Bad week for people-train relations

Eric called me from the Caltrain at 6:30pm last night.

"We're stopped. They're saying it could be anything from 30 min to 4 hours."

About once every month or two, and almost exclusively on Friday evenings, someone pulls an Anna Karenina on the Caltrain route between SF and Palo Alto. While it is obviously a sad event, the reaction it typically elicits from the train commuters is indignant rage. (Overheard comments include things like "Can't these people just go kill themselves quietly and not ruin everyone's Friday night" and "I hope it was an investment banker.")

As I drove down to Hillsdale to collect Eric, I chatted with my father on the phone and mentioned how the Caltrain had been stopped indefinitely not far from Palo Alto.

"You know," he said, "they found out that the conductor who caused the crash in LA this week was using the text messaging and that's why he missed the signal."

We took advantage of the train having stopped opposite a mall to get a few remaining items to close out Nesting Week. One highlight was getting an oil diffuser at Restoration Hardware. We got the light green flavor which in this case is called "Honeydew Quince." Incidentally I think would be a charming name for a character in a children's book. Probably a Possum (Opossum?).

As we left the mall two hours later, we could see the Caltrain was still there where it had been stopped, no doubt with many stranded commuters still sitting on it, furious that someone else's inconsolable despair had caused them to miss happy hour.