Monday 8 February 2010

Suicidal tendencies

Suicide is selfish. It's also tragic. This post may be a bit
controversial, so of this is a sensitive topic for you, please don't
read any further.
On Wednesday morning, the train ground to a halt 10 minutes after
setting off. It was ostensibly due to points failure. I didn't have
any appointments first thing, so I was happy to muse on the beauty of
sheep huddling on the snow covered fields during the temporary delay.
Turns out that "points failure" was code for something far more
sinister creating hours of travel chaos.
If you're planning on killing yourself, please don't chuck yourself in
front of a train to do it. My normal 2 hour commute took nearly 5
because some guy decided to leap in front of a freight train. The poor
train driver and people on the platform had to witness the gruesome
sight of body parts everywhere. Thousands of people were late for
work, missed meetings, job interviews, and even had holidays ruined
because they missed flights. It took most of the day to sort out the
aftermath.
On top of that, it snowed in the afternoon, bringing other forms of
transportation to a halt. I left my house at 6:45am and didn't get
back until 9pm and had to hike nearly 3 miles in the snow to get
there. Neither a happy nor productive day. Thank goodness for podcasts
and fellow travellers with equally macabre senses of humour. We all
agreed that if the train hadn't killed that guy, we would have.

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