The conductor’s announcement prior to Wednesday’s 5:50 departure, when the lights went out and the engines went silent

“Ladies and Gentlemen, We’re just recycling the motor, we should be up in a few minutes.”

Another dirty deed done dirt cheap, and we were soon off…

–Jerseyjim
 

Finally catching up on rest from a quadruple-overtime hockey game the night before, and the drizzly weather suits me fine. Changing up my usual triathalon of biking to station, sardine can swim in train car, and speed-walk to the office, I walked the 7/10th mile to the station, and thus forgot to bring along my steely travel coffee mug.

I can still feel the guilt-vibes from No Impact Man for footprinting another dreaded coffee cup on my carbon-account, but I’ve been chipping away at my impact here and there. Looking around on the train, lots of folks are switching from paper to re-usable containers.

I stopped at (the not so evil) Starbucks in Jersey before boarding the train, and they filled up my (Fleet Bank) steely travel coffee mug without a shrug, which was nice–and only charged me $1.66 for it…which is nice.

The guy fixing his broken coffee mug at the fixins bar asked, “Did they fill that up for you?” and I said, “Yup!”

I tried not to sound victorious, or cooler-than thou, but he was drinking ice coffee anyway–so I felt tres un-cool, not making the switch to ice-coffee here in May.

HOCKEY TRAIN REFRAIN

After last night’s defeat at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one game from elimination, and New Jersey commuters may once again walk at ease through the halls of Penn Station without the crush of of red-white-and blue clad hockey fans, with booming echos of  “LETS GO RANGERS!” and “ICE THEM PENGUINS!”  wandering up and around the concourse.

Don’t get me wrong — I love hockey, and played it as a kid. My older brother even plays in a hockey league and admits to enjoy it, but when PLAYOFF FEVER strikes midtown, my sports-tracking device doesn’t “Catch it!”, and I quickly lose my gritty New York Spirit — in favor of a speedy ride home to Jersey, to avoid the soon-to-be pay-per-view games in peace.

My beef is with the incoming NJ Transit trains. Loaded with loaded pre-gaming Ranger fans (from Jersey, admittedly) – we are often treated to delayed departures, pre-read Star-Ledgers or (worse!) Bergen Records covering the seats, spilled Molson Ice tall-boys littered train cars –  for our Tuesday night commute back to the burbs. 

Last night’s 5:50 made it out from under the ice okay, but if all goes well for Pittsburgh on Thursday, the Garden will clear out, and I can rightfully move onto hating the Yankee fans. {^_^}

-jerseyjim