Posts tagged Commute
"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places." - Hemingway
I’ve been walking to work for several months now. I recently started longboarding to work, which shaved about 12 minutes off my commute time.
Now I see the city’s underbelly as I skate under the massive tri-level Randolph Street, and I get to surf through the crowds of runners and bikers on the Lakefront Trail.
Longboarding down Navy Pier at 7:30 a.m. when there is not a tourist in sight is one of the most rewarding parts of my ride.
I feel like I could go back and tell my 13-year-old self that he has nothing to worry about in life. The fact that he’s taking a train and #longboarding to work for his #commute should put his restless mind at ease. (at Cloud Gate)
A commuting poem: The train is always late
The train pulls toward the station and you stand, claiming your place in the line of the first to exit
The train empties like a torn serpent, its entrails pouring from a series of wounds
The flood of people starts as a trickle and becomes a rush as they jockey for a forward position
Free of the train, walking fast, moving with a single thought of gaining the doors to escape the bowels of the station
But really we’re just late for work
The lady in front of you walks with a cane, and she’s hobbling fast, as if she’s being chased
And she is
You try to pass her, and like cars on a freeway, so does everyone else
And as the flow of the train’s entrails empties onto the platform, the wriggling mass spreads outward and forward like blood toward a drain
And we fight for position until we are slowed and blocked and then we groan and complain about the lateness of the hour
The congestion of the sliding doors is an equalizer, putting you back in sync with those who lined up early
And in our mad rush or a deliberate wait, we all exit the station at the same time, spreading out into the city like fire
Breathing finally and texting our superiors and subordinates as if this is something rare and altogether strange
To wake tomorrow and do it all again
A Gapers’ Delay -
Sometimes you hear things for a long time before you seek to define them. I drive the Dan Ryan at least a few times each month. Chicagoans tend to drive 75 until they don’t, and that’s generally at a standstill. As you crawl along working out your clutch leg to stay at 2 miles per hour, you notice a mini van stranded along the side of the road. A tow truck sits nearby flashing amber lights. You have time to take all this in, because the only other thing to look at is the license plate of the driver in front of you, and that’s much too close to the speedometer, which, if you stare at it long enough, will raise your blood pressure a point or two.
Check out my hour-long commute from Palos Heights to Navy Pier in Chicago in one minute, 47 seconds. Through the magic of GoPro, Vegas 11.0 and some Chicago-style tunes.
Union a station is the best and worst place to meet Chicago. Mostly based on the time of day. #chicago #commute (Taken with Instagram at Chicago Union Station)
The Commute -
It’s only been four days since I started commuting, so it’s probably too early to really write about it in depth. It’s the first time I’ve commuted anywhere by train. My longest commute, before this, was my morning and evening drives to and from the University of Oregon from my home in Salem, Oregon. It’s a bit romantic, I admit. My notion of commuting has always been a bit “Madmen” even before the television show made air.
