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!"