Wednesday, November 4

Non-extraordinary

Today was one of those totally unexceptional days in commuting terms.  There’s really very little to say about it.  The shuttle was on time at Medford, and the 7:04 from Ronkonkoma to Penn was busier than yesterday but not what I’d call crowded.  No one was sitting next to me by the time we left the station, but I figured that someone was bound to take the seat.  Sure enough, a non-SCA man took it at Deer Park, fortunately he wasn’t especially large and made no attempts at infringing into my space.  I got more reading done and the ride went by quickly enough.  About the only negative note was that we arrived on Track 14 at Penn, and another train arrived across the platform at Track 13 moments later.  This platform has narrower staircases and escalators than some of the others, so there was a bit of a human traffic jam trying to get off.  Just like yesterday, I missed a 3 train by seconds, but again just like yesterday another train (a 2) came along within a couple of minutes.

Due to some work pressures I actually cut it fairly close getting to Penn in time for the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma.  I made it to Park Place around 5:15, and thanks to a nonworking escalator missed a 2 train by seconds.  Fortunately a 3 came along shortly after and I made it onto the 5:41 no problem.  It was an M-3 consist, though I couldn’t get a single seat.  An SCA sat next to me, amazingly he was non-elephantine, and in any event got off at Hicksville.  I continued my progress through The Making of the Atomic Bomb, now up to the first chain reaction in 1942, and we got to Ronkonkoma and the shuttle on time.

Gym: a quick session, a 2-mile run on the treadmill at 5.4 mph.

 

Tuesday, November 3

Summer in November

No, not the weather … today’s ridership levels were lighter than usual, almost at summertime levels.  Presumably it was because today was Election Day.  The shuttle was on time at Medford, or at most a couple minutes late, and I then got the 7:04 from Ronkonkoma to Penn.  It was an M-3 consist, though I wasn’t able to get a single seat.  What with the light ridership I had some hopes that the seat next to me would stay empty the whole way.  This turned out to be incorrect, as a non-SCA 30ish man took the next seat at Farmingdale, but he wasn’t large or annoying and I had an easy enough ride.  None of the middle seats were taken as far as I could tell, which is unusual except during summer months.  We got into Penn on time, and though I missed a 3 train by mere seconds another one came by in just a couple of minutes and wasn’t at all crowded.  I actually had a seat from 14th to Fulton.

Another uncrowded subway ride after work, this time on a 2 from Park Place, followed by a relatively uncrowded 5:41 to Ronkonkoma.  Once again I briefly had hopes of an empty adjoining seat all the way, but an older man took the seat just as the doors were closing.  He was perhaps a wee bit wider than I would have preferred, but within the tolerable range, and in any event he got off at Hicksville.  As in the morning I spent most of the ride reading, and I’ve now passed the halfway point of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, right up to Pearl Harbor.  As you might have gathered, this is not quick reading!  We got to Ronkonkoma and the shuttle right on time.

Gym: I did some deadlifting today, nothing too much, not that I was trying for anything.  8 x 225, 8 x 255, 6 x 275, 6 x 295.  I also did quite a few dips, 6 x 12 x bodyweight, the first three sets having been before the deadlifts and the other three afterwards.  I had wanted to try some weighted dips, but naturally the dip belt was nowhere to be found.

Monday, November 2

The Look – no, the Move of Love

Once nice thing about the end of Daylight Savings Time is that it also marks the end of a weeks-long stretch during which I had to leave the house in the dark each morning.  Being able to leave in the daylight this morning made a Monday definitely more tolerable than otherwise would be the case.  After a couple of late days last week the shuttle was right on time at Medford this morning.  When we got to Ronkonkoma the platform was quite crowded, so I knew that the 7:04 to Penn would be crowded too.  When it pulled up to the platform and I saw it was using M-7’s, I had to make a quick decision whether to take it or wait for the 7:19, as I’d seen an M-3 consist in the yards.  At almost the last minute I decided to go for the 7:04, figuring that the odds were fairly good that the 7:19 would also be using M-7’s.  If there had been two or three M-3 consists in the yards it might have been a different story.  The 7:04 filled up quickly, with the seat next to me being taken less than a minute after I sat down.  The person who took it was the woman I’ve sat next to a couple of times who writes in a strange language on her Black Berry, the language I had figured was possible Indonesian or a Roman-alphabet transliteration of a South Asian language such as Tamil or Bengali.  It turns out the latter was the case, as she was reading something in English and I caught a glimpse of the term “Lord Vishnu.”  All I could think of was Apu’s invocation “by the many arms of Vishnu.”  In any event, the car filled up quickly, with standees by Farmingdale, but at least there were no delays.  Once at Penn I found to my dismay that the recent deterioration of service on the 2/3 line continues apace.  I waited several minutes on a crowded platform, only to be unable to board the 3 that finally arrived because it was so jammed.  A 2 was a minute or so behind it, yet it was jammed too. This time I somehow wedged onboard for a slow, generally miserable ride to Fulton.

Things were better after work.  I waited under a minute for a 3 at Park Place and it was crowded but within tolerability limits.  Two women standing near me were discussing their upcoming participation in a triathalon, it was a bit surprising because neither one looked especially athletic.  I got to Penn in plenty of time for the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma, and had a rather unusual experience.  Shortly after I took a seat a woman of about 35 sat down next to me.  Within 10 or 15 seconds she got up and sat in the aisle seat of the row directly behind me.  This was not a classic Look of Love situation, first of all because she didn’t really look at me, second because she was already fully seated when she got up (in the classic LoL the woman’s rump never actually contacts the seat).  What in the world was it about me that caused her to move?  There was enough room, we never made any physical contact, and I was sitting quietly reading and not squirming or anything.  Nor did she appear to know the younger woman who was occupying the window seat in the aisle behind me.  You can imagine the worries which arose.  Do I look weird or anything? What made it even harder to figure out was the fact that she never really got a clear look at me.  Whatever the case, I was filled with dread, certain – certain! – that an elephantine SCA would take the newly vacated seat and turn the trip into a living nightmare.  Thankfully that did not come to pass.  A reasonably sized 40ish man took the seat, and got off in Hicksville.  I had an easy enough ride, as in the morning spent reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb (I’m now up to 1940 and the discovery of plutonium).  We got to Ronkonkoma and the shuttle right on time, though I noticed on the electric schedule signs that the chronically late 7:11 (the 5:53 out of Penn) was living true to form today, being reported as 11 minutes late.  Chances are that means at least 20 minutes.

Gym: I did just a few pull=ups today, going back to the customary hands-facing-away grip.  1 x 6, 4 x 4.  I then ran two miles on the treadmill at 5.4 mph.

Sunday, November 1

Whew.  A full-body session that went very well, except at the end.  I began with trap bar deadlifts, which for the time being I’ve settled upon as a substitute for squats.  Not that I dislike squats, but I like doing trap bar deadlifts more, and as they’re a reasonable alternative to squats I’ll probably stick with them for a while.  And I certainly did quite a few today: 8 x 225, 8 x 265, 6 x 285, 6 x 305, 4 x 315, 6 x 275, 8 x 255.  That’s 46 total reps, most definitely a lot for this particular exercise.  Next, I did some pull-ups, for variety’s sake going back to the neutral grip version instead of the hands-facing-away version I’ve been doing: 1 x 8, 3 x 6.  Neutral grips definitely are easier than the other version, probably because there’s more bicep involvement.  Next came dips, 4 x 12 x bodyweight.  The down note came at the end, when I tried SLDL’s.  A first attempt at 225 went nowhere, as did some experiments with successively lighter weights.  I finally was able to do some at a pathetic 145 pounds, 4 x 8 x 145.  Almost certainly that was because of all the trap bar deadlifts.  Even at such a light weight it’s better than nothing and I should be able to handle my usual amounts next time.

Saturday, October 31

Not much of a session today.  All I did was run two miles on the treadmill at 5.4 mph, no weights.  When I arrived at about 6 the gym was nearly deserted. Saturday evenings are quiet at the best of times, and today was Halloween, and when I arrived there were only two other patrons in the gym.

Friday, October 30

At least it wasn’t cold

It was a bit surprising that the usually reliable shuttle was ten minutes late at Medford this morning.  The automatic PA announcement was reporting it to be on time, so I went up to the platform a couple minutes before its scheduled time.  The locomotive headlight can be seen a couple miles off to the east when it approaches, but this morning there was nothing to see.  Had it been colder I would have returned to my car to wait, but it was just warm enough that I figured I’d stay on the platform.  It got into Ronkonkoma just about 7, and the 6:56 to Flatbush Avenue had already departed.  The 7:04 to Penn made stops at Hicksville and Mineola to accommodate any shuttle riders heading to those stop, as the 6:56 makes them but the 7:04 normally does not.  What I don’t understand is why the dispatchers didn’t hold the 6:56 for an extra five minutes until the shuttle arrived.  Having the 7:04 make extra stops made it that late, or almost that late, and it’s a busier train than the 6:56.  Go figure.  In any event, I had a decent enough ride, with a 50ish woman taking the seat next to me at Deer Park.  It was a bit distracting because her hair (surely dyed) was a sort of purplish-red color that most definitely does not occur in nature.  If it had been a bit more garish she might have been on her way to an office Halloween party, but despite its odd shade it was too subdued to be part of a costume.  I just can’t figure out what led her to choose such a peculiar hue.  Mulling this over didn’t distract me from reading, as I made decent progress in The Making of the Atomic Bomb. I’m up to the point in 1938 and 1939 where some of the scientists are trying to get the U.S. government involved, aware that newly discovered nuclear fission may be used for weapons, but of course the government bureaucrats can’t grasp that point.  Sounds like the same sort of cluelessness that now characterizes LIRR management.  Some things never change, do they?  In any event, we got into Penn about five minutes late thanks to the aforementioned extra stops, however the wait for a 2 train to Park Place was less than a minute and the train wasn’t all that crowded.

More good luck on the subway after work, with a short wait for a 2 at Park Place and again not much crowding.  The 5:41 to Ronkonkoma seemed pretty jammed, with plenty of SCA’s in sight, fortunately an older man of normal size sat next to me and left me with sufficient room.  He was traveling with his wife, who was in the seat directly in front of him, and while they talked quite a bit my iPod came to the rescue.  I got more reading done, and we were in Ronkonkoma right on time.  Unlike the morning, the shuttle was on time too.

Gym: a 3-mile run on the treadmill at 54 mph.

Thursday, October 29

Thank God for the M-3’s

I had another chance today to go in a bit later, but unlike Tuesday I was totally worn out and could barely drag myself to Ronkonkoma station. for the 7:32 to Penn.  When I got there about 7:15 the parking lot was considerably less crowded than it had been at 7:25 on Tuesday.  To some extent this may be attributable to the fact that it was ten minutes earlier, and to some extent to day-to-day ridership variation.  Logically, ridership should be about the same on a Thursday as on a Tuesday, but for whatever reason it doesn’t always work out that way.  In any event, I was especially dreading the thought of being squashed next to an elephantine SCA, and grimly noted that there were quite a few such specimens waiting on the platform.  Oh, no.  You can imagine my elation when an M-3 consist pulled into the station.  Even though the crowding would make getting a single seat an unlikely achievement, the slightly wider M-3 seats would give me some degree of protection against the SCA Squash.  It actually turned out not to be necessary, as an average sized 30-something woman took the next seat at Deer Park.  The car was pretty close to SRO by the time we got to Jamaica, but there were no delays and I waited under 30 seconds for a 3 train to Fulton.

I repeated Tuesday’s action and worked through lunch hour so I’d have a chance at getting the gloriously uncrowded 5:01 to Ronkonkoma.  No trouble getting to Penn on time, as a 2 train arrived at Park Place just as I did.  It was fairly crowded, mostly because of a rather loud group of 15 or 20 people traveling together.  They got off at 14th, in what looked like an exodus from a burning building or something; my guess is that they weren’t regular riders and didn’t realize that the doors remain open long enough at stops that there’s no trouble getting off in time.  To my surprise, the 5:01 was busier than it’s usually been, at least in my limited experience.  I walked back three or four cars from the head of the train and all of them were at least two-thirds full.  Finally, I took the aisle seat on the 3-across side, a big risk on an M-7, figuring that it was just a minute or so before departure and the chances that someone would take the middle seat were slim … though if anyone did take the middle seat he probably wouldn’t be slim!  Fortuantely no one did, and I had an easy enough ride to Ronkonkoma.  Having finished the first of three sections of  The Making of the Atomic Bomb, I took a break from reading and played some Tetris for the first time in over a week.  Not with much luck, alas.

Gym: a (very much needed) day off

Wednesday, October 28

Day off work today, as I try to use up vacation days before the end of the year.  In the morning I went to the local DMV office to renew my car registration.  It was nowhere near as gruesome an experience as I had been fearing, in fact it was not crowded at all and I was done in less than 30 minutes.  At around 5:30 I went to the gym and had a long and almost brutal session.  To start with, I got the 10 x 4 on pull ups that I hadn’t been able to make last time, as before with a set of six to start: 1 x 6, 10 x 4.  As far as I know 46 total reps on this pull-up version is a  record.  Next came deadlifts, and plenty of them: 6 x 225, 6 x 265, 6 x 295, 4 x 315, 6 x 275, 6 x 255, 6 x 225.  Forty total reps, not a record for deadlifts but still pretty good.  I then ran one mile on the treadmill at 5.4 mph, and finished up the session with dips, 5 x 12 x bodyweight.

Tuesday, October 27

The magnificent emptiness of the 5:01

Today was one of the relatively rare days when I had the chance to go into work a bit later than usual.  I drove to Ronkonkoma for the 7:32 to Penn, pulling into the south side parking lot around 7:25.  It was immediately apparent that summer is over.  Summer brings lighter ridership, and one glance at the lot showed that ridership sure wasn’t light.  Only the last few rows closest to the woods on the east side of the lot still had spaces.  I found one without too much difficulty and boarded the third car from the end of the consist. It was somewhere above half-full when we left Ronkonkoma and SRO by the time we reached Jamaica.  As is normal for the 7:32 the SCA count was relatively low, ridership being about a 50-50 mixture of women and normal men.  A tall but fortunately not wide man of about 30 took the seat next to me at Deer Park and, unlike the schmuck yesterday afternoon, made no attempts to infringe on my (already minimal) space.  It’s amazing how some people can be so much more polite than others. I spent most of the ride reading, and unlike yesterday there were no delays. Also unlike yesterday, the 2/3 line was back to its usual reliability.  I waited just a couple of minutes for a 3 train to Fulton and the crowding wasn’t too bad.

I worked through lunch with hopes of getting the 5:01 to Ronkonkoma.  A fairly lengthy wait for a 3 at Park Place almost scuttled those hopes, but I made it onboard the 5:01 just as the door-closing chime was sounding.  I was in the second car closest to the head of the consist, in other words at the end of the train where boardings are heaviest.  In almost any other Ronkonkoma train that car would have been packed, even if there were ample seats toward the end of the train.  Not on the 5:01.  I would guess that only about a third of the seats were occupied, which means that the cars at the other end of the train must have been growing cobwebs or something.  A few more people boarded at Woodside and Jamaica, but not many, and needless to say I had a very nice ride to Ronkonkoma with no one sitting next to me.  As I’ve noted, the 5:01 still exists only by virtue (so to speak) of the incompetence of LIRR management.  If the managers had an average I.Q. score even close to the three-digit mark they would’ve canceled the underused 5:01 months or even years ago.  But stupidity reigns in the corner offices, and I’ll take advantage of that fact whenever I can leave early enough to make the 5:01.

Gym: my left wrist was a bit sore, probably from the other day’s dips, so I decided to skip weights for the day and instead ran another two miles on the treadmill at 5.4 mph.

Monday, October 26

I could have done without today

It would be an exaggeration to say that today was a bad day.  I’ve experienced much worse, long delays and SCA crushings and all that, and today didn’t rise (sink?) to that level.  Nonetheless, it was a collection of low-grade annoyances that added up to a relatively poor overall experience.  The shuttle was on time at Medford, no complaints there, and the 7:04 from Ronkonkoma to Penn wasn’t too crowded at first.  It filled up gradually at the following stops, and in particular with a rather chubby woman of about 30 – I’m using “chubby” in an euphemistic sense – who sat next to me at Farmingdale.  It wasn’t a terrible squeeze or anything, not like the SCA horror show of March 11, and it was primarily her squishy rump tissue that flowed to the side and into me, but it wasn’t all that pleasant either.  Call it, say, a C+ or B-. We were about ten minutes late getting into Penn, most of the delay spent either at a dead stop or going very slowly in the Woodside area.  What made the situation annoying is that it was impossible to make out what the conductor was saying over the PA.  After only a few years in service many of the M-7 cars have poorly functioning or non-functioning PA systems.  I later found out that there were some problems with an Amtrak train in the tunnels.  After we got into Penn I made my wait to the 2/3 platform … and waited a long time for the next train.  It had to be close to ten minutes, of course the station PA didn’t announce anything.  When a 3 finally arrived it was hugely crowded and I just barely squeezed onboard.  The ride to Fulton seemingly took forever, with long door-closing delays at 14th and Chambers.  It’s somewhat disconcerting that the “old reliable” 2/3 line has been running into more and more delays in the past couple weeks.

I had another very crowded subway ride after work, this time on a 2 from Fulton, fortunately the wait was only a couple minutes.  As in the morning I spent the ride jammed up to people on all sides and barely able to move.  I was hoping that the 5:41 to Ronkonkoma would offer a pleasant ride, but that proved not to be the case thanks to a large non-SCA man who plopped next to me.  He wasn’t so much fat as just big overall, and barely fit into the allotted space.  He tried to muscle into my space to provide room for his meaty right arm, but I was having none of that.  I kept my left elbow pointed so that it poked into his side whenever he tried to push against me.  It was easy to tell that he was getting annoyed.  After about ten minutes he threw in the metaphorical towel and positioned himself so that he sort of leaned over the armrest on his left (aisle) side and kept contact with me to a minimum.  I finally was able to get back to my reading, and combined with some reading in the morning I’m now about 250 pages into The Making of the Atomic Bomb, up to about the mid-1930’s.  There fortunately were no delays, and the shuttle was on time too.

Gym: a 3-mile run on the treadmill at 5.4 mph.