I have to say I've had a lot of truly terrible transit days in the past year. I missed a reading that Shakespeare Bash'd was doing. I missed the first half of a double feature at the Paradise. The University side of Line 1 shut down unexpectedly, so I had to cab it up to Tarragon during the Fringe and was a few minutes late to a show (though they did let me in). I am still riled up over the bomb threat that forced me to miss a second opportunity to see the Chagall and the Bible show at UT. While today I just made it to the start of a concert, it was exceptionally frustrating. I left at 1:15, planning on going in to the office for a bit, then dropping something off at Robarts, then going to Trinity-St. Paul's (where they had pushed the concert back to 3:30 account for the Santa Claus parade). The buses seemed somewhat messed up, but I finally got to Pape station. They were not announcing anything, and instead everyone piled onto the subway, only to be told there was a fire investigation at Bloor & Yonge, so they were turning back trains at Broadview, i.e. not even letting people get across the Don! What makes this especially frustrating is that because Broadview is still torn up, you can't get a bus or a streetcar south to then cut across. You literally have to go back to Pape to go south! When I got back to Pape, I was somewhat unwillingly coerced into helping a blind man get down the stairs, before passing him onto someone going on a train further east, which at least was still in service. I mean that does help put things into perspective to some degree.
Anyway, it was clear that the 72B was seriously messed up, but I got on a 72A and got to Gerrard and Carlaw to wait for the 506, only 45 minutes after I set out! It was only a few minutes until the streetcar, but then 50 minutes until the one after that. How truly terrible the service has been lately.
Then a 505 Dundas showed up, and if I had perfect knowledge, I would have jumped on that. However, by this point, I was thinking that probably the Yonge side of Line 1 was messed up due to the fire, so I might as well take the Gerrard streetcar past university and then just walk up to Robarts (skipping going to work). More fool I. The Gerrard streetcar was slow but steady until we got to Bay, and then it diverted down to Dundas (because of the Santa Claus parade!). It then was caught in all kinds of traffic, whereas the Dundas streetcar currently goes down to Dundas on Parliament where the traffic is much lighter. We finally made the turn, and I debated staying on, since it was going to turn north at Spadina, but traffic still looked pretty terrible, so I jumped off and took the university branch of Line 1, which was running ok, but was completely crammed with families with small children leaving the parade! (I think I only had 10 more minutes before my free transfer would have expired, which would have been the icing on the cake.) I finally got to Spadina and ran over to the concert with just over 15 minutes to curtain. It was such an infuriating, exasperating day on transit, made so much worse because the TTC doesn't communicate anything to its customers. I certainly would have been infinitely better off riding my bike, though I am still several days away from being healthy enough to do that.
The concert was Amici's The Winds of Time, and they mostly featured different wind ensembles. They started off with a trio by Poulenc, which was ok, but I was still perhaps too riled up to appreciate it. I did like Mozart's Wind Quintet, though I wouldn't agree it's his finest piece. David Hetherington came out after the intermission and did a strange droning piece on the cello, and they ended with Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Winds, which was probably the stand-out piece from this concert for me. I don't think that I am going to either of their remaining concerts this season, but I am probably going to the ARC Ensemble this Wed. and maybe again in April, and Joaquin Valdepeñas should be performing.
It was raining pretty heavily by the time the concert ended, but I assume most of the young children got home after the parade ended and before the rain started, so at least their day wasn't ruined. I decided to bail on Robarts and just went in to the office for a couple of hours. While the concert was good, I am not entirely sure it was worth it, after my transit travails. I really do need to get back on the bike as soon as possible to avoid these unbearably frustrating transit breakdowns.
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