Yesterday was awesome - gardening with good people, rain storm and then one of my nightmares came true. The city shut down and I was a long way from home with no communication devices and little to no gear for survival with me – so the option was make the slog home. However that said - I feel I did better than the majority of Torontonians who were stuck on the subway with me. So here is my approved and tested guide to dealing with 5 hours of commuting in the city when the elements throw down a super soaker (normally this trip takes just shy of an hour). Make a good time of it: Everyone with a smart phone thinks themselves a photo journalist. I was in a line to get to the shuttle busses that was going to replace the subway up Young Street – it took just over an hour to get through it so I amused myself by looking at and pulling faces for as many photos as possible. Conserve your strength: Sitting on the floor of the subway is a totally legitimate move, save your legs cause you have hours of walking ahead and, your butt will get washed as soon as your step outside anyway. Be prepared: Douglass Addams told me to always have a towel with me, Lisa told me to always have a snack and a rain coat and, people have been telling me to suck it up my whole life. To this I interpreted as a hip flask of whiskey stashed in your bag is always a good idea. Today I was glad of all three. Make good calls: even if its the hard road: If you have been in a line for an hour, there is likely to be about 2000 other people trying to get on the same buses that are arriving from…? Well I saw 1 before I decided hoofing it was a fine idea. So especially if you have walk 5 subway stops and then a bus line you should get started early. Ways of helping you make this decision go from “crazy” to the “right thing to be doing” (Apart from the obvious hoards of people vying for the same few buses) include; observing such things as the traffic lights being out, sky scrapers only showing emergency lighting, the streets being grid-locked and that the only sounds are people honking, complaining, the rain and emergency services sirens. Take advantage of the slow traffic: Stick out your thumb and hitch a ride. What’s the worst thing that happens? You end up walking the whole way? (bummer…) best thing? You get a ride and make it home in 5 hours rather than who knows how long. Try seeing the funny side: Seeing people renovating the body work of their cars with other people’s cars in slow moving traffic and the ensuing verbal catfight that follows can be partaken in by shouting “woo! Street drama!” and throwing both arms into the air. They are too focused on their own issues to care about you, and it relieves the tension of other onlookers when they start to laugh at your antics. And now, a few tips for the people on how they can stop being such… How they could change their behavior to improve everyone’s time during this process. Stop complaining about how bad your public transport is and think about the reality of being in a 20 ton steel sausage underground during a storm that is dropping 2 months’ supply of water and just generated enough electricity to take out the entire city…. When your sausage RUNS on electricity. Stop complaining that you can’t get through and that there isn’t any signal for your phone – imagine that it’s New Year’s Eve at midnight…. But this time EVERYONE ELSE CARES and is trying to call AND it’s going to go on for the next few hours. Let’s just say make that complaining in general – it’s not getting you anywhere faster and you’re hurting my ears. Throw out your thrice dammed umbrellas and invest in a rain coat or start giving out free safety eye glasses ‘cause your spacial awareness sucks. More people should start laughing out loud and saying how much fun they are having. (did it!) Introducing yourself to the people around you and saying “hi, I’m your single serve friend during this emergency” (did it!) Pick a side to walk on the footpath and keep to it – you are soaked to the bone already, your clothes will dry so JUST WALK THROUGH THE BLOODY PUDDLE AND STOP TRYING TO BLIND ME WITH YOUR UMBRELLAS! And just try to see the cheery side to it all – if nothing else this is going to make a good story. Peace Toronto.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 18:10:58 +0000
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