Morning Commute

So a lot of people are almost horrified when I start to describe my daily commute, and when I normally go up in the morning to go to work… While I usually explain in broad strokes on how my travel is, I’d thought it be interesting to go into a bit more details, hence today’s post.

06:05:

Mleh! First alarm goes off (a series of 2 more to be expected if I miss the first one) and hopefully I’m awake enough to zombie out to the bathroom for the normal stuff.

I won’t bore you with the details of my morning routine, but if you have met me, most likely it does not involve shaving… I’d be way to scared handling a blade in the morning when I’m still in Zombie mode. I want my skin to be not horribly disfigured, thank you very much!

06:48ish:

Out of the door after hugging my daughter goodbye (if she’s awake)… rushing to get to the first bus stop 50 meters (or is it more than 50? Can never judge distances…) before the bus arrives around 06:55ish. The bus takes a grand tour of the eastern side (I think it’s east – mental note: check compass direction on Google Earth) of St-Jerome before getting to the train station (Gare Intermodale – look mom! I know French! Woot!) at about 07:18.

07:25:

Train departs from the station… funny how we had to wait more than 7 years for the train to be pulled up to St-Jerome only to have four (!) departures in the morning down to Montreal (FOUR!!) with the last one being the one I take. WTF! So you would proably say “But you then have 4 in the evening going down, right?”. Nope! Wrong-O! De-nied! It’s four trains transporting you down to Montreal in the morning and five that transport you back up to St-Jerome. If you go all the way up to St-Jerome, don’t expect to be able to get on the train in St-Jerome to go back down to Montreal, cause the train is just off loading and then travels down the track to park for the night. Again – WTF?

08:14ish:

By now, (hopefully) the train has arrived at Bois-de-Boulogne and I will have jumped off (Only missed the stop twice, embarrassing to say the least) and started running to the stop. I say running, cause usually the 171 will be passing by with 3 busses between 8:14 and 8:28, provided the drivers are not competing in the STM Rally, in which case they all arrive almost at the same time and you can just bet your wallet content on the annoying fact that they will drop off their load and leave before I make it to the stop. If I’m lucky, I’ll make it just in time for the 8:18 and get a seat somewhere, hopefully not next to the 400pound old man that sings to himself in a way that makes you wonder if he knows English to begin with (and yes, apparently he s from Israel, and was a real bad-ass when he was there – if you would believe the story he tells to the poor drivers he starts to talk to).

08:42ish on a good day:

If this has been a good morning, I’ll arrive before the 216 departs from Cote-Vertu Metro station… which makes the rest of the travel to the office REALLY painless. It essentially stops outside the office which tends to be nice when it’s pouring down and you forgot your umbrella (again).

08:58ish on a good day:

Arrived! Coffee!! Anti-Zombie Drug #1, double shot Espresso, 3 cream, 3 sugar in my trusted stainless steel mug.

And so begins my morning, with hopefully no major issues to deal with in the first 15 minutes of De-Zombie-fication… and make sure you don’t stand in my way for a second cup if it’s a really tough morning. :)