The thing to remember when you're playing Pac-Man in a game room with children present and you get eaten by a ghost is to mind your language. When I play Pac-Man and get eaten by a ghost, I usually let out a mild expletive (it starts with "D"). Doing that and then realizing that children were present in the game room, I said to myself, "There are children in the room..." and just kept reminding myself of that.

I figure that the children's parents would really love me if I inadvertently taught them some new words that would be less-than-appropriate in polite company. Sure, the children will likely learn those words eventually, but I don't exactly want to be the one to teach those words to them.

And you also have to wonder... what would you say if a child heard you curse, and they asked you about it? (This didn't happen to me, by the way.) That would be one heck of a tight spot to have to tiptoe your way out of. A response might be, "Well, that's a word that grownups use when they're not careful about what they're saying. And you should never say that word."

Since we certainly don't want to rob these children of their innocence any earlier than necessary. Television does a fine job of it already, and it doesn't need any competition. And I need to remember to mind what I say when I get eaten by a ghost playing Pac-Man. Since I don't want to be the one to teach these children all kinds of naughty words. And remembering my time as a child, naughty words are kind of a novelty. They're a novelty specifically because you're not supposed to say them.

And again, I don't want to provide the children with these novelties.

Yes, I actually said that to a coworker today when I relieved them on the self-checkouts on the grocery side in our store.

Why did I say it? Well, I bought this lovely black mock-turtleneck shirt last night, and I tried it out today at work. And let me tell you... I looked sharp in that. Imagine for a moment, if you will: Black mock-turtleneck shirt, black jeans, black shoes (my Chucks), and blue Wal-Mart vest.

And in switching out on the self-checkouts with this particular coworker, who'd not had a break in too long, I knew I was a welcome sight.

Plus we must admit - I look good in black. It's like that song Amish Paradise by Weird Al Yankovic: "And my homies agree, I really look good in black, fool..." There's another coworker and I who each describe ourselves as the best wearers of black in the store, since we both wear it so well.

Plus I like the look.

Otherwise, while talking fashion, I still don't understand people whose shoes do not "agree" with the rest of the outfit. This has come to mind because it's been cold in the morning lately, and so people pull out jackets and such. So you have people wearing long pants, long sleeves, a jacket, a wool hat (in one case), and flip flops with otherwise bare feet. I'm just like, aren't your feet cold?

Me, if I'm going somewhere and dress like it's cooler, I'm going the full nine yards, no questions asked.

I finally visited the new Starbucks Coffee in Waynesboro after work today. Yes, that's right. Starbucks in Waynesboro. I never thought of Waynesboro as a Starbucks kind of town, but there you have it. I guess someone thought we were.

So I went over there to check the place out. It was built on a small property, where the old KFC once stood (KFC moved to a bigger property next door and the old building was demolished). It's bigger inside than it looks, too. Going in, I remembered Spinnwebe's parody of my original Wal-Mart photo set, now in Life and Times, and so I ordered a Venti Coffee Frappuccino. So this is what it looked like:



I also got to talk with Jodie, a former coworker who now works at the new Starbucks, and then Sandra (who works at Wal-Mart with me) and her husband. That was fun. I also saw Mrs. Kucs, my old sixth grade math teacher, but didn't say hello because she was already occupied with other people.

And like I said, the place is bigger than it looks. Check it out:



So Starbucks is interesting. Fun place, though I still can't justify paying that much for coffee.

Otherwise, I have a funny story for you. As you know, my Toyota Previa has been in our family for fifteen years now. Seriously. And we bought it new. And occasionally little things fail. On Friday, the screws holding the passenger-side windshield wiper broke off and fell away while I was driving on I-81 up to Harrisonburg after work. In the rain. The wiper in question was acting strangely earlier in the trip, but I disregarded it. At exit 243 as I was merging onto the ramp, the screws gave out as previously mentioned. This left the driver's-side wiper working normally, and the passenger side wiper blade dragging and flopping around, held onto the wiper arm by the tube that supplies the washer fluid.

A few blocks after getting off the Interstate, I stopped at an Advance Auto Parts to get new screws. It turns out they don't carry little tiny screws. They recommended going to a place like Lowe's or Home Depot to get some screws for it. I also removed the blade entirely at this time so as not to lose the blade entirely.

I managed to do just fine on the rest of the trip, despite the rain and having only one working wiper. I had more problems with my defrosters. Every time I'd stop at a traffic light, my window would fog up. Then it would clear itself after I started up again. Weird.

Oh, by the way, if it had been the driver's side wiper that had broken off, I'd have called AAA for a tow back home.

While I was in Harrisonburg, I called the parents to ask if I could use Sis's car the next day to go to work, due to the problem. Mom's suggestion for the repair was so off-the-wall that it's comical: "You need to get a new car." While I really do need a new car in the long term, that wasn't particularly helpful in the short term. That and I can hardly afford gas on a Wal-Mart income, let alone a new car. Dad, however, had a better solution: Take one of the screws off the good blade and take that into Lowe's or Home Depot and match it.

So Saturday, I drove Sis's car to work. Not bad, except I couldn't find the lever to adjust the seat, so I was driving with my knees in the dashboard. That and it was raining cats and dogs the whole way to work. Also, since it rides so much lower than the Previa, I felt like my butt was dragging on the ground the whole way. Still, better to drive a car with two working wipers through torrential rain in the early morning than my car with just one.

It wasn't raining on Sunday, so I took my car to work, and then went to Home Depot afterwards. I couldn't get the screws off on the good blade using the tools I brought with me from home, so I just brought the already-removed passenger-side blade into the store. One of their sales-people found a screw size that was short and would fit. Good stuff. Total cost, including tax: $1.03.

So I checked out on their self-checkout. They have Fastlane - same as we do at Wal-Mart. Weird was hearing the Fastlane voice saying, "Thank you for shopping at The Home Depot!" since I'm so used to it saying Wal-Mart.

So I attempted the repair right there in the lot. I figured that then if it didn't work, I wouldn't have to make another trip over to return it and try again. I did get it to work, though. However, it is painfully obvious that I did it myself. Take a look:





Note the screws sticking way up over the rest of the assembly. The original screws didn't do that. But hey, it holds, it works, and it only cost me a dollar. And you have to be looking for it to really notice it. See?



And for those of you who aren't familiar, Virginia requires inspection stickers to be placed in the center of the windshield, and not the corner. Additionally, most localities in Virginia (Augusta County in my case) require placement of a county decal next to the inspection sticker.

So there you go. Whether the car will pass inspection like that (in December, as the sticker shows), I don't know. But then we'll deal with it then.

I'm about to head up to Washington today, for the first time since the big September 24 protest. Depending on the weather, I hope to get some outdoor photo sets today.

Meanwhile, it's funny... the day after the September 24 protests, Mom read in our local paper (I believe it was The News-Virginian) about how a group from Augusta County went to the big protest. I believe the group was the Augusta Coalition for Peace and Justice, which participated in the protests at the Augusta County Courthouse that I spoke about in August (and which I could not attend due to being on vacation).

Mom wondered why I didn't go with them and instead did my own thing. I simply replied, taking a line directly from Dangeresque on homestarrunner.com: "I work alone, except when I work with Renaldo - which is all the time."

Besides that, I was also participating in the World Bank protest, which the local group didn't participate in.

Still, I do normally work alone, and it works out.

Meanwhile, the first-DC-trip-after-a-big-protest trip always feels strange to me. I've been thinking about it, and I think it's because my last memory of DC is a very large event where my DC routine gets tangled around and such. There's also a very vivid memory of a large event still fresh in my mind. And then for the first trip afterwards, I'm again taking just my little camera bag instead of the larger backpack that I use for protests.

I don't know. It's a strange feeling. Still, I love it.

I am sending this from the middle of Dupont Circle on my cell phone! I am amused. Needless to say, typing like this is cumbersome, but it is something new.

Finally, my September 24 photo set is finished. Three weeks from shooting to completion. Of course, this means that now I don't have to look at my photos from September 24 for a while. For let me tell you... when you do a photo set, particularly a large one like September 24 (121 photos plus 14 movies), trust me when I say you can get tired of looking at the photos.

But I'm quite proud of the set. I covered the Mobilization for Global Justice's feeder march, I covered the ANSWER/UFPJ march, I covered the Freepers, plus I met up with Mom after it was all over.

Now the next photo set in the hopper is from my vacation to the beach. I'm also working on some anti-war stuff for Wikipedia, and some stuff about the Metro, also for Wikipedia.

I also have the 2005 redesign to think about, and I can tell you this - it's getting later and later every year. The annual redesign was originally in September when I first started doing redesigns annually in 1999. Then it was moved up to July in 2001. Then 2004's was in October. Now, since I have a backlog of photo sets, and since I generally like the way the Web site currently looks and operates, I'm thinking about doing a very minor redesign on the site, mainly to correct any shortcomings on this design that turned up in the year we've had it.

I can't believe it's been a year, but it has. Right now, one year ago at the time of this writing, I was just leaving the house to head to Washington DC to attend the Million Worker March. That was quite a day. I met Jess for the first time at the Million Worker March. I also consider it the moment that I became part of the DC activist crowd, because it was at the Million Worker March that I first met a number of people that I later got to know more extensively at other protests and at the Infoshop. Speaking of which, this was also the first time I'd ever been to the Infoshop. Jess introduced me to the Infoshop for the first time after the Million Worker March.

I just can't get over that it's been a year, though. That was also the only protest I've been to where something didn't go wrong either on the way up or back. Since on the drive to or from protests, I usually have something weird happen to me. My very first protest, on April 12, 2003, I got a speeding ticket on the way up. June 5, 2004, I soaked the undercarriage of my car on the exit ramp for Vienna, which caused the car to strain at 25 mph for the final little bit to the station. October 2, 2004 (Day of Activism), I got sick and threw up at a rest area near Manassas (most likely due to nervousness). Then October 17, 2004 was the Million Worker March. Nothing. Since then, on January 20, 2005 (J20), I had an awful time coming home due to snow. Then on April 16, 2005 (A16) with Sis, the car initially didn't want to start up in the morning (it performed fine the rest of the day). We also forgot to turn on the heat, and wondered what was wrong with the heat because it was still so cold in the car. We figured out that we'd never turned the heat on (despite thinking we had) about halfway to DC. Then on September 24, 2005 (September 24 Protests), I nearly got physically sick again on the way up.

Still, that day was something. It was the most fun I'd had all year in 2004. The whole thing was just like a dream, and I was honestly sad to return to real life after it. And let me tell you - I will never forget that day.

And how am I celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Million Worker March? I'm going to work. It is Monday, after all.

I'm working on the preliminary stages of a site redesign, and as with every year, I start with writer's block before suddenly getting inspiration.

This year, keeping in mind that the look I choose will be the one that the site wears for its ten-year anniversary, I have been looking at silver as a possible color. I'm not too keen on using gray as a main color, but I'm hoping to artsy it up a bit and add some more color to it to balance out the grayness of it - though silver is a nice color.

You know what this reminds me of? Going through all the color swatches in the paint department of Wal-Mart or Lowe's looking for the proper color of paint for various paint jobs I've done in the past. After a while, you just start to get numb to it. This is how you can tell I'm not cut out to be a decorator. Blue is blue. This is blue. I also consider this to be simply blue. And after a while, they all kind of start to look the same. And this is also why it's not a good idea to start obsessing over colors over an extended period. Short sessions are good before it gets mind-numbing.

Still, though, I'm not going to be able to tell you the difference between "Bondi Blue", "Azure", "Cerulean", "Cornflower", "Dodger", "Denim", etc. I lump them all into "blue" and say "that one".

But the interior decor metaphor goes on, as I choose a color scheme to carry the site to the big 1-0 mark and pick something that isn't going to make me want to retch when I see the finished product...

Good morning... I have the house to myself this weekend, and thus I will be spending it going to work and taking care of the dog. The parents are going to a wedding in New Jersey this weekend.

To get to New Jersey, they took I-81 to Carlisle, followed the road that connects I-81 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76), and then took the turnpike to the Schuylkill Expressway through Philadelphia into New Jersey.

And discussing the non-connection between I-81 and the turnpike, my father still insists someone must have gotten paid off to create that, despite my insistence that it's related to rules on use of funds at the time of construction. Basically, the rule in place at that time stated that if you're going to use federal funds to build a direct connection serving a toll road, then the toll road must cease collecting tolls once the bonds are paid off. Otherwise, the toll authority must fund the direct connection themselves. Or, as happened here, they can simply not build a direct connection between the two highways.

This, by the way, is also the same set of rules that created the better-known non-connection west of here between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-70 at Breezewood.

Still, I don't know if I'll be able to get Dad to realize that no one was paid off in creating the non-connection at Carlisle. When I told him that it was about rules unrelated to the specific project in question, he said that it was probably the rulemakers who got paid off.

So there you go. It's like Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Thus non-connections.

Yes - in this very strange dream that I had, Metro runs to Staunton, near where I live. Specifically, Staunton Mall. And specifically, the Blue Line.

In this dream, Mom and I were at Staunton Mall at night. We were out shopping, and I discovered that there was a Metro station at Staunton Mall. It was an elevated station, with side platforms similar to Eisenhower Avenue or West Hyattsville. So while Mom was telling me to hurry up and such, I went up and visited the station. Somehow, in this dream though, I wasn't on the platform. I was in the trackbed. There were no "third rails" in the trackbed, for some reason. Go figure. After I'd crossed from one track to the other, Mom shouted to me that I was in the tracks and what if a train was coming. That's when I decided to climb up onto the platform opposite where I originally was (which I was now standing next to). Then I noticed something to my right:



A train was coming right towards me! And what gets me is how specific the train in the dream was. It was a Breda Rehab, signed for the Blue Line, with "BLUE" lit up large on the train's head sign. And then before I got to deal with any reactions beyond the initial "Oh, no, a train of Breda Rehabs is coming right at me," I woke up.

That dream just left me puzzled me all day today. It reminded me of the dream I described in a Journal entry dated February 19, 2004, where I was essentially white-water rafting with a Metro train. I normally don't dream about the Metro, either. This is only my second Metro-related dream. Normally my dreams center around work and other things like that. I also had a recent resurgence of impending-fire-drill dreams, which I'd not had in a long time.

I'm just glad I woke up before that train got any closer. I also just found it so strange how specific it was. This was a Breda Rehab, and obviously so - not just some generic thing that my mind told me was supposed to be a Breda Rehab. I saw the head sign and the white LED's on the front, which indicate that it's a Rehab and not a CAF or classic Breda or something.

I had quite a fun time in DC with my friend Matthew Tilley today. We went railfanning, since he's quite the Metro buff as well. We met up at Rosslyn, and then rode to Huntington via Arlington Cemetery with a transfer at King Street, then rode back up and transferred to the Blue Line again at L'Enfant Plaza, rode out to Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center, rode back to Stadium-Armory and transferred to an Orange Line train out to New Carrollton. Then we rode back in, and we parted company at L'Enfant Plaza. All in all, a fun day. We rode the trains, and also walked around at a number of stations. The Exeloo, however, was closed. A shame.

Meanwhile, now I'm at the Infoshop, where I've got a small notice posted to hopefully get some people to contribute to WikiProject Anti-war.

And next up: Pentagon City! This has really been a fun day, and I have lots of stories to tell you (particularly about our time at New Carrollton). I also got some beautiful photos today, and hopefully they'll all come out like I want them to.

Now that I'm back home, I'd like to tell you about my surprisingly eventful day in Washington on Wednesday. As I mentioned before, I spent much of the day railfanning with my friend Matthew Tilley. The day was "surprisingly" eventful for two main reasons. One was an incident at New Carrollton, and the other was an incident at Ballston.

I met up with Matthew Tilley at Rosslyn Center, where we'd previously agreed to meet. Not finding him right away, I looked outside the door, and saw a person matching his description outside. The person pulled out their cell phone. I had a feeling that mine would be ringing shortly. Not wanting to be detected, since I knew what I wanted to do here (you'll see), I quietly stepped outside the door and waited. My cell phone went off as expected. "Hello?" Matthew says, "Where are you?" I replied, "I'm right behind you." He turned around and hung up the phone. We ended up sitting at the tables on the first floor of Rosslyn Center for a few minutes before starting out, talking about what Metro and what we were going to do for the day and such.

Then we started out. Blue Line in the direction of Franconia-Springfield. We went as far as King Street. There, we got off, and I discovered a strange object on the platform:



Funny that for all the fuss Metro makes about not leaving unattended items in trains or stations that they leave their new blast-resistant trash cans sitting unattended in their boxes on the station platform. That just struck me as odd. Of course, looking at the sizes of the boxes, the fact that the company name on the box is BlastGard International, and that there's a shipping label specifying Branch Avenue Yard, it didn't take long to figure out what it was. It just struck me as odd but also quite funny.

I also got a picture of Matthew at King Street, and here it is:



From King Street, we caught a Yellow Line train to Huntington. We checked out the view up top, watching some trains move in and out of Huntington, and then went down to the other mezzanine to check out the Exeloo, which was closed on this particular occasion. A shame. Oh, well.

Back on the platform at Huntington around 1 PM, while photographing Breda 2021, the same rail supervisor who gave me problems while photographing the "money train" at Huntington on August 31 came by. He said to me, in an accusatory tone, "Didn't the police officer talk to you about taking pictures in here?" I just replied, "He was fine with it." The rail supervisor walked off without saying anything. I don't think he was pleased that the officer sided with me on that day and not with him. If this particular supervisor gives me any problems about photography a third time in the future, then I will consider it harrassment, and deal with it as such.

Following that, we rode up to L'Enfant Plaza and transferred to the Blue Line, and rode through what I described to Matthew as the most boring stretch of Metro known to man. Seriously. From east of L'Enfant Plaza to Stadium-Armory, there is nothing really exciting. All the stations are island platform, with the waffle-style architecture, and one mezzanine. Seriously, nothing exciting. Then the bridge past RFK is fun, with the pocket track and the D&G Junction.

We arrived at Morgan Boulevard, and got out. Matthew's comment was that the area was so peaceful and so quiet. My comment was that it was quiet only for now, because the station's brand new. I said give it a few years, and development will catch up to it.

Getting back on the train, we got a CAF out to Largo - first CAF of the day for me, I might add. Matthew got a CAF to Rosslyn, making this his second CAF, but I got a Breda. At Largo, we headed over to the Boulevard at the Capital Centre for a little bit. One of these days, I'm going to spend a significant time over there. Then going back to Largo Town Center station, we went up to the top of the parking garage and over to the bridge (which connects both garages). Nice view from up there. Then we went down the other side and around to the "Largo Beacon" artwork. I took the opportunity to get better photos of it, since it was sunny. I also photographed the station entrance pylon for use as a photo feature. I'm sure I looked strange getting that shot, since I crouched low and close to the pylon to get it.

From there, we rode back in to Stadium-Armory (where I got some tunnel movies), and then back out again to New Carrollton. At New Carrollton, we planned a stop at the Amtrak station there for a snack, but first, we had some business to attend to. That was that we wanted to see the yard at New carrollton, which is accomplished by going to the top of the parking structure. The elevator wasn't working on the end closest to the station, and so, not realizing there was an elevator on the other side as well, we took the stairs to the top, walking like five levels.

Getting to the top, we were disappointed to see that the leaves on the trees blocked much of the storage tracks from view. But you could still see quite a bit. We even saw a train leave the yard to enter service.

Then it was back to the New Carrollton Amtrak station (which shares a building with the Metro station). There, we got our snack, and ate it in the waiting room. Now let me share the seats in this waiting room with you. Take a look:



Note the low design, and the flat design of the legs, sitting on smooth tile. Stay with me now.

So Matthew and I are enjoying our snack. I had a banana and a lemonade. Finishing those, I put the remains down on the seat next to me where I had my camera and such. Then I leaned forward to adjust my shoe. This caused the seat to slide backwards and flip backwards, landing me flat on my behind. I was unhurt. I was surprised, what with the loud noise of the chair crashing behind me, but completely unhurt. You see, I have a lot of padding down there, so I was well cushioned. My first reaction was to say, "I'm fine!" and then while I was down there, adjusted my socks as I was going to do in the first place. Nonetheless, a number of people in the waiting room checked to see if I was all right, and after I picked the chair up and re-seated myself, an Amtrak employee came by to make sure I was okay. I told him I was fine, too, all the while laughing somewhat loudly over the whole incident.

After that, we got back on the train, specifically CAF 5132. I got a great view out the back door of the train, as the cab was broken down in the last car. And I got lots of photos of the D Route from New Carrollton to Stadium-Armory.

At that time, while in the back of the CAF train, I also finally got the shots that I attempted to get back in May of the signals on the mainline railroad next to Metro's right of way. You may recall that my May 25 trip to Washington entailed a walk along Minnesota Avenue in Northeast DC, looking for these signals, but the search was fruitless, since I really didn't know what I was doing. And you know what they say - garbage in, garbage out. At the time, I said, "I give myself an 'A' for effort, but a 'C' at best for results." Now I got results:


This is an older signal on the mainline railroad.


These are newer signals, which I first heard described as "Darth Vaders", since their shape somewhat resembles the helmet of Darth Vader from Star Wars.

Then the two of us parted company at L'Enfant Plaza. I had planned a trip to the Infoshop afterwards, while Matthew rode all the way back to Vienna.

Following the Infoshop, it was getting dark, and so I headed over to Pentagon City. I also was a little hungry. So getting there, I did my Pentagon City thing, getting dinner, the fruit smoothie, and enjoyed reading my "grown-ups' newspaper", aka The Washington Post. Then I went to Pentagon Row next to the mall to see if the ice rink was open yet. It wasn't, but it's nearly ready. It looked like all they needed to do was run a Zamboni across it and it would be ready. Check out the ice:


It almost reminded me of snow, though this is actually ice. Still, this is better than what was there the last time I was there two weeks before:


This is what the ice looked like two weeks ago - nonexistent. This is the underlying tubing that carries liquid, designed to keep the ice frozen even when the air temperature goes above freezing.

After spending time at Pentagon Row, I got on the Metro and ran into a fellow railfan, whom I'd first met while photographing McMetro back in May. So I rode as far as Metro Center with him. Fun stuff. So instead of catching my Orange Line train to Vienna from Rosslyn, I did it at Metro Center. No problem.

At Metro Center, I caught a four-car train of Breda rehabs towards Vienna. From front to back, the train consisted of 2017, 2016, 3043, and 3042. I was on 3043, the third car. This is important, as you will soon see. Just past McPherson Square, I saw a train in the A&C Connection, which is a single-track spur between the A Route (Red Line) and the C Route (Blue/Orange Line). It was a Rohr or a Breda, but I couldn't tell which in the second I saw it. It was quite possibly the Money Train, but again, I couldn't tell, since it went by so quickly.

So then we went past Rosslyn, and onto the line to Vienna. I really got to enjoy the beautiful African-sounding accent that our operator had, too. Court House, doors open left side. Clarendon, doors open right side. Virginia Square George Mason University, doors open right side. Ballston Marymount University, doors open right side. I planned to get off at Ballston, since I was a little early for my arrival at Vienna. Even though I plan my own itinerary up there, I do try to time my arrival at Vienna so that I don't arrive before 11:30 PM. It has to do with parking.

Arriving at Ballston, I noticed that we were coming into the station a lot faster than usual. Then the next thought was, why haven't we stopped? Then next thing I know, I saw the outbound wall of the station and we were back in the tunnel. And we're stopped. I was standing at the last door of the third car. The door is flush with the exit sign in the tunnel just past the station. So we overshot the station and had three cars off the platform. One can almost imagine the perplexed look of the people on the Ballston-MU platform as the train failed to stop at the normal stop position for a four-car train (roughly in the middle of the platform), blew right through the station, and finally stopped with three cars in the tunnel, and only the last car on the platform. Then after a wait, we hear an announcement from the train operator that he would be passing through the train, and not to be alarmed. People were questioning why the operator couldn't back it up from the cab he was in, and I explained to the car that it was easier to change cabs because to reverse the train from the outbound cab, it would sound the train's horn and also require a spotter.

By the way, I was citing "n2deep" on Metroriders on this one, where he said:

A train is never backed from the opposite end. This would require permission from OCC and a flag person on the trailing end giving proceed directions. This will never happen. When a train is manually put into a reverse configuration the train horn will engage and continue to blow until the train is taken out of reverse configuration. I have never seen this procedure used, even in the train yards. It is just easier and safer to go to the opposite end and operate the train back into the station. Central Control never really likes this move because you have a train going in the opposite direction on that track.

Then next thing you know, here comes the train operator, literally running through the train. Once he got settled, we went back into the station, stopped at the correct stop position, and "Doors opening!"

Interestingly enough, due to the way the destination codes are set on the cabs on the different ends of the train, while we were moving back into the station, our train said this:



And that made sense, since the operator was working in the cab where the destination code was set for New Carrollton. Then once we were set in the station, I got off, and saw the train operator running back along the platform to get back to the correct cab. Then the sign changed back to Vienna, and they were off.

I kinda did whatever at Ballston, but mostly took a moment to jot down everything about the overrun while it was still fresh in my mind, including car numbers, and sequence of events.

Oh, by the way, I checked the yesterday's service page for October 26, 2005, and this is what they said:

10:56 p.m. An outbound Orange Line train overran the platform at Ballston but was able to service the station.

Then after finishing at Ballston, my train was on the platform when I got off the elevator. I missed it because my farecard decided to act up at the faregate. I will be glad when Metro finally makes it to where you can use rail passes on your SmarTrip card. Just touch and go. It will make SmarTrip a lot smarter than it currently is.

Since I missed my train, I had to wait 20 minutes for another one. No problem. I played Tetris on my phone while I waited. Then it was off to Vienna, albeit later than I wanted.

All in all, it was a fun day. I love days like those.

Yes, we're spelling it out. You see, every time I talk about the C-A-R on here, I have some sort of mishap with the Previa. But let me tell you, though... that car is a trooper, but parts are starting to go. The radio went in 2000. The air conditioning died in 2002. At some point, a panel on the interior of the door broke loose. The cruise control started a slow death in 2002 or so and now only works when it feels like it. I also recently got a crack in the windshield. And as you saw not long ago, I had to do a quick-fix on a wiper blade (which still works like a charm).

And now, I have no heat. Absolutely NO heat. Last time I got heat out of the car was on April 16 of this year, when Sis and I went up to Washington DC for A16, and needed heat (and didn't get heat until halfway up there because we accidentally forgot to switch it over to heat). Then the warmer months came along and I didn't need the heat. Now it's cold again, and I have no heat at all. I really need a new car, but since I can't afford that, I'm going to have to get it repaired. And that means that I'm going to have to call around to find out who will be willing to look at it and such to get it fixed.

And my rule about going to local businesses is that I don't like going some place where everyone who works there is someone I went to high school with. I don't like getting called "buddy" by people I never particularly cared for. I prefer to go some place where the people don't all know me - makes me feel more like a customer.

Meanwhile, though, I've got a hat and gloves in the car, and so we're certainly ready for the cold.

Otherwise, I had no idea until today that there was a market for costumes for women as ninjas. But presumably there is a good-sized market for it. I was taking a mess of Halloween costumes today at work and sorting through it all and making as complete of costumes as I could with them, and dug up no less than five female ninja costumes. One was a teen-sized costume, and the others were for a younger girl.

And take a look:



That's the smaller costume. And I didn't see a single ninja costume for boys in there. Not a one. All in all, though, interesting. I didn't think girls dressed up as ninjas for Halloween. Guess I was wrong.

Meanwhile, there was also the usual mix of branded costumes we recognize. Batman, Superman, Spider Man, etc. And Jerry Seinfeld put it best, when he said that you put the costume on and you expect to look exactly like Superman. But you really look like you're wearing Superman's pajamas.

I don't know why, but Halloween costumes amuse me.

Meanwhile, I'm going as The Thnikkaman for Halloween. Sis even has the white sunglasses, which I'm borrowing.

What a fun Halloween I had! I spent it where I've spent every single Monday for a very long time - work. However, they let us dress up for Halloween, and I had a real blast, too.

This year, I dressed up as The Thnikkaman, which is a variation of Bubs, who runs Bubs' Concession Stand. All in all, it comes from homestarrunner.com. I love the site, and Thnikkaman was easy to do, too.

All I did was wear an orange "Athletic Works" shirt, my usual black jeans and chucks, and then accessorized it all. I bought some green felt and safety-pinned that around my waist. That made that strange green section on Bubs's outfit. Then to go from just plain old Bubs to The Thnikkaman, I borrowed a pair of sunglasses from my sister that resembled the ones that The Thnikkaman wore in Strong Bad Email #97. Then to finish the outfit, I printed a red "TH" on paper and pinned that to my shirt. And thus we have Thnikkaman. Check out my costume:



And as this was taken at work, yes, that is a Wal-Mart name badge I'm wearing. And then I superimposed my photo on the background of the image of The Thnikkaman from the Homestar Runner Wiki.

Other people besides me also dressed up for Halloween. We had a person dressed up as a flapper girl, one person wore a suit with a wig where the hair went up and down (neat effect), and one person went as their "weekend self", complete with striped toe socks. Then there was also someone who dressed up as a ladybug. I initially mistakenly identified that person as being "the bee". Then we also had an associate who dressed as a radical cheerleader - a black cheerleading dress with red trim, and a red anarchy symbol on the front. Interestingly enough, this cheerleading dress was manufactured like that, unlike "real" radical cheerleaders, whose outfits look homemade. Still, though, it was cute, though somewhat ironic, as the person's a fan of George W. Bush (and a lot of radical cheerleading cheers are anti-Bush).

And now, I'm upstairs hiding from the trick-or-treaters. Tell them hello for me, if you would.