I suppose it is a truism that it is simply difficult to plan for things at the micro-level because so much is out of one's control. I had kind of forced myself back to the gym on Monday, then had planned to go swimming on Wed. I had it so clearly in my head, getting home in time to go swimming and probably hit the store on the way back home. What I didn't count on was the unbelievably horrific journey to get home on the TTC. I made it up to St. George with no real issues, then found that Line 2 was completely shut down. There was some trespasser on the tracks. What was unsettling was how they couldn't get the story straight. Sometimes the announcement said it was St. George to Broadview, but most of the time they said Ossington to Broadview, or close to the entire line and certainly the parts I needed. There was no timeline on getting service back and they weren't ordering replacement buses either. So I went back to Line 1 to try to get down to Dundas to catch the streetcar, but now Line 1 was shut down between St. Clair West and Union due to a trespasser on the tracks. That does seem a bit hard to credit, but at any rate, I was screwed. Again, they weren't making any efforts to keep us notified on how to deal with the situation. I realize it is very stressful for the employees, but it is ten times worse for passengers left in the dark (in many cases literally as they shut down the power to some of the trains completely!). I went out to the street to see if I could find a cab, or in the worst case walk over to Bloor and Yonge, as I thought that branch of Line 1 was probably still running. It was just pouring. I haven't gotten that wet in a very long time. There were only two cabs, both going in the wrong direction and not willing to stop for me. I got to Bay and managed to jump on a southbound bus. Fortunately, I remembered that the Carleton streetcar was actually diverted to Dundas, so I stayed on a couple more blocks. It was still raining hard but starting to let up a bit as I waited at the streetcar stop. I guess I caught a bit of break in that the next streetcar was continuing on to Gerrard rather than Dundas. But it certainly caught a bunch of passengers off guard. It took almost an hour longer than it should have for me to get home, and I was still wet and royally p.o.'ed. I didn't feel like going swimming any longer, but it didn't even matter. The pool was going to be closing soon.
I caught one other small break in that I had my daughter's passport photos in my bag, and they were fine, though Troubles was water damaged. It's the part I've already read, which I guess is preferable, but I still will part with it after I've finished reading it. I also had a free pass to the Aga Khan Museum. While it was also water damaged, it was still legible enough that I was able to use it yesterday.
The TTC really has been so unpredictable, though I have found there were major interruptions every ten trips, and now it is closer to every five trips. I actually forced myself to bike to work on Friday, which is definitely the deepest into winter I've biked in Toronto (or Chicago), but that has its own issues, including the fact that the city plows all the snow on the Gerrard Bridge into the bike lanes, so they are completely impassible if there is any snow at all... At this point, I am really longing for spring and am pretty much dreading the winter. Maybe I will start working from home more, though that is less than ideal.
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