August 28th, 2011-Miracle Budds

8/28-OB Blue Line train: I board a four-car train led by Budd car #2228, after the conductor blows the horn in the LaSalle station to alert standing passengers further up the station platform that she's not coming up any further because this is a four-car train. The horn was honked right in front of me, blowing out my eardrums. However, I was excited to see a Budd leading this train, (which is usually the case with me since I love these cars and am glad that the current 4-car-on-weekend mechanism for the Blue Line allows them to lead) and the leading Budd would be the one I board. Unfortunately, the train was packed wall to wall, but I still boarded.

It was a very slow-go approaching the Illinois Medical District station. Train moved every few feet, and then stopped before repeating the process, but as it got closer to Illinois Medical District, the conductor announced that the train will be running express from that station to Pulaski. I got so excited about this that for some reason, I pumped both fists in the air with thumbs up and grinned happily. When the doors opened at IMD, the passengers in my car flooded out, and I sat down in the nearest double door-facing seat, enjoying a swift, speedy ride from that stop to Pulaski, here I got off.

Just seconds after the OB train completely departed the Pulaski station an IB train, headed by Budd car #2263 entered the station. I boarded its mate, #2264, getting off at the Kedzie-Homan stop, where I initially wanted to get off. And during the short trip, I saw another OB train, led by Budds. Gosh, am I going to miss these rail cars so much when they're retired. Oh my goodness, thanks for the memories.

August 27th, 2011 Another Lazy Freeloader!

8/27-Midway Airport bus terminal: I am here waiting for a #379 Pace bus so I can visit my boyfriend and his family in Orland Park. A middle-aged, tall, slim black man comes up to me asking for food, maybe because he saw a 7-11 bag I had from the store at Dearborn/Van Buren. I reluctantly gave him a package of frosted strawberry Pop-Tarts I had purchased. Should've told him to go to a freakin' DHS office on Monday and apply for freakin' food stamps if he's that hungry.

At first, he tries to board a SB 54B bus, but winds up boarding the 379! While on board, he asks a woman sitting in a seat near the one he's sitting in if she has something to give him to eat. She gives him yogurt and something that resembled a cake, and I watched the damn freeloader, smiling as she did so. She gave him a spoon to go along with the yogurt that she gave him. And then she went on and on and on, telling him about the church in Hyde Park that she attends and is a member of, and what she does there. They both got off at separate stops in Justice, and I couldn't believe what I saw on this bus. I may be a God-loving, God-obeying person who believes that 98% of the Bible is true, but when it comes to assisting people, I only assist those who deserve and need assistance, not those who can do something for themselves! The lazy shall receive NO assistance from me, but those who need assistance will always receive assistance from me! And that's my quote and my slogan, bottom line!

August 23rd, 2011: First Full Day of 7Day Pass

EARLIER TODAY AT 2:36 P.M., MY AUGUST 7-DAY TRANSIT PASS EXPIRED, AND SURPRISINGLY, NOT MUCH HAPPENED THIS TIME AROUND, IN COMPARISON TO LAST MONTH, STUFF OUT OF THE ORDINARY THAT IS. HOWEVER, THERE WERE THREE INTERESTING INCIDENTS THIS PAST WEEK, AND EACH ONE WILL GET ITS VERY OWN BLOG POST. LET'S START WITH THE INCIDENT ON AUGUST 23RD SHALL WE?

8/23: OB/WB Blue Line train. I am in Budd car #2299, heading home from spending a couple hours at the Triton College library. It is past 7:30 p.m., and it's almost completely dark outside. The ride from Cumberland to Illinois Medical District is comfortable, quiet, and calm, as expected during this late evening on the Blue Line, but as the train departs the Illinois Medical District stop, that light-skinned, nappy-headed young woman busts into the car that I am in, and begins asking innocent passengers for money. Yes, that same one who, on July 25th, barged into the car I was sitting in that day and asked for money. What she said as she traveled through the car I was in today raised some enormous red flags with me:

"Excuse me, everyone, but I'm homeless, and I'm hungry. Can someone please spare some change so that I can get something to eat?"

Okay, the last time I saw her, on the Blue Line, last month, she said,

"They want ya'll to think I'm homeless, to think I'm oan drugs! I ain't oan none of that!"

Yep, the same woman who said as she passed by me on July 25th,

"I oughta blow all ya'll up! I don't care bout no fuckin' prison!"

And tonight, as she walks pass me, I silently shout, "Ohhhh gosh," and cup my mouth and nose with my hand! She stunk sooooooo bad! Her b.o. could've killed three skunks and stinkbugs if not chase them away!

A guy in a white shirt was the only person in my car to give her some money. I wouldn't give her anything because, and I know this for a fact, and I believe it to be true with all my heart, many people who beg for change are doing it just to scrape up some money for drugs! As many Public Aid offices as there are in NE Illinois and the lazy, stinkin' bitch can't spend a few hours in any one office to get a Link card or be directed to a transistional shelter? See, this is the reason why I have ZERO sympathy, and I mean ZERO, for many homeless people and drug addicts! Lazy and crazy as hell! Only those who actually want to do something with their lives I feel 100% sympathy for and I'm willing to help them as much as I can, and I do! This phony, lazy asshole however, isn't receiving any assistance, nor one freakin' penny from me!

September/October 2007: Pace Bus Insanity

NOTE: UNTIL I GET ANOTHER 7DAY CTA/PACE PASS AND METRA WEEKEND PASS, I WILL SUBMIT WILD STORIES OF THINGS THAT I HAVE SEEN WHEN RIDING THE BUSES AND TRAINS HERE IN THE CHICAGOLAND METROPOLITAN AREA FROM THE PAST. THE FOLLOWING STORIES, ARE JUST PLAIN OL' RIDICULOUS, BUT HILARIOUS. YEAH, I THINK THAT'S THE BEST WAY TO PUT IT.

SEPTEMBER 2007: SB #352 Pace bus. I am heading to school at South Suburban College, and I am taking the 352. I sit in the priority seating on that side of the bus where the driver's seat is located. A young, heavyset, black woman gets on board at the 95th Red Line terminal, and asks if this bus is going to 129th & Halsted. Bus driver tells her no, but she doesn't believe her, so she boards the bus and goes to the back of the bus.

When the bus gets on I-57 (this was the 352 Express bus, now gone sadly), I could hear the sounds of someone beating on something, and then, I look back and catch this crazy wench beating on the window! No one says anything to her for doing what she did. Then, as the bus goes over the Cal-Sag Channel, a large, wide river cutting through the near south suburbs, she comes down from the back and sits on the row of priority seating where I am, and "jams" to music on her CD player, singing and dancing wildly, bouncing up and down, causing me to instantaneously jump up from lying on a large metal part next to the seating where I was resting my head.

I get off at Harvey Transportation Center to transfer to an EB #364 to SSC, and so does she. I go inside a store at the terminal and so does she, but instead of shopping, she stands around for a few minutes and asks people which bus will take her to 129th & Halsted. Then, she exits the store and asks more people which bus will take her there, even after getting the correct answers. I overhear one man say,

"They need to make a medication that will really bring people back to reality."

In regards to both the crazy woman and what he said, hey, they need to make a pill that'll cause her tom make the wise and right decision to admit herself into an insane asylum.

OCTOBER 2007: WB #364 Pace bus: I am on my way home from South Suburban College, riding to Harvey Transportation Center, to switch over to the #349 Pace bus to 79th/Western. Since I attend school only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I usually get on a WB 364 arriving at SSC right after my last class ends, which was around 1:00p.m., and every time just about, I get the same driver-some fat-headed, light-skinned, short-curly-haired, middle-aged, dude with a deep voice and a nasty attitude. To get into HTC, the 364 turns off of 155th Street, and as he turns off that street and snails towards the section of the HTC where WB 364 buses stop, a tall, skinny, fair-skinned chick, who stands up without holding onto something, gets mad and says to him,

"I oughta sue yo' ass fo' drivin' so fast up in here!"
"Hold on then, and you wouldn't have to worry about being tossed around," he says to her.
"Naw, I don't hafta hold on! Watch how you drivin'!"
"Regina (obviously he knows her), I can't control gravity!"
"Yes, you can, you fat-faced bastard!"
"Nappy-headed ho."
"Plate of rotten greens and cornbread wit shit on the side."

My only thought was,

"Now why is all of this swearing going on when there are little children on the bus?"

Yes, there was a cute little blue-eyed girl, about three years of age, in a seat across the aisle from where I was sitting, and I was sitting near the front door where all the "action" occurred. She was with her mother, who did nothing, but laugh at the outrageous antics of those two. I didn't find it funny, because I found it to be corrupting the ears of that poor little innocent girl! >(

SPECIAL POST: YOU MIGHT BE ADDICTED TO METRA

UNTIL I CAN ACQUIRE ANOTHER 7 DAY CTA/PACE PASS AND A METRA WEEKEND PASS, YOU WILL SEE ONE SPECIAL POST, AND ALSO, SOME MORE PAST INCIDENTS I WITNESSED WHILE RIDING PUBLIC TRANSIT HERE IN THE CHICAGO METROPOLITAN AREA. TODAY, I HAVE A SPECIAL POST, AND IT IS A GREAT TAKE ON COMEDIAN JEFF FOXWORTHY'S "YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK." IT FOCUSES ON MY LITTLE LOVE AFFAIR WITH METRA AND ITS SERVICE, BUT COULD IT BE METRA ADDICTION? I DON'T THINK SO, BUT IS IT LIKELY THAT YOU MAY HAVE IT? HERE WE GO. A COUPLE FRIENDS OF MINE WHO I READ THE WRITTEN COPY TO, THINK THAT THIS PARODY IS SIDE-SPLITTING!

1. If you desire to live next to railroad tracks that Metra trains use, then you might be addicted to Metra.
2. If you live by railroad tracks that Metra trains use and you look over your shoulder just to watch a Metra train or locomotive pass by, then you might be addicted to Metra.
3. If the high-pitched ding of someone striking a glass plate or bowl with a metal utensil reminds you of the bell Metra trains make as they enter a station, then you might be addicted to Metra.
4. If you hear anything inside your home making a sound identical to any of the two parts of the chime on Metra trains signaling that the doors are closing, then you might be addicted to Metra.
5. If you collect schedules of every Metra line, including those that you haven't ridden yet, and won't ride anytime soon, then you might be addicted to Metra.
6. If you hear the word "bi-level" and a Metra car immediately comes to mind, well then you might be addicted to Metra.
7. If you buy a weekend pass just to ride Metra trains back and forth, and to do nothing else, you may just be addicted to Metra.
8. If you wake up early on a Saturday or Sunday morning, just to ride Metra trains back and forth using a weekend pass, then you might be addicted to Metra.
9. If you know the manufacturers and model names of ALL the rail cars and locomotives operated by Metra, then you might be addicted to Metra.
10. If you hear the word "upper deck" and those singluar top-level seats on Metra trains come to mind, then you might be addicted to Metra.
11. If you hear the names BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad and the only things that come to mind are the towns Kenosha, Waukegan, McHenry, Harvard, Elburn, and Aurora, then you might be addicted to Metra.
12. If you live less than 500 feet away from Metra tracks and you stop whatever you're doing just to listen to Metra trains go by, then you might be addicted to Metra.
13. If the front sides of a Metra locomotive is the only thing that pops in your head whenever you hear phrases such as "Village of Lombard," "City of Elgin," and "Village of Prospect Heights," okay, then you ARE addicted to Metra.
14. If more than one 10-ride ticket is on your Christmas Wish List, one for each currently existing zone, then you must be addicted to Metra, no questions asked no statements made.
15. If becoming a Metra conductor has become your #1 career goal, well hey, you are addicted to Metra.
16. And if you experience all of the above, well baby, face it, you ARE addicted to Metra.

Well, I maybe a huge Metra fan, but I don't think I have Metra Addiction, however, I do experience five of the aforementioned symptoms, those being #s 2, 5, 8, and 9, and #14 definitely is one of them. God, I pray to you that I win that humongous lump sum from that settlement that I was told I would win.

My apologies Mr. Foxworthy if I may have upsetted you.

July 31st, 2011 Last Day of 7-Day/Metra Pass MY 25TH BDAY!

7/31/2011:
IB Green Line train: It's my 25th birthday, the reason behind me spending $35 to purchase a 7 Day CTA/Pace pass and a Metra weekend pass in the first place. I board an IB Green Line train to downtown, so I can board a SB Metra Electric train to the 95th stop. When my train gets to Clinton, a tall, dark-skinned man boards the train with a large green garbage can! Does this fool know that it is illegal to transport city garbage cans, which do not belong to him? The reckless mover gets off the train at the next stop, Clark/Lake, and goes about his business. Geesh, I should've reported him, and I don't know why I didn't!

LATER
SB Metra Rock Island District train: When I get to Millennium Station, I look for anything pointing to the train I'm looking to catch, discovering that the next train doesn't come until 10:30 a.m. Now, I could've stayed inside and waited, but chose to walk to the Randolph/Wabash stop, to board a Pink Line train to take to Lasalle/Van Buren to board the next Rock Island District Metra train. And when I get to Lasalle St. Station, I discover that the next one does not come until...10:30. My one and only thought was,

"Oh damn."

I decide to stay here. When a Metra train arrived and was about to allow new passengers to board, the doors of one car, closed unexpectedly while a woman with a luggage cart was about to board, trapping her arm! Me and twoother people pryed open the doors to free her arm. She did have visible marks, but nothing too serious.

AND LATER
OB/WB Metra Union Pacific West Line train: I am on board a train on my way to Elburn on my second and final day of Metra joyriding. In the car that I am in, I choose to sit in a singular seat of the upper deck. I look to the front of me, and see a guy with his legs and feet placed on the upper deck railings, something entirely prohibited by Metra. Even worse, about a couple seats down, I spot an old, hard, stale blueberry or chocolate chip muffin, resting on an upper deck railing. Mmmm, yummy!

As the train sits at the Wheaton stop to allow passengers to board/exit, a scantily clad blonde-haired woman nearly trips from something on the platform and looks back to see what it was. I thought,

"Dirty whore should've fell flat on her face."

As she stood on the platform with a guy, her boyfriend probably, the wind gently lifted the legs of the back of her short shorts.

Here's an all-too-common problem with Metra-the smell of the wheels as the train stops at a station. When we get to Winfield, I smell it, really, really good, and I really, really begin to wonder how come Metra trains don't catch fire much more often than they do, which is really not that often. This is what I was fearful of when I smelled the smell of burning wheels and burning rails that created no sparks.

Then, when we get to the end of the line, Elburn, the train sits at the station, but the doors do not open. The conductor says something to the Metra personnel, but what he says to them is heard over the intercom.

"Can somebody let these people out?"

Everyone near me, about a dozen folks, bursts into laughter. I do nothing more than hold a huge smile on my face.

THE RETURN TRIP
I decide to ride back from Elburn to the Oak Park station instead of Ogilvie. Just minutes before the train departs from the Elburn stop, what do you know? A speeding freight train, headed by two Union Pacific locomotives, comes flying by. A few minutes later, my train departs, and as it heads toward the La Fox station, at full speed, it passes the cars of the freight train with ease. Oh! I am getting excited! Oh my gosh! It's a train race! Oh my gosh! Oh I wish I had my digital camcorder to record it! As my train rapidly picked off cars of the freight train one by one, in my head, I silently shouted,

"Get 'em! Get 'em! Get 'em! Get 'em..."

It was about a minute into the race when the Metra train overtook the freight train, and when this occurred, I shouted,

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yesssss!"

Silently, in my head of course.

As the train sat at the La Fox station to allow passengers to board, and it surely was a great deal of them, the freight train somehow caught up with it, and began to pass it by! Less than a minute later, my train pulled off and the race was on again! It surely didn't take long for my train, the UP-West Metra train, to get the best of the freight train, pulled by the two UP locomotives, and it was never seen again, not even at College Avenue.

The train sits at College Avenue for more than 10 minutes! Something awfully terrible has happened! It begins when I hear a Metra employee shout,

"Get back! Is he bleeding?!"

While they're waiting for an ambulance to arrive and see about the injured person (and how he got hurt is completely unknown), passengers on board begin to get very impatient, and so does the conductor. I am in the second car, so I can clearly hear him blowing the horn! He blows it like, five times, before getting on a CB or whatever it is, and shouting,

"Hey! Talk to me!"

This is heard all over the train's intercom system, causing several people to laugh. I didn't find anything funny about that. As a matter of fact, the whole ordeal made me pretty scared, although I didn't show it! The conductor blows the horn four times once more to get the employees' attention. About a couple minutes later, the ambulance arrive and about a couple minutes more, the train begins to move again, and it is about 20 minutes behind schedule. This is a little upsetting to me, but at the same time, is extremely understandable.

Now that that last Metra ride became the end of usage for both my weekend Metra pass, and my CTA/Pace pass (I got off at the Oak Park stop and boarded the Green Line at the adjacent Harlem stop), I will have to yearn for riding CTA/Metra/Pace until sometime in August.

July 30th, 2011 Metra Action and E Gosh! You Stink!

7/30/2011:
IB Blue Line train: I am in the first car of a four-car train (no Budds made up this train btw), on my way to Union Station to catch an outbound Metra BNSF train to Aurora, to do some shopping at Westfield Fox Valley Mall. I am sitting in one of the aisle-facing seats adjacent to the door, and while sitting here, I smell a huge ball of body odor! I look to see who's afraid of soap and water, finding the enemy-a bearded, dark-skinned, black man, obviously homeless because of the large suitcase he carried with him and the extreme dinginess of the heavy jacket he was wearing. He sleeps through much of the ride, until the train reaches Racine, and then he awakes, and reaches into a coat pocket to pull out a wad of dry toilet paper, using it to wipe his left eye, like, three times. I saw him doing this, and I thought,

"Do you have a rag and some soap and water? Because I have some perfume in a side compartment of my backpack, and I am ready to spray, thanks to you!"

LATER
IB Metra BNSF train: Okay, weekends are the best times to ride Metra, and the worst times to ride Metra. I am on IB train #1318, which left Aurora at 4:20, on its way to Union Station. Not many people are on board, but when this train reaches the Route 59/Naperville stations, boy, do the people crowd on, even several maniacs. They board above and across from me on the right side of the car, upper deck. For the remainder of the ride, I hear them talk about the Mafia and killing people as they used quite possibly a phone, smartphone perhaps, to play ukulele music throughout the entire ride. Even worse, one in the group may have been going by the name Mafia, because his/her friends constantly called him/her and he/she responded. Even worser, as I closed my eyes, lied my head down, and relaxed, I heard one guy say,

"Everybody, sleep. I'll kill all of you."

He said that multiple times, like, at least eight times throughout the rest of the ride. When I heard it the third time, I was thinking that it had something to do with me because I was relaxing with my eyes closed and everything. And then I thought,

"Dude, don't make me track down Metra police and bring them over here."

Fortunately, nothing out of the ordinary happens to either me nor any of the other innocent passengers on board the train.

July 29th, 2011 Hardcore Budd Action and oh My GOSHHHH!!!

7/29/2011 WB #15 bus: I board at 51st and Lake Park on my way to the 47th Red Line station. This bus is crowded, and it gets even more crowded a few stops down when a woman in a wheelchair boards. That is not my only or worse concern, because when I boarded, I smelled something that smelled like feces and puke, mixed together! Fortunately, I see nothing on the bus that resembled either/or/both in any way, shape, or form. But what boggles me is the fact that no one else said, or maybe even thought, anything about it, but me and me only! Maybe they didn't care, even if they did notice the rancid smell!

LATER
IB Red Line train: Okay, here I am, at the 47th stop, and I am about to step into car #5. The doors open right in front of me, and there in the middle of the doorway, stands a tall, black man, with an unfolded metal cart full of stuff in bags! What's even worse is the fact that he stares at me as I board, and continues staring at me as I move to the opposite end of the car, completely ignoring the CZ engagement ring I'm wearing (I assume that engagement rings don't and won't work with pervs on the Red Line). The freakin' perverty pack-rat hoarder continues to stare at me, until the train reaches 43rd Street, and then he begins staring out the doors at the expressway traffic, what he should've been doing in the first place!

AND LATER
OB Blue Line train: I am heading to the Cumberland stop to utilize services at Triton College Library (again). I am in Budd car #2236, one I've been in before, and one, that for some strange reason, still has a missing certificate. What's more odd is that from Jackson to Cumberland, some pretty odd stuff really goes down in this one car. A standing woman, concentrating on nothing but the book she's reading nearly falls like, twice, as the train travels at high speed, thinking that she's too damn important to sit next to anyone. Or maybe she was mocking me, because I stood up the entire ride, unwilling to sit next to anyone on the crowded Budd. After nearly falling at least two times, she still stands up while keeping her head in that damn book!
A Hispanic guy, freakishly handsome, screams into the cell phone as he speaks with a friend while the train travels at top speed through the tunnel, and the train's noise virtually drowns out completely his screaming! I was thinking,

"Why the heck are you even bothered about this? Is it worth losing your voice over?"

At two different stations, the doors pop open repeatedly to let some lucky ghost passengers board after visible passengers have already boarded.

Some stupid hood man curses worse than a sailor and a tinker combined while talking to someone on his cell phone.

I stand up the entire time, from Jackson to Cumberland, witnessing all of this junk, and thinking to myself when I reach my destination,

"Okay, I want to buy a Budd, but I don't know about buying this one."

Later that day, I boarded Budd car #2319 at the Oak Park stop, and rode it to Kedzie-Homan, and I was the only one in it, celebrating the desolation by...doing nothing.

July 27th, 2011 Ah, Gimme A Break!

7/27/11 IB Blue Line train: I am sitting on the right-hand side of Budd car #2212, heading to Jefferson Park to catch the 270 Pace bus. Not long after the train pulls off from the Kedzie-Homan stop, a skinny young black woman busts into my car and says,

"Can anyone spare some change? I'm homeless, and I'm tryin' to get somethin' to eat."

I saw that same wench on the Kedzie-Homan platform, where I boarded, begging everyone for money. She even came up to me, but I backed away from her, out of fear that might've done something. Luckily for me, and every other innocent passenger on board this train, she exited at Western and went about her stupid business.

LATER
Jefferson Park Terminal: Here I am, waiting for a NB #270 Pace bus. I just missed one coming up from the Blue Line escalator, and I have to wait 20 minutes for another. No problemo, and I don't run after buses and trains, unless the situation calls for it which is extremely seldom.
So, I stand in around the terminal, and wait for the next one, amid darkening skies. I look to the southwest and there is a middle-aged, slim, blonde-haired man, wearing an AC/DC t-shirt, standing away from the bus lanes, and singing loudly and dancing. I occasionally look over at him, finding him repeating the same stuff, and then, I notice the earphones in his ears, but that discovery does not make me refrain from thinking,

"Just because you're wearing earphones doesn't mean that you have to dance around and make an ass out of yourself in public!"

AND LATER
SB #331 Cumberland Pace bus: I am heading to the Triton College Library to type up and print out some documents. It's a nice, smooth ride until a little soouth of Belmont Avenue in River Grove. Traffic is backed up, and the bus I'm on gets stopped! I look ahead to see what is going on, finding a Metra train stopping at the station. All of a sudden, the bus driver puts the bus in park, and then she steps off the bus to smoke a Newport cigarette. When I see this, I'm thinking,

"Now why are you doing this? This is a Metra train, not a freight train."

After the Metra train passes, I see the problem, a very slow-moving freight train! Not only does it move slowly, it actually stops completely! Numerous motorists turn their vehicles around and go the other way! The bus driver takes out the time to read a book! Because I had something to do in the area after Triton, I decide to get off the bus and frustratingly walk a couple blocks north to Belmont and board an EB #77 Belmont bus, throwing away the decision to go to Triton altogether!

AND LATER ON
WB Blue Line train: I am heading home, and I am sitting, relaxing, on the left-hand side of Budd car #2235. The ride is smooth and comfortable, everything's going just right, until the train gets to Jackson. The doors open and then close after passengers board, and then, suddenly, they open once more and stay open for a few seconds before closing. The train pulls off, for about one foot or 12 inches, before the doors spring open again, and then they close again, a second later. The train moves again, for about another foot, before stopping again, but this time, the doors do not spring open, and the train is only stopped for about a couple seconds. My thought was,

"Whatever the hell you guys are doing back there, you need to quit it!"

July 26th, 2011 Fix-A-Dent!

7/26/11 SB Red Line train: I am sitting in a lone aisle-facing seat at the end of car #2800, going through my applications that I picked up earlier from stores at Water Tower Place, in a quest to get a job fro the Christmas season. I am riding to 47th to take care of some business on Western, which is a street about three miles west of the 47th Red Line station. As the train exits the tunnel, approaching Cermak-Chinatown, a long straight part of the interior, next to the right of the door and adjacent to my seat begins shaking wildly and noisily as the train travels. When I boarded, at the Chicago stop, and found that to be the only totally open seat, I walked over to it thinking,

"This is a really bad place to sit in."

That thought was correct and right on! I was scared! I thought the damn thing would fall out of its foundation and smack the hell out of me or someone else! I wanted to move to another seat, but chose to stay there until the train pulled off from the Sox-35th stop, and then I got up. When the doors opened at 47th, I walked over to the conductor (this happened in the second car by the way) and alerted him of the problem. Because he didn't understand exactly what I was saying, I physically showed him the problem. He pushed the loose,shaky piece back into place as several nosy south-siders with nothing better to do but stare watched on.

LATER
OB Blue Line train: I am in Budd car #2340 on my way to Cumberland to board a #331 Cumberland Pace bus to Triton College, so I can type up some stuff. I sit on the left-hand side of the car in a seat next to the door. Not long after the train departs the Clark/Lake stop, I notice something very unusual-a part on the opposite side abouve the conductor's booth is flapping like mad! I see this and I'm thinking to myself,

"The CTA's not fixing this. The Budds are about to be history."

From Clark/Lake to Harlem, I watch that piece flap and flap and flap, as I lied my head on the back of the seat where I was sitting and relaced, closing my eyes every now and then, making the right decision to forget all about the flapping piece, and instead let it be.

AND LATER ON
NB #82 Kedzie-Homan bus: Okay, I'm going to keep this piece short and simple by saying that, when I got up from my seat at Lake to prepare to get off at Fulton, the next stop from there, I grabbed on a railing parallel to the door and opposite the driver's seat...AND IT WAS VERY LOOSE!!! I was very reluctant to continue holding it, out of fear that if it became any more loose, or actually came apart as I had my hands on it, then I would have to pay for the damage. Unlike the first incident and like the middle one, I did not alert the driver about the loose, shaky part. To close this out, I will have to say,

"CTA! FIX YOUR FREAKIN' MERCHANDISE! INSIDE AND OUT!"