Why do I even try sometimes?

I’m not at all superstitious. I don’t really believe in karma. Or in curses. But I have to say that it's hard not to have a bit of a complex about trying to leave work early on a Friday afternoon when I’ve a Monday - or in this case a Monday and Tuesday - off. When I try to do this, something happens to the Blue Line. Every time. Sometimes it’s extra slow for mechanical problems. Sometimes there’s an accident. Sometimes they have emergency track maintenance. It’s always something. It's always slow and crowded. And it happened again. I promise that I have not found religion... though I may start planning for train suckiness in these situations in the future.

Roundup:

Seen on the Blue Line recently: a baby duck. It’s a zoo on here.

Overheard yesterday on the Blue Line:

Young Latino skateboarder number 1 (after a long, long silence): “I think I’m going to be a Navy Seal.”

Young Latino skateboarder number 2 (without blinking or looking up): “My ass.”

Silence again.

Seen today on Long Beach Transit, Line 111: a middle-aged, skinny gay dude, with no teeth, black fingernail polish, a Laguna Beach tee-shirt from the 1980s, all topped off with a beautifully embroidered ivory-white yarmulke. We get all kinds in the LBC.

Snakes on a Train.

I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. Both my wife and I have seen snakes on the Blue Line. She recently, and me a while back. The two sitings have a few of things in common:

1. Neither snake was caged.
2. They both involved a lot of ohhing and ahhing from the other passengers. Addie and I talked it over. We were not impressed.
3. Both people wore their snakes as clothing. The one I saw was worn as a belt. The one Addie saw was worn as a scarf. Even for fashion-trendy LA, this seems dangerous.

I have also seen hamsters, dogs, cats and a box turtle - all were properly contained. And none were worn as clothing - though a box turtle might make a good broach.

[Unrelated - I discovered this morning that a typical ride from Willow Station to the end of the line at 7th/Metro Center is almost precisely one Glen Gould performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations long.]

And now, some 'liveblogging':

[Related to 'Unrelated' - Someone is blaring soul music on a boom box this afternoon. I'm blocking it out with a kick-ass recording of Brahms' 4th. Take that, generic crooner!]

[Unrelated to either the previous 'Unrelated' or the 'Related to the Unrelated' - Some late-forties white dude is mining for green gold for all he's worth. Get me off this train.]