Alarm Clock

It’s sunny out! Yesterday I spent over 4 hours commuting. I was really happy that I had spent time this weekend to get a knitting project moving again so I had one with me. I’m part way through a sweater know – Norah Gaughan’s Side-Way Ribs Cardigan. After spending forever on the bus getting into work I figured I might try leaving a bit later to miss the rush hour mass. I hop onto the subway train and it goes well at first. And then it starts getting slower and slower. To a point where we are just stopped. Except it’s not like I’m on a bus and they can just let us out and walk. And you don’t know if you’re broken down although after about 15 minutes, and no movement you start moving towards that conclusion. They finally come over the loud speaker to explain the situation and what’s next. Except the wiring is poor so you can barely hear it and, of course, just then, there’s a kid at the end of the car that decides to start speaking loudly to her parents. All I heard is that we were a disabled train. I’ve been behind disabled trains but never in one. A half hour later, they end up getting another train to push us into the next stop. But not too bad as I had my knitting and ended up having a pleasant conversation with the person next to me – they’re trying to enter the wonderful field of Sustainability in the building industry so got to pass on my wizened advice, or what passes for it. (Added later: I just did my good deed for the day - provided intros to someone who might help this person find a job - yay me - feels good).


I then proceed to wait and wait and wait for my bus. Luckily I could wait inside out of the rain. At first I didn’t think it would be long as the bus I take comes every 7 minutes. I see a bus coming and got excited except it was the 84. Wait, another one, nope it’s the 55N. Wait some more and there’s two in the distance. For sure one must be mine. I even walk out into the rain to start cuing up. But nope it’s a 62 and another 84. Back inside to wait. And wait and wait. And then I see this darkened vehicle that looks like it might be a bus. But is it out of service? Must be as there are no lights on inside nor is there the display on the outside saying the destination. But it stops and people start boarding so I run out and it’s a packed bus. The lights were on inside, but there were so many people jammed in that light couldn’t escape out the windows. I squeeze little ol’ me in through the back door. Almost felt like we need some of those Japanese Pushers.
So that was my commute – a new record for me. I still had 20 minutes to run to the grocery store before it closed at 9 pm. This morning I left a little early, just in case, since I had a morning meeting. Good thing as the roads are still closed down and it was slow going. Head down and knit knit knit for me. The flooding is crazy. You can check out the videos of some of the spots here.





And lastly, I think I need a new alarm clock. I have a nice four hour window for getting into work. Sometimes I’m early, sometimes I’m later and usually I don’t have too many morning meetings to dictate the time. So I’ve been a proud non-alarm clock user for the last four plus years (and maybe even longer). I do use one about a half dozen times a year. As a just in case precaution and 99% of the time I still wake up before it goes off. Somehow, if you think about what time you need to get up the next morning, that’s the time you get up. Since I had the morning meeting and the questionable commute, I figured I should play it safe. Set the alarm at 7 pm which was my drop dead leave the house by time.





And it goes off and I wake up and I think, “it’s a little too dark for it to be 7 pm”. The sun is starting to rise and granted, we’re in that period where the sunrise time is changing exponentially and not linearly – ie, it’s changing quickly, but it still seemed off. My alarm clock went off at 6:37 am. I double check – yup set at 7 pm. I check Alarm 2 that I never used – yup still defaulted at 12:00. I don’t know, it’s weird. It happened once before which made me start thinking it’s time to replace the clock and then I promptly forgot. But this is the second time and, yes, it’s erring on the conservative side – earlier rather than later. But still not good. I don’t ask for much in my alarm clocks, but reliability is a key item. Gotta love technology but you also gotta wonder what’s going on in there too. So, if you have come across a cute radio alarm clock that can live in a bathroom, let me know!




Oh, and I decided to wear the new jeans today before I hemmed them as they almost make it. If they’re completely pulled up, I don’t walk on them with heels on – too much. I think I might still trip and fall today, so need to just run them to the tailor down the road. They’re supposed to do an amazing job. Not 5 bucks but I don’t mind paying a little bit more for convenience (close by) and a really good job. They’re jeans after all – that you wear almost every day, if you can. I’m thinking of trying to find a second pair and getting one hemmed for heels and one for flats. I love not having my love handles spill over the tops of my jeans. And I’m skinny, so that tells you something about the old jeans being a tad bit too small.