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| Commutes through the Hegewisch neighborhood were among those tampered with Tuesday by Mother Nature. Photos by Gregory Tejeda |
THE
ONE TIME in my life I shelled out some $35 to park a car for about two hours in
a downtown garage is a horrid memory – and an experience I never want to repeat
again during my lifetime.
So
let’s just say that the hardest part of the crummy winter weather we’ve
experienced in recent weeks is what it has done to my commute.
I’m
actually one of those individuals who was impacted by the commuter trains being
totally thrown off schedule – if not shut down outright. Of course, the wintry
weather also significantly reduced my desire to make any sort of trip unless
absolutely necessary.
Which
is why Tuesday was particularly depressing during the morning hours.
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| Weather tampered w/ overhead cables |
THAT
WAS THE time when the Metra commuter railroad’s “Electric” line was out of
commission, as was the South Shore line that takes people from downtown Chicago
into Indiana all the way out to South Bend.
I’ve
almost never made the trip all the way to the home town of Notre Dame. But
there are times when I do have to venture into Hoosierland and rely on a
combination of the two trains (usually making the transition in the Hyde Park
neighborhood) to get there.
Learning
that such a trip was impossible put quite a damper on my morning mood.
Fortunately
for me, the travel I had to do on Tuesday didn’t come until later in the day by
which time the trains were up and running again (with the icy conditions having
been overcome, for the time being). And also, I was able to borrow use of a car
for the day.
WHICH
MADE ME a commuter braving the icy roads and hoping that I neither lost control
of someone else’s automobile – or no one else driving around me lost control of
their car and came crashing into me!
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| Many fewer commuters passing through Millennium station these days |
That
is, until the weather manages to take the system down in whatever way possible
so that the ability to transport oneself from place to place becomes a near
impossibility.
Then,
one can feel so incredibly isolated even within a massive urban area. Almost as
though Mother Nature is feeing the need to remind us all that none of us are above
the impact of her quirks and how she, not we, are the ones ultimately in
control of our environs.
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| Anxiously awaiting summer days |
I’LL
ADMIT IT was worse a couple of weeks ago at the peak of the polar vortex –
remember those days of 50-below wind chill temperatures and railroad people
literally were igniting the train tracks aflame so as to keep them from freezing
over and it was all the commuter train lines throughout the Chicago area that
were impacted?
This
is a lesser scale inconvenience, but it has me hoping for springtime weather.
With the fact that springtime-like weather conditions in Arizona made it possible
for both the White Sox and Cubs to begin spring training camps was little
concession.
I
will admit I was pleased to learn that Metra is considering this weekend free
train rides (as to the usual $10 fare for a weekend pass) come Saturday and
Sunday. It has me pondering a trip downtown so as to take advantage of the
discount perk.
It
would, however, be just my luck that the free fare comes at a time when the
train (which has a commuter stop just a couple of blocks from my current humble
abode) isn’t any guarantee to be operating, or running anywhere near to on
schedule.
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