Riding the rails.

$6.25 for an all day pass on Trax, Salt Lake’s light rail system.  Considering we brought treats that were purchased at regular prices, they day of entertainment was a deal compared to the price of a movie ticket and theater concessions.

Yeah, two friends and I spent the day riding around on Trax.   Clicking on the first picture below will lead you to stop-by-stop pictures of the trip.

We went all the way out to Daybreak, about as far as you can go, diagonally, in the valley away from Salt Lake City.  15 years ago, it was nothing but farmland.  Here you can see that this is no longer true.

Hey, thanks for letting me know, I could have got hurt walking on the dirt expecting it to be sidewalk.

Each of the stops on Trax has it’s own artwork at the station.  This stop had flying people with wire hair.  The cool thing about them is that they were weather vanes, they turned with the wind.

An abandoned parking structure that made us feel we were traveling through Beirut.

Back in the city we saw this old VW van, complete with solar panels.

I don’t know if you can see it, but the van was packed, kind of like they lived in it.

Lunch at the Hires on 7th East.

This kid came in the train, sat down on the step and proudly proclaimed “This is where I’m going to sit.”

At the airport.  I have no idea what that plane was doing away from the terminals, so close to a parking lot.

Really classy (scary?) motel we passed on North Temple.

The old hand and ox carts are coming out, getting ready for the 24th of July.

Yeah, I wasn’t the only one that was taking pictures.

Gangsta-teen dating game goes mobile on Trax, details at 11.

I'm done. Presentation complete, ate food, said our goodbyes and left for the semester. Only one more semester left for my Master's degree. Yippee!

There may be a low pressure full of precipitation heading toward the state, but a psycho front hit the valley yesterday afternoon. One of the most eventful commutes up to the U yet. I can't even remember all the specific events, but the best one was the Teen-mom bachelorettes.

4 boys got on the train at the 21st South station, obvious gang wannabes, 15 maybe 16 years old. I just look over at my fellow teacher and say "Awww, how cute, a gaggle of little baby gangstas." The head larva has one of those hoodies that zip up and and has a creepy face on the hood, with cutouts for the eyes. He looks around for a while trying desperately to get a reaction from somebody, to no avail. Just a couple minutes after taking it off, this skinny little girl (we think) walks by and goes up to king larva and tells him that her friend thinks he's cute and wants his phone number. "Things ain't so down lately, got no cell." he tells her. She walks back past and goes to where a couple of teen-moms are rocking their babies at the front of the train and talks to the blond teen-mom. My friend looks over at me and says, as if talking to larvae boy, "She's got a kid, run, man, run!" Girlfriend goes back and forth a few more times trying to talk the boy into being interested in blond teen mom. Somewhere around the 9th South station, when teen-mom sees this is going nowhere she gets desperate and yells to him, across the full length of the Trax train "and I'm a Jugallette". Jump on it my friend, gangsta teen mom. What more could you ask for. Fortunately our stop was the next stop, because we were at the point that we were bound to say something, loud enough to get us shanked. I would have loved to be there for the last segment of the show. "Ok larvae-boy, time to choose. Will it be gangsta teen-mom #1, gangsta teen-mom #2 or the gender unspecific friend gangsta non-mom #3?" "Well, Wink, I think I'll choose........"

Update : still no computer

Well, I didn't have to take down the rest of the site, I tried hooking up the old harddrive in the web site computer, and it didn't work.  when I was going through it looking for the data for payroll, I discovered that something had happened to the operating system.  It wasn't there.  My "Windows" folder is empty.  Niiiice.  I also couldn't locate the data for payroll, so I had to do it all by hand.  That part was actually not to bad, but getting the printer to work on this computer was, well, let's just say - a lot of fun.  See, the CD drive on here is broken, which is why I've used it as the server instead of as a computer, so I couldn't install the printer driver from the enclosed CD.  Any why, oh why, does the automatic installation always ask you if you want it to search the internet for the driver, yet is NEVER able to find it?  Yeah, that's a useful little tool.  So I went to Panasonic's website to download the driver myself and found one of the most un-user friendly sites I've ever seen.  If it was a car it would be a 1972 AMC Gremlin.  It took me 45 minutes and several ulcers to actually find the driver and get it downloaded.  But it finally came through, payroll is done and I've got a week and a half to get a new computer and a payroll program for it.  So right now I'm working on a computer with no CD drive, low memory, old processor that is postitioned in a way that it is awkward to work on.  Ok, I'm done complaining.

Things could be worse.  On the way up to class today we stopped off at Chili's for dinner and saw a couple cop cars, fire engine and ambulance at the Staples right next door.  At least I'm not the owner of the Buick that was parked in the front door of that store.  Completely inside, the back bumper was right where the door used to be.  And fortunately the Trax train up by the U that got derailed and was kinda sideways on the track was all cleaned up by the time we got done with dinner.  Of course the friend I ride to class with had the heels on her boots go all skewampus and had to throw them away and walk to Trax in her socks.  We just barely missed the Sandy train at the Galivan center, and I gave her one of my shoes to stand on, so there we were each perched on one foot, leaning up against one another.  A guy, who let's say had a little bit to drink, started talking to us and after a bit mistook our holding each other up for something more carnal, apologized (in a somewhat crude way) for interrupting and walked away.  But, again, at least it wasn't my Buick parked inside the Staples.

And I did get a good laugh today.  The teacher next to me had a substitute and she had to kick a couple of freshmen into my classroom.  I have a small class with all seniors and juniors in it, so it wasn't a problem.  The 9th graders this year are a pretty rowdy group overall, and I guess that the reputation of these freshmen were well known; at one point one of the juniors said "I hope puberty hits these 9th graders before I have to."  Yeah, somedays I like teaching high school.

Scenes from FrontRunner

I rode the FrontRunner up to Ogden today, I give it a 2 thumbs up.  I wish I'd actually timed it, but I'd bet it doesn't take as much time as driving, especially if it were during rush hour.  And it rides a lot smoother than Trax, I didn't realize how fast we were going until I noticed the freeway right next to me and we were keeping pace with some of the faster cars.  Clean, comfortable, smooth ride and an onboard bathroom to boot.  All in all, if I lived in Davis or Weber counties and worked downtown, or somewhere close to a Trax line, I'd take it rather than fight rush hour traffic.  Hands down. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Utah, over half the population of the state lives in a straight line up and down the Wasatch Front (the green area on the map), about 70 miles from Ogden to Provo.  For years people have argued that we are perfectly set up for a single commuter rail line straight up and down the front, from Provo to Ogden (the 2 large population centers at the top and bottom of the front).  Last year the Utah Transit Authority finally opened the north line from Saly Lake to Ogden.  Good timing too, because it caught the high gas prices and ridership exceeded expectations.  I don't know if it remains higher than expected, but from what I saw it was getting used (and I was home by 5:30). 

Dinner and a show.

Had dinner at the Cindy Lee Cafe, which is right across from the Galivan Center Trax station. The dinner was really good, as it always has been, and we even got a surprise show while we were waiting for the University train. "Homeless on Parade" started with a homeless guy being pushed in front of a car, which fortunately was going slow enough to avoid him. That was the opening act that riveted us to the action, anxiously awaiting answers to how did this man come to be pushed, why was he pushed and who did the pushing. This wonderful little story unfolded in front of us as we were slowly introduced to the characters one by one. Roadkill man gets back up and continues arguing with wifebeater man, who then allowed roadkill man to throttle him about the face without any resistance. At this point the action was coming fast and hard, roadkill guy would hit wifebeater man in the face a couple times and then walk away. Wifebeater guy would then yell after roadkill, using the "N" word (he was African-American), calling him on and then just stand there and let him punch him in the face a couple times. Finally roadkill man gives up and starts walking away from the group, wifebeater man keeps yelling after him "just two more times, just hit me two more times" and something about getting his name. Roadkill man kept walking down the street towards the corner when we get introduced to wifebeater spouse, who all of a sudden takes off after roadkill man. Halfway down the block wifebeater spouse yells out "Hey, beat the s&$% out of that n#%%&@". We look down towards roadkill guy just in time to see another homeless guy walking past him towards wifebeater spouse, completely confused by what was being yelled at him. Roadkill guy walks around the corner as wifebeater spouse takes off running after him and confused guy just stands there bewildered. This is when our train came and we had to leave. Hopefully next week we'll get to see Acts III & IV.....

And finally, on the way home I saw the best beggar sign ever, written on cardboard with the typical magic marker, it said

ATHEIST

Will convert

for food.

And let the games begin......

It's been kind of surrealistic the last couple of days, classes up at the "U" started for me this Wednesday. I'm a college student again. That means classes, where I'm not the leader, assignments, that I have to do-not correct, mid-terms, finals and grades. It also means that I get to ride Trax & the busses for free. Cool. Got my student ID today, and all I had to do was ask for the UTA pass and they gave it to me. No, not because I'm just the darn nicest guy on the planet - they give it to any U student. There's a Trax station near school (on 33rd) and one right by the Ed building, so it'll be pretty convienent. Nikita4773, who is in the program with me, works just down the street so we can make the ride together. Fun stuff, but I'm gonna be a little busy the next 9 months - school, where I teach, starts Monday. So, Monday and Tuesday it will be : teach all day, Chevron from 4 to 9 that night. Wed & Thu : teach all day, college 5 to 8 that night. Fridays only teach and Sat & Sun are for catching up on sleep and doing homework, cleaning house and laundry. Social life? Nah, but at least now I have an excuse........