Trains, Autos, Taxis (TAT)

When Eugene came to visit a couple weeks back, he was reliant on several modes of transportation. He took a plane to fly into Chicago. He then took a taxi to get to the Metra. He took the Metra to Union Station where he then rented a car to continue his vacation plans. It's amazing how important different modes of transportation are needed to get to places you need to go.

I flash back to the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, which was released almost 20 years ago. It was a comedy of errors about a man trying to get home to his family during the holidays. It starred two comedic profilers John Candy and Steve Martin.

It's funny how life sometimes imitates art. A comedy of errors was what I had Sunday. The day already started off crappy. This month I'm on support at my job for various processes that run on a daily basis. Unfortunately one of those jobs went down due to a data error. Luckily for me, I was able to log into work from home to work on the problem. I spent almost three hours doing that. Unluckily for me, I had to go to the office still because in order to test my changes, I had to go into a system I didn't have access to at home. That was another two hours (including the ride to the office). The clunker was that the system I needed to test was actually down for some weekend conversions. This means I was unable to test my changes. I needed to make a decision whether to chance moving my changes in and risk those changes causing another data error or wait until Monday, which meant I was going to get the same data error.

I was reasonably confident that the code changes I did would be fine, so I contacted Witty so that he could approve my changes. He made the approvals and fast forward briefly....the job ran fine this morning...so yay me!

Hemingway let's rewind back to Sunday. So I decide as a treat to myself & to relieve my frustration from a crappy weekend, including Saturday night (another story onto itself...*LOL*), I decided to go bowling.

I wound up going to the same alley where I bowled last season. So I'm bowling my six games, desperately trying for a 200 game, which I didn't get. Again. Sigh. I pay for my games and make my way to my car. I reach in my pocket for my keys and can't find them.

I freak out for a minute. I decide to check to see if I left the doors unlocked. No such luck. I went back into the alley to see if I left my keys in the lanes I bowled. I didn't see them. I went back outside and tried opening my car door with my house keys. Heh...don't laugh! Years back I actually managed to open my car door with Allie's car keys. It was a good thing that time because I had left the engine running in the car while putting something that Allie borrowed in the trunk.

So I go back inside the alley (again) and look where I was playing to see if I left my keys there. They were nowhere to be found.

I was really freaked now, not believing that I could've locked them in the car. I stepped back outside and despartely tried my house keys again. No luck...*LOL*.

I was trying to think what I should do. The few folks that I interact with live anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour from me. Then I remembered my friend Stan. I contacted him but unfortunately he didn't pick up. I left him a voicemail but didn't explain the particulars of my situation.

I sighed as I called roadside assistance (which actually expired on my Cavalier). After getting my information, I was told that the cost for them coming to unlock my door would be $60.50. I almost gagged. It was then I started thinking, what would Eugene do in this situation. Then it hit me. The Metra line wasn't far from the bowling alley. I decided I would take the train back to my nearest station and if Stan hadn't called me back by then, I would have a taxi take me home so I could get my spare keys & then take me back to the station.

In a nutshell, the whole thing took over three hours, that included waiting an hour and a half in total for both trains. While I was trekking it to the train stop, I had called Eugene to tell him about my situation. He was nice enough to keep me company throughout the majority of my wait. He even called the taxi for me, which I thought was nice.

The embarassing part was that I wound up not leaving the car keys in the car. I actually did leave it in the bowling alley but it was at the counter where I paid. That, of course, led me to wonder why the worker couldn't have noticed me looking for something earlier. (I picked up my keys this evening.) I guess I should be glad I didn't pay $60.50. My total cost for the train rides was $4.30 & the taxi was $24 (including tip). That was $28.30 in total, which at least saved some of the unnecessary spending.

And I guess I realized how resourceful I could be if I had to.