Major Backlog

I've not really had the chance to write recently, so here's a quick catchup.

I went to the new Yankee Stadium last week. It was very impressive. The ballpark part of it was pleasantly reminiscent of the original, which older folks like myself was substantially altered from the original original in the 70s (they made it a bit smaller and got rid of the columns that made watching from the back rows an exercising in moving your head from side to side to try to follow the ball). Then back behind the seats there's a nice, wide concourse where you can see the field, like at most new stadia.

To sum up the difference between old and new versions, at one point I was coming back from the bathroom and someone had dropped a full beer on the floor and there was a guy saying "watch your step!" If they didn't let you walk where there was beer on the floor at the old stadium, nobody could ever walk anywhere.

We took the train to New York because it was Friday of Memorial Day Weekend. Cars are much more subject to traffic than trains because anyone who feels like it can drive a car into the most heavily trafficked places in the world whenever they feel like it. But to use the train tracks one must possess a train.

That being said, trains have an extreme lack of maneuverability (it always kind of shocked me that trains and trolleys have no steering mechanism) that makes them both the safest and generally most reliable mode of transportation, and also makes them prone to spectacular delays when something is impeding their path. I was only once on a train that had to take a detour- it was a cross country trip that ran into a flood in North Dakota (nothing but water as far as you could see in all directions). We sat still for 2 hours, then backed up slowly for about 3 hours, then moved onto an alternate track that took us through South Dakota and stayed 100 miles south of the original itinerary for the rest of the journey. At every stop they had busses to pick up the passengers and take them to the actual station up north. We got into our destination (Chicago in this case) 12 hours late- 6 in the morning instead of 6 the previous evening. This was before cell phones and my poor friend who was supposed to pick me up was beside herself.

More to come.