The Leaky Faucet ...

You know what it's like: you get up a little late, you're falling behind, the time that you should have left home comes and goes without your departure, and later rather than sooner, you're rushing out the door hoping you didn't forget anything too important. Then you have to deal with ETS. Amazingly enough you only have to wait 30 seconds for the bus that's two blocks away to get to your stop. And then there's even a seat for you. Wow, the students must all already be at school! But there are 6 stops between you and the LRT, a long flight of stairs and the you know how unreliable the 'every 5 minutes' rule has been lately. But look! just as you get to the bottom of the second (of three) flights of stairs, a wave of people starts coming up. You know you're almost home-free. You've caught this train, you know, because people down at the other end are still lining up to get on. So you make your way down the train, getting on about halfway because you don't want to tempt fate. Look! there's even an open seat left!

A few minutes later you hear the "train is now leaving the station" electronic doorbell sound, the doors lock and the train lurches, then stops. As you sit there remembering all the times this has happened in the past, you realize that the train may have lurched in the wrong direction. But it was such a small lurch, you can't really be sure. Then the doors unlock and a few stragglers hop on.

Five minutes later, after the LRT operator has run by, jogging to the front of the train, you're still sitting there. Finally when the train does start to roll for a second time, you notice the lights indicating an incoming train other side of the platform. You are stopped again, waiting for that train to clear the tracks. As you get underway, the operator comes on over the intercom and lets you all know that there was some trouble with the train this morning, as well as other trains and the switching gear, and you sit uncomfortably listening to a voice tell you that your main mode of transportation is unreliable.

The apology, however, does make the whole situation much more bearable.