These folks make some beautiful music together.
Sit back and enjoy!
(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
Showing posts with label Train. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Train. Show all posts
December 9, 2017
November 9, 2017
Couple Arguing Loudly About Sex and Pregnancy On The DC Metro {Funny}
This couple is arguing loudly in front of everyone on the Metro in Washington, D.C.
She claims the coming baby is his, and that he needs to take a paternity test.
He says it's impossible that it's his because she's 3 months pregnant and they haven't had sex in 5 months!
This goes on and on in a most hilarious and boisterous way, and they even try and involve some of the innocent bystanders on the train.
Always a show in this crazy town and it's not just the politics! ;-)
(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
July 18, 2017
How Stupid Can Metro Be
Part of Metro's hailed upgrades is to the new 7000-series trains.
They look better than the old crappy and filthed up train cars from before--including the extremely worn and ripped icky orange seats and carpets.
In that respect, the stainless and more modern-looking replacement trains are most welcome.
However, check out the negligent and hazardous middle doors on many of these train cars.
Do you see the absolutely stupid handle bars that jut out into the oft busy entry-exit passenger doors.
Yesterday, I got caught in a mob racing out of one of the train cars, and my upper thigh got danged and good on these ridiculous and reckless handlebars in the doorway!
Who would put these jutting out into a doorframe???
Anyway, my leg is red, swollen, painful, and I am limping good from this.
Hey, is there a good personal injury lawyer out there on the web that works on commission (lol, I think)?
I am so grateful to G-d if this doesn't end up messing with my hip replacement.
What is it about Metro that they just seem to act brainless with the basics.
This was supposed to the year of getting back to track safety and train reliability (getting the trains on time), but I guessed they seriously missed the train safety part!
Oh by the way, the reliability isn't all that "good" either (forget great...they gave up on that a while ago)! ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
May 17, 2017
Escalator Pile-Up
There was a huge double line of people coming down the escalator heading to the trains.
Everything is moving swiftly like clockwork.
Decend, decend, decend...step off and move to the right or left track for the next train.
But then...
One person, steps off and instead of moving left or right, they stop to try and figure out which side their train is coming from.
So all the people behind them coming down and off the escalator are blocked by the one "bumbling idiot" and they start stumbling into him with no place to go, and more and more people coming down end up in the human pile.
You could almost hear the people getting to the end of the escalator yelling: "Get out of the way!"
It was crazy and sort of hilarious--as no one was hurt, but the system isn't built to give a person pause at the bottom.
The people just keep coming and coming--where's the emergency break? :-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
March 6, 2017
Respect The Disabled
People were switching trains in downtown D.C.
Getting off from one train and going up the escalator to catch another.
Every night people literally race up the escalator to catch their next ride.
Some pushing their way on past the laggards.
Others yelling for the people in front to "move it!"
Tonight, there was someone riding up the escalator on a wheelchair and holding unto to both sides to keep the chair from tipping over or literally rolling down backwards.
(Usually the people in wheelchairs take the elevator and this was the first time I saw someone on the escalator riding it like this.)
So while I was expecting the people to start acting up on the escalator, running for the train on the platform.
Instead, when they got to the wheelchair, they stopped and silently rode up with deep respect for the person holding himself steady.
There wasn't a peep or a shove.
I could see people missing their train, but they were thankful for their health and respectful of the man in the wheelchair.
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised and proud that there is still some human decency out there and that is cause for hope. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
December 30, 2016
On The Train Of Life
🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋
Life is like a journey on a train...
with its stations...
with changes of routes...
and with accidents !
🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋
We board this train when we are born and our parents are the ones who get our ticket.
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We believe they will always travel on this train with us.
🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋
However, at some station our parents will get off the train, leaving us alone on this journey.
🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋
As time goes by, other passengers will board the train, many of whom will be significant - our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of our life.
🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋
Many will get off during the journey and leave a permanent vacuum in our lives.
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Many will go so unnoticed that we won't even know when they vacated their seats and got off the train!
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This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, good-byes, and farewells.
🚂🚋🚋🚋
A good journey is helping, loving, having a good relationship with all co passengers...and making sure that we give our best to make their journey comfortable.
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The mystery of this fabulous journey is:
We do not know at which station we ourselves are going to get off.
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So, we must live in the best way - adjust, forget, forgive and offer the best of what we have.
🚂🚋🚋🚋🚋
It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to leave our seat... we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life."
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Thank you for being one of the important passengers on my train... don't know when my station will come... don't want 2 miss saying: "Thank you."
🚂🚋🚋🚋
June 22, 2016
DC Metro Is In Shambles
So the latest this week from the crumbling infrastructure of the DC Metro train system, not withstanding the mess of Operation SafeTrack.
While riding this morning, a large panel inside the train abruptly and widely swings open and smashes against the fabricated white and plastic wall adjacent to the seats.
It made a loud bang and initially everyone on the train looked up with the deer in the headlights stare apparently thinking it was a gunshot on the train or something.
Luckily, no one was in the 2 seats where the panel swung open like that, because their would've been some physical damage done to somebody there.
The age and decrepitness of the train obvious from the incident and also looking at what's behind door #1!
What is amazing is that this is the Capital of the United States, one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations on Earth.
We spend lavishly abroad and domestically on wasteful pork barrel politics, broken programs, and even money that goes completely unaccounted for (can anyone say pass a financial audit).
Yet, we cannot provide a modern, clean, safe, and functional metro transportation system servicing the capital of our country or for that matter educate our young people properly or feed the hungry and shelter the homeless within our own borders.
There is a lot broken here and Metro is just the tip of the leadership iceberg unbecoming who we are and what our potential for this world is. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
April 30, 2016
Gopher At The Metro
The gopher's is climbing along the side of the Metro.
In NYC, they have rats almost this size.
Thank G-d, in Maryland, it's more about bunnies, gophers, and deer.
Not sure how this gopher gets any rest next to the trains zipping in and out of the station.
Maybe if you burrow further enough underground, you got a decent snooze zone. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
April 14, 2016
Boarding 613
So this was pretty amazing with the mystical number 613.
Today, it showed up on the arrivals board for the trains, and I literally had to run down the train platform to capture this photo after my daughter saw it in the distance from the escalator.
Under destination (DEST) and minutes (MIN) for wait, the first line says boarding (BRD)--although just a moment before it said arriving (ARR).
Then the next two lines has the trains arriving in 6 minutes and in 13 minutes, respectively.
Also note that this same morning I saw 613 twice more (for a total of 3 times) on the train car/doors and in the phone number for a truck parked in front of the grocery.
I am no prophet, but I believe that something important or perhaps cataclysmic is about to happen ("arriving") in the world.
Interestingly enough, in 10 days is Passover--the redemption of the Jews from slavery in Egypt along with the giving of the 10 commandments (of the total 613) on Sinai.
Now is a good time for faith, devotion, and prayer--that is my feeling for what it's worth. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
March 17, 2016
Exercise It Dirty
They have grabbed the banister underneath and are doing pullups.
However, the tunnels are really ick!
Often a sheltering place for the unfortunate, homeless, and sick trying to get out with their belongings from the cold or rainy weather.
And the smell of urine is not uncommon even with the CCTV cameras at either end,
Nice to workout and toughen up, but this is more than a share of morning wash up or hand sanitizer can deal with. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
March 16, 2016
Metro Doesn't Always Get You There
Metro says it is to check safety after a fire on the system on Monday, but the hastiness and extremeness of the action has many scratching their heads and asking "Terror Threat?"
Either way, better safe than sorry!
It's funny because just on the way home yesterday, I took this photo of what I believe is a advertisement for taking Metro (instead of driving) or for some reason I took it as that.
Metro is supposed to get you there, but doesn't always.
Still better than sitting in traffic or getting tickets downtown. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 22, 2015
Broken Arm, Broken Metro
Not old, not young--she was sitting in a handicapped seat.
What happened to her?
She told me how this last year as she was riding the train, it had suddenly and ferociously jerked forward, and then backwards.
The fierceness of jerking motion breaking the top of her arm--the humerus--vertically right down the middle in a horrible break.
As she was talking her eyes glazed over remembering what happened.
She found herself on the floor of the train lying in excruciating pain.
One kind lady stayed with her as the paramedics were on their way.
She overheard others on the train actually complaining in earshot that they were being delayed "because of her!"
She was taken to the ER, and ended up spending 2 1/2 months in the hospital and rehabilitation center.
As explained, they couldn't cast this type of break, and she wasn't allowed to sleep laying down--she had to sleep in a chair--again she said how the pain was so bad and unlike anything she ever experienced, incuding childbirth and bypass heart surgery.
Professionally, she was a lawyer for the government, but ended up not suing Metro, shaking her head that it just wasn't worth it.
In her wallet, she showed me her Metro disability card that they gave her so she could sit in the special seats now and get a reduced rate riding the train.
Shaking her head, she exclaimed that even though she is mostly healed now, she never stands on a moving train anymore, always making sure she is sitting and nestled next to something.
I could see the emotional pain on her face as she told me her story, and she seemed generally afraid of ever going through anything like that again.
At the same time that she was talking to me, in eyesight was a younger man hanging out by the center doors on the metro, overfident and not holding on--actually leaning way back on his backback against the doors, almost daydreaming.
Not everyone heard this lady's story...maybe they should.
Overall, Metro seems chronically underfunded or mismanaged and in desperate need of major repairs and replacements--train, tracks, escalators, elevators, everything.
The system is a mess and it needs urgent attention.
Why does it always take a tragedy to finally get action?
Coincidentally, I saw today that Metro (WMATA) is advertising in the Wall Street Journal for a new General Manager and Chief Executive Officer--yep, good luck to that person, they will definitely need it and a lot more! ;-)
(Source Photo: here with attribution to Christian).
July 4, 2015
L@@king The Other Way
Especially on the Metro, I've had people who quite simply refused to let me sit down--can you say look the other way or ignorance is bliss?
One guy the other day saw me holding on to the overhead rail with one hand and the cane in the other, he looked me in the eye, and then looked back down again to work on whatever notes he was writing...certainly more important.
And even early on a couple of times (this was when it was still hard to really stand up for long) when I asked for one of the special access seats from completely healthy people sitting there, I usually got the stone cold kvetchy faces like "You talking to me?"
At other times, waiting to get on the Metro, I've had people rush in front of me, try to push me aside, or even nearly trample me when they felt I just wasn't moving my limp leg fast enough.
I think this has been particularly disheartening especially when I see this behavior coming from people of different faiths who were clearly observant at least in other ways...uh, don't we answer to an even higher authority?
When some empathic folks at work recently asked me, how people were treating me on the Metro (yes, they know how it is!), I said feeling frustrated one day that the only difference between DC and NY is that in NY there was probably a greater chance of someone trying to actually push me (G-d forbid) in front of an oncoming train--yeah, at times it seriously felt that way.
I will say that thank G-d not everyone is such a you know what!
Although truly it's been the exception and not the rule, there have been some very nice people that did offer me a seat, let me go first, or didn't rush me on/off the moving escalator.
One lady in particular was extraordinarily wonderful, and when I was crossing a very wide two-way street with lots of cars and the light was getting ready to change, she walked by my side--literally shielding me from the oncoming traffic, and she said "Don't worry, they won't hit both of us!"
I remember learning in yeshiva some very basics of human decency...get up before the aged, remove an obstacle from before a blind person, and to take off a heavy burden from even your enemy's stumbling animal.
I think these and other lessons in school and at home sensitized me to people's pain and suffering and where possible to try and help--not that I am a saint, I'm not, but at least I feel my conscience talks to me. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
June 11, 2015
Flashback Holocaust
I went with my daughter to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
One of their exhibits is of a cattle car train used to transport Jews in the Holocaust to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.
I remember how frightening it was to see this actual train car (the likes of which I had previously only seen in the movies) where hundreds of thousands of people were herded aboard like animals for the torturous trip to their ultimate murderous and inhuman deaths.
At the exhibit, I'm not sure that I was supposed to do this, but being a very tactile person, I reached out to touch the train car, maybe partly because I could not believe this was the real thing where such human horrors had occurred.
Immediately upon touching it, something happened to me--for a moment, everything went black and then I experienced an intense flashback (like being transported back in time and place) to literally being there with the actual people stuffed into these cattle cars--without food, water, sanitation, or enough air to breath--and I could see up close their anguished faces, and actually hear them screaming.
First, I thought I have a vivid imagination and that all the studies on the holocaust and my family being survivors had really had an impact on me.
But then something else happened to me.
When I left the Holocaust Museum, I started to get a crazy sharp pain in the side of my neck. Not a soar throat, but like my throat just wasn't working right.
I tried to sort of ignore it, but over the course of the day, it got worse and worse, as my breathing was becoming ever more difficult, and it felt like I was actually choking to death--my life was in danger.
I was rushed to the hospital emergency room, and at first they weren't sure what was happening to me, and so they started a whole series of tests.
Crazy enough the tests revealed a deep tissue infection right in the side of my neck, and based on the danger to my breathing and swallowing, the doctors came in to talk with me about doing emergency throat emergency.
I couldn't believe what was happening--out of the blue, I touched that death car to Auschwitz and next thing I know, I had a severe tissue infection and my life was hanging by a thread.
Again unexplainably, but thank G-d miraculously, overnight the dangerous infection literally just disappeared as mysteriously as it was born into my neck tissue--the doctors could not explain it!
The Holocaust which claimed six million Jewish lives--men, women, children--in perhaps the most evil and hideous human event in history, and I felt like I had just been transported back in time and touched not just the car, but the actual history and event itself.
I am left with this mysterious event in my life, it was scary and dangerous, and when they say don't touch the exhibits, I think I will listen next time. ;-)
(Source Photo: here with attribution to U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
May 8, 2015
Someone I Know And Didn't Know
I am on the crowded metro coming home from the office, sitting facing backward and toward the middle of the car.
There is some noise and rustling coming up from behind me, and I see people's heads turning and startled looks on their faces.
I turn around to see what is going on...
Someone in a wheelchair is screaming to get off the train.
However, he is caught about halfway in between the closing metro doors, and can't get back in or out and off the train.
There is one guy who was apparently standing by the doors, and he is trying to get the door open, but can't budge it.
Everyone else on this busy train seems just frozen, almost as if time had stopped (really).
But the double train doors are wedged into the larger and smaller wheels (for hand turning) on the side of the wheelchair.
The person in the chair is still calling out for help and to be released from the clasp of these heavy doors around him--in his seated position, his lower torso from his thighs down are positioned outside the train, but his upper body is still on the train.
The conductor is trying to move the train again and again...and it's not apparent whether the failsafe mechanism for the open door will work as the train is lurching forward and the doors are sort of vibrating in this quick open/close fashion.
Then, I see someone spontaneously jump out of their seat.
They are racing to the wheelchair jammed in the doors.
I see them first try and push open on the left side...but it's still not budging.
Then, they try and pull the other, right side, open towards them...but it's to no avail as the forceful doors are wedged in on around the chair.
With everything around them a blur of seats and faces, the person turns their head looking around for another way...
They see like a target standing out in the distance, an emergency intercom on the front wall of the train.
The person lunges toward it and hits the round button.
The conductor who is still fidgeting with the doors to get them closed and trying to move the train ever forward comes hastily on the speaker, but apparently not connecting the call to him with what's going on with the doors and wheelchair says "Yeah, what's the emergency?"
The person catching himself, musters the words to say into the comm device, "There is a wheelchair stuck in the train doors-- OPEN THE DOORS!"
The conductor immediately reacts and the doors pull apart from both sides, and the wheelchair almost falls forward, the disabled person sort of thrown from the train, but finally on the platform, and wheeling themselves as quickly as they can towards the elevator to get away from this whole situation.
With nothing left to do, the person who helped, let's out a deep breath and is visibly shaken, but also glad to see the person in the wheelchair safe and on their way.
As he is walking back to his seat, he realizes there are a lot of eyes on him that were just a blur before.
At the same time, over the speaker system comes the relieved voice of the conductor with a simple "Thank you."
I see the person sit down, calling his wife to tell her what happened, he starts to silently cry. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
January 9, 2015
Soccer Soda On Metro
Watch what happens when people leave their trash on the Metro (Washington, DC).
In this case, it's a bottle and this one guy in jeans can't seem to get rid of it.
It's sort of hilarious.
First, the bottle is dumped by an uncaring passenger, it rolls around for awhile, and ends up sitting in the middle of the train car.
The train stops at the station and the people coming aboard step around and over the water bottle.
This guy in the center is irked by this bottle and just sort of blatantly kicks it at a women in winter boots standing by the doors.
But it eventually rolls back and hits him in the foot.
He's talking away (blah blah) on his cell, yet maneuvers the bottle ever so discretely to roll it backwards to someone else
But it ends up right back at him twice more.
Next stop, he runs off the train (and away from this bottle), but the person behind him kicks it after him and towards the doors.
Then this one lady with the orange bag and red purse gets up from her seat, and gives it a big kick right out the door.
She does this while the other people are boarding...oops watch out for the flying bottle.
Garbage left on the Metro...Goal! Score! ;-)
(Source Video: Andy Blumenthal)
July 17, 2014
Our Lovely Metro System
This (see above) is what I was sitting next to this morning on the train.
And last night was even worse, I was about to sit on one of the seats, and this nice man stopped me.
Someone had actually spit on the seat--and just left it there for another unknowing person to sit in.
Thankfully, I was saved this indignity, and ended up sitting somewhere else.
But later on the train, I saw someone jump up and start cursing--apparently, he had sat right in it.
I saw another guy offer him a handkerchief, which was quite a nice gesture, considering.
At the same time, I saw a lady on the train wearing one of those surgical masks that cover your mouth and nose--maybe not the worst idea under these ill conditions. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
February 14, 2014
I Quit, And Here's My Clothes
Apparently some people threw off their Costco jackets (I think with name tags and all).
One jacket was on the train floor next to the heating vents and the other lying on the seat next to the window,
They were not neatly folded, but sort of angrily shoved there.
As people got on the train looking for a seat, over and over their eyes did a widening and they paused, some said, "What's that? Did someone leave their clothes on the train?"
Two teenage girls and a boy started laughing and pointing.
No one would actually go near these--maybe they were afraid of germs or to get involved in whatever happened here.
Well Costco, if you're looking for some of your long white jackets with emblem (one from your tire center), you may want to contact the lost and found in WMATA.
As for the employees, I don't think they are coming back. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
July 30, 2012
Leading the Blind
The train pulls up, and I help the blind lady to the train door, saying "it's just to the right."
The blind lady gets on and staggers herself over to where the seats usually are right next to the door, but on this model of the train, it is just an empty space.
She goes across the aisle to the other side to try and sit down, and reaches out with her arm, but ends up touching this other lady's head.
But the other lady is quite comfortable in her seat and doesn't flinch or budge.
The funny (read sad) thing about this is that there an empty seat on the inside right next to her--but she doesn't move over, nor does she direct the blind lady to the empty seat next to her or anyplace else either.
Actually, the lady sitting all comfy--doesn't say a word--to the contrary, she nudges the blind lady away from her seat.
The blind lady is left standing there--groping for somewhere to go.
As the train lurches forward--beginning to moving out of the station--the blind lady make a shuffled dash heading for the other side of the train to try to feel for another seat--and she begins to stumble.
I jump up from the other side and having no time, awkwardly just grab for her hand, so she does not fall.
The lady is startled and pulls back, and I explain that I am just trying to help her get safely to a seat.
I end up giving her my seat--it was just easier than trying to guide her to another vacant one, and she sits down.
I was glad that I was able to do something to assist--it was a nice way to start out the week--even if only in a small way.
But honestly, I also felt upset at the other lady, who so blatantly just disregarded the needs of the handicapped.
I do not understand the callousness--doesn't she realize that a person with a disability or handicap could be any one of us--even her.
My mind starting racing about what I had heard from the pulpit about sins of omission and commission, and I know I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help sort of staring at the lady who was all smug--wondering again and again about who she was, what was she thinking (or not), and basically is that what most people would do.
I watch other people help each other every day, and I've got to believe inside that most people are better than that.
(Source Photo: adapted from here with attribution to Neils Photography)
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