05/22/06

Recap of the past couple weeks, or days, or whatever...they all just blend together anyway...

First off, we got a lot of rain. Like a real lot. It rained for 4 days straight, and the following is a picture of the water level in my basement. I was without heat, and hot water for a couple days. Real gross...



It took while after the rain for the pump to drain all the water out of the basement. Just shooting right out onto the sidewalk. I guess this is legit? It took about a week to drain out. Sweet huh?



Been playing a lot of cards with dudes. That is normal. What is not normal is having a dude come over and do magic tricks in the living room. I got to see how them there magic folks do some sleight of hand stuff... it made me sad...the magic was gone.



Cool Breeze was up last week for Training. The Man caught up with us on the 84, just off the Mass Pike. Cool Breeze had "forgotten" to renew his registration. So we got snagged. The Man was coming down HARD on me and The Breeze. You get a long-hair and a long-beard in the same vehicle, and apparently that spells D-R-U-G-S. We got shook down like no one's business. Some conversational highlights perhaps?

Pig #2 (during the pat down) - "What's that?"
Cool Breeze - "Chapstick"
Pig #2 - "Lemme see it. Why isn't there a label on it?"
CB (removing cap to show The Man it is, in fact, a lip balm product) - "Um, I guess it came off in my pocket...it is pretty old."
Pig #2 - "What kind of chapstick is it?"
CB - "Um...Aveeno Oatmeal, I gue...."
Pig #2 - "DID YOU SAY OPIUM!?"
CB - "No? Oatmeal..."
Pig #2 - "Listen, just tell us where the drugs are..."


So the car had to get impounded. It happens. The Man called the non-AAA tow truck, and the driver informed us that there was a recent State Trooper graduation, and they are all out en masse for practicing for Memorial Day drunkards. And they were, we passed 3 cops pulling people over on the 2 mile right to the garage / impound lot. We had 2 rides in 2 different tow trucks, both of the drivers were camera shy.



The 2nd ride was the long one. From Sturbridge all the way back to Beverly. So in 7 hours, I went all the way from my office in Salem, just over the bridge to Beverly. It was great. Especially since I had to (HAD TO) be in NYC at noon on Friday...

I caught a ride from Beverly at 2:30am to South Station. Thank god none of my friends have real jobs, cause I can call them in the middle of the night and ask for rides. Oh, and if you were wondering... South Station is NOT open all night. So I got there, and had to wait outside for about an hour and a half till they unlocked the doors. Luckily it was not so bad out, and I ended up sleeping on a bench...like a hobo...for about 30 minutes.

I was on the first train out of Boston, and almost slept thru Penn Station in NYC. Sweet move dude. I got out of the station, and headed to the first Starbucks I saw, and got in, and got online. Starbucks is great, coffee is $5, and they charge you $10 to use their WiFi. Sweet. Just making money, hand over fist. I am jealous. After about 10 minutes online, I looked outside, and it was FUCKING POURING RAIN. Since I had to take the train in, I took very little with me, and only had a hoodie. It took me about 10 minutes of standing half in the rain to get a cab.


I did my business and all that. Sweet view huh?


After the business was done, I called Chrissie who happened to be in town with her family. We strangely were only about 4 blocks away from each other, so we met up, and did a lot of walking. Like a real lot. We went to Red Bamboo, and ate a sweet ass meal. And then walked more. We walked a lot. We managed to walk to Times Square, which is very touristy, and predictable, but still rad. Standing on corners, people watching, all that. Good times, good talks. I think this is the first time I had ever been around her without her camera...


We walked all the way back to the hotel she was staying at, again...a lot of walking. Then I jumped in a cab and ended up back at Penn Station. And then I sat...and waited...and waited. It was about 12:30am when I got to the train station. Bought my ticket, that was about $40 more than I thought it would be, and just sat around for 3 hours, till my train left at 3:30am.


I was totally shot by the time I got on the train. I had a crazy headache, and was on about a total of 2 hours or so of sleep over the last 3 days. I fell asleep HARD on the train as soon as I sat down. I crashed out with ticket in hand, and the ticket lady had to call another dude over to wake me up, cause, like I said, I was OUT. I took my ticket back, and fell right back asleep. Only to be woken up about 30 minutes later by a very very very loud noise...

I think the only way to describe it would be to say, "Imagine if you were on a train that had a flat 'tire' or two, and it was blazing down the track at 90mph...." The whole car was shaking, and the noise was unbelievable. Not only was it shaking back and forth, vibrating violently, you could feel the car pounding up and down. Something was really wrong. And I am sitting there, in the pitch black, and people are starting to freak out, and there is dust and stuff falling from the ceiling, and all around...and the cabin is filling with smoke...

And I think to myself, "This train is fucking derailing...."

I pulled my legs up off the floor. All I could think of was that woman in Alive whose legs got pinned and then that dude just freaked out and killed her. I braced myself for some inevitable impact. I looked across to the other side of the car, and I could see that the seats had come off a hinge and were turning, and shit...I was fucked. The pounding went on for what seemed MUCH longer than it should have. Either we should be slowing the fuck down, or STOPPING...or the car behind us should slamming into us and we should be seeing which one of us is Bruce fucking Willis in Unbreakable.

But nothing like that happened. The train eventually started to slow down. And people started poking their heads up over the seats, as the train slowly, and painfully made its way down the track, and we pulled up right into the New Rochelle station.



Apparently, the last two cars of the train had derailed. Literally, they came off the rails, but nothing HORRIBLE happened. They just continued down the track just pounding on the railroad ties. It was pretty fucking scary. I mean, if you have been in a car accident, you know you got that 1 second before impact, and after you realize, "Shit, I am about to get in an accident." But that one second of terrifying anticipation lasted about a minute.

At first they made us stay on the train. Then they made us get off...in a hurry...as if something bad was about to happen...which is wasn't. Which was very annoying. They then made us stand on the other platform, and wait for the replacement train. Fuck it. At this point, all I care about is getting some fucking money back.

So yeah. There you have it. The last couple weeks of my life. Sweet huh?