Fall down, go boom

I arrived at the train station this morning to discover a disabled train — I prefer to think of them as handi-capable — stuck on the track where my train is usually supposed to go. Plus a whole bunch of people walking up the stairs to the other platform, where our train had been redirected.

Because of the stuck train, the railroad was promising scattered 15 to 20-minute delays all morning, and my connecting train wasn’t even an option. I stayed on — standing, not sitting — to Penn Station and caught the subway from there. It’s the exact reverse of what I do in the evening, as I’ve probably mentioned here before, and it takes pretty much the same amount of time as my normal morning commute. It’s not my preferred way of getting there…

…although, come to think of it, maybe it should be. Going to Hunterspoint Avenue doesn’t save me much time, and no money, and it really narrows my options if the subway is delayed or isn’t running. Only the 7 train runs from Hunterspoint Avenue, on two tracks, one going into Manhattan and the other going away. And once I’m there, that’s my only option, since the Long Island Railroad won’t take me back where I need to go until sometime in the late afternoon. If I go to Penn Station, on the other hand, I’m already in Manhattan. If the 1 or 2 trains are having problems and can’t get me to Times Square (where I get the shuttle to Grand Central, then walk two blocks), I can in theory try the A, C, or E — less direct, but they’ll get me in the neighborhood — or even walk. (That takes half an hour — I’ve done it once before, in the evening — whereas walking from Hunterspoint is at least an hour over the Queensboro Bridge.)

This has been “Fred Ponders His Commute Options.” This is of only limited interest even to me.

Anyway, I got the subway from Penn Station, and though I just missed the first two trains and had to wait, everything seemed to be looking up. The delays hadn’t been so bad. I got to Times Square, then to Grand Central…and that’s where I tripped getting off the subway car and fell to the platform.

I was okay, maybe surprisingly so, and while it hurt — both my leg and my pride — I don’t appear to have done any significant or lasting damage. It was much more forgiving than a fall I took two years ago, which I’m not sure my knee ever completely recovered from. I didn’t enjoy falling, and it may have made me a few minutes late for work, but after that, how can things not start to look up?

I’m off again this Friday, so this has really felt like my Thursday, though I suspect it still is only Wednesday. The went by very quickly, since I have a lot of work to do, in a year that seems to be rapidly running out. I’ll be out for a lot of December, and next week I’m only in for two days thanks to…well, Thanksgiving. (Plus the Wednesday. I’m taking the Wednesday.) I’m having a difficult time believing 2013 is this close to over.