan was shot to hell because North America's Best Public Transportation System didn't send any plows to clear the parking lot until 8am.  There was no place to park, so I drove to work.

On Tuesday, the Triskett Station parking lot had been plowed, but that left every section of the parking lot ringed by mini-Himalayas of plowed snow.  There was no direct route to get from my parking space to the station entrance that didn't require ropes, pitons, and Sherpas. Which reminds me -- I have to call the folks at Base Camp to let them know I'm ok.

The situation downtown isn't much different, and the Giant Hole in Public Square only adds to the aggravation, because I can no longer take the diagonal route across the Square, past Key Tower, and the across the Mall to get to the Penton Bldg.  It'll take months to fill the hole, and then an extra six weeks just to clear away the yellow tape that is wrapped around everything.

Have I mentioned that I'm tired of winter?

 

Technorati Tags: Cleveland,Ohio,winter,snow,public transportation,wind,lost headgear

I got my sticker

I voted at 7:30 this morning at the Dwyer Senior Center in Bay Village.  No line, no waiting at all.  The low-tech, pen-and-paper approach was a bit of a surprise, but the learning curve was not an issue.

Afterward, a very cold, uncomfortable young man in the parking lot asked me to sign a petition to allow casino gambling in Ohio.  I like casinos.  I told him where he could find coffee.

Technorati Tags: vote,voting,Ohio,primary,election,democracy

Not all that nasty

Another ominous drive-time forecast this morning:

Nasty morning commute (again) - Weather: Cleveland weather forecast, news, video and more: "The Winter Storm Warning is still in effect for Northeast Ohio. Read the Winter Storm Warning report here. The roads are still slick in places, likely enough to cause some accidents around the area. Check out our traffic page for incidents on your route. and get road reports from The Plain Dealer here."

But the rotten weather has had an interesting side-effect.

Each weekday morning I drive from my home in Bay Village to the Triskett RTA station, where I take the train into Tower City. Over the last two mornings I've noticed a dramatic decrease in the traffic on I-90 west -- at least between Columbia Rd. and the West 150th exit -- and a marked increase in the number of cars in the Triskett parking lot, and a corresponding increase in riders on the Rapid.

Smart people. Maybe their interest in avoiding a hazardous commute will carry over to a more permanent use of the Rapid Transit system -- even when the weather improves.

The Primaries, Hillary, and Change

Just now, while listening to the BBC Newshour on Sirius, a reporter covering the New Hampshire primary asked a man-on-the-street why he was voting for Hillary Clinton. His reply:

"Hillary can make change, and she has the track record to prove it."

Can she break a twenty?

Tim Ferris on the reality of RTA

In response to Tim Ferris's "Claudia pens a beautiful devotional piece" comment on RTA

In August of 2006, for a variety of reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with any dissatisfaction with RTA services, I ended 9 years of daily weekday RTA commuting and rented a parking space in the Penton Media garage.

A week ago, for a variety of reasons that include yet another increase in the parking fee, a healthy dose of Green Guilt, and the realization that I need to sock away some money so I don't have to spend my retirement eating out of Dumpsters, I terminated my parking arrangement.

Having been out of the loop for more than a year, I visited the GCRTA Web site to get schedule and fare information. While there, I played around with the RTA Trip Planner.

The UI is clumsy and unfriendly, but that's beside the point. In my admittedly brief encounter I found the Trip Planner to be as effective at trip planning as Britney Spears is as a role model.

I selected Triskett station as a point of origin and the Tower City rapid transit station as a destination. Among the eight optional routes the Trip Planner presented, not one suggested actually taking the train from Triskett to Tower City. One route suggests taking the 75x bus from Triskett Station to Tower City Station. Another suggests taking the 75x from Triskett to the Madison/117th Station, and then transferring to the train.

I think the idea of the Trip Planner is cool, but at this point that feature doesn't really know the dance steps and can't seem to remember the lyrics.