Beautiful moment to share
Feb. 23rd, 2006 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicicadasomething about leaving campus at dusk tends to lead to beautiful situations. i always swear that i will journal them, but by the time i get home, i am so happy to be with my family that these things get pushed to the side. nonetheless, here is my wednesday moment:
***unedited, i'm off to work***
my class gets out at 5:45, the professors are eager to jam in as much video as they can, so often there is a 'yes, we have got to go' moment at the end of class. this is not just the eagerness of students to get out of class, but the fact that the last bus leaves 10-15 minutes after our class gets out. as it can take 5 minutes just to get downstairs and to the stop, there really is no time for chatting. however, once i'm on my way to the stop, i am not so nervous. the bus travels quite slowly on this particular road and often pauses for a while to make sure the timing is correct.
when i arrived at the stop last night, there were only a few other people there. i took this as a sign that a bus had just gone by, but there are other buses and i was fairly sure i was early instead of late. the university ROTC has some kind of gathering on wednesday evenings at the brickyard. i have no idea what they do there, but you can get a good idea of the time by how many dress uniforms you see and where you see them. it was not raining, and barely misting, but there was a fog coming down. the sensation of waking up in fog and seeing it disperse is familiar, but having it come down is somewhat unique. i was resting by the stop quietly waiting for the bus when i heard a machine noise. i listen carefully to these noises because at my other stop there is a good danger of missing the bus which arrives from behind me. i am constantly getting alarmed by construction machinery and so i stop and try to decipher the noise before assuming it is the bus. besides, at this stop i have a good open view. i should have seen the bus. i looked again, no bus, but the sound seemed to be coming from the other direction. it sounded like something moving but loud, and getting louder like a force of something large arriving. it was much too loud to be a piece of pneumatic equipment of any type. what could it be that made construction equipment seem so puny. i think i remembered and saw the light at the same time. imagine this, buildings on one side, a two lane road, on the other side a simple wood bench with a bus stop, parking along both sides. about ten feet beyond the bench is a very tall fence covered in vines separating the campus from the train tracks which run through it.
the entire campus is bisected by train tracks. it can be irritating, but there are tunnels, overpasses and underpasses and the tracks are very well separated from casual traffic. it seems appropriate for a technology school which also has a large business department, and even a few poets tucked here and there. but back to the light, it shone through the fog and the train was going to slowly that i was actually able to wave to the conductor. i've been on trains. i know they see everything no matter how small. i must have watched 20 or thirty cars go by, reading their equipment numbers and trying to decipher all their markings. occasionally there was a louder ka-thunk-chunk from one of the cars and i wondered if that meant the wheels needed to be repaired or if it was the connections between trains - i do work at a train co, after all. it was so slow that it was even more magnificent than usual, and yet i could tell it was partially the size which made it seem slow. it was probably still going 20-30 mph. the bus came while i was still watching the train and i got on, but watched the train until the bus traveled away from the tracks. but remember, i said the train was going slow? i was watching when we got to the overpass and there it was, slow as grace, again i saw its front lights slipping through the fog.
i made my way to my car, left campus and headed home on hillsborough, which runs in front of campus. at one of the stoplights the left turn signal is the special kind which can show multiple messages. when i stopped at the light, it was showing, 'NO LEFT TURN - TRAIN' - damn straight that's a good reason to yield. i waited wondering if it was going to be the freight train yet again, nope, but it was another old friend, the amtrak train. jeff and i have ridden on it twice, and despite the fact that it has been over 6 hrs late getting us to our destination, i still wish i had been on that train. i am sure the appearance of the amtrak train had something to do with the freight train going so slow. if it was on an alternate track, it was probably marking time until it could get back on the main drag. i also know from riding amtrak before that would mean that the amtrak train was running on time - another reason to cheer. after the train passed, i rounded the vet school watching the cows quietly grazing in the mist, then off again home to my little family.
i am always torn, no matter how beautiful the sites, i want to be home. i was so ridiculously happy to be home it was painful to pause to get my backpack out of the car.
***unedited, i'm off to work***
my class gets out at 5:45, the professors are eager to jam in as much video as they can, so often there is a 'yes, we have got to go' moment at the end of class. this is not just the eagerness of students to get out of class, but the fact that the last bus leaves 10-15 minutes after our class gets out. as it can take 5 minutes just to get downstairs and to the stop, there really is no time for chatting. however, once i'm on my way to the stop, i am not so nervous. the bus travels quite slowly on this particular road and often pauses for a while to make sure the timing is correct.
when i arrived at the stop last night, there were only a few other people there. i took this as a sign that a bus had just gone by, but there are other buses and i was fairly sure i was early instead of late. the university ROTC has some kind of gathering on wednesday evenings at the brickyard. i have no idea what they do there, but you can get a good idea of the time by how many dress uniforms you see and where you see them. it was not raining, and barely misting, but there was a fog coming down. the sensation of waking up in fog and seeing it disperse is familiar, but having it come down is somewhat unique. i was resting by the stop quietly waiting for the bus when i heard a machine noise. i listen carefully to these noises because at my other stop there is a good danger of missing the bus which arrives from behind me. i am constantly getting alarmed by construction machinery and so i stop and try to decipher the noise before assuming it is the bus. besides, at this stop i have a good open view. i should have seen the bus. i looked again, no bus, but the sound seemed to be coming from the other direction. it sounded like something moving but loud, and getting louder like a force of something large arriving. it was much too loud to be a piece of pneumatic equipment of any type. what could it be that made construction equipment seem so puny. i think i remembered and saw the light at the same time. imagine this, buildings on one side, a two lane road, on the other side a simple wood bench with a bus stop, parking along both sides. about ten feet beyond the bench is a very tall fence covered in vines separating the campus from the train tracks which run through it.
the entire campus is bisected by train tracks. it can be irritating, but there are tunnels, overpasses and underpasses and the tracks are very well separated from casual traffic. it seems appropriate for a technology school which also has a large business department, and even a few poets tucked here and there. but back to the light, it shone through the fog and the train was going to slowly that i was actually able to wave to the conductor. i've been on trains. i know they see everything no matter how small. i must have watched 20 or thirty cars go by, reading their equipment numbers and trying to decipher all their markings. occasionally there was a louder ka-thunk-chunk from one of the cars and i wondered if that meant the wheels needed to be repaired or if it was the connections between trains - i do work at a train co, after all. it was so slow that it was even more magnificent than usual, and yet i could tell it was partially the size which made it seem slow. it was probably still going 20-30 mph. the bus came while i was still watching the train and i got on, but watched the train until the bus traveled away from the tracks. but remember, i said the train was going slow? i was watching when we got to the overpass and there it was, slow as grace, again i saw its front lights slipping through the fog.
i made my way to my car, left campus and headed home on hillsborough, which runs in front of campus. at one of the stoplights the left turn signal is the special kind which can show multiple messages. when i stopped at the light, it was showing, 'NO LEFT TURN - TRAIN' - damn straight that's a good reason to yield. i waited wondering if it was going to be the freight train yet again, nope, but it was another old friend, the amtrak train. jeff and i have ridden on it twice, and despite the fact that it has been over 6 hrs late getting us to our destination, i still wish i had been on that train. i am sure the appearance of the amtrak train had something to do with the freight train going so slow. if it was on an alternate track, it was probably marking time until it could get back on the main drag. i also know from riding amtrak before that would mean that the amtrak train was running on time - another reason to cheer. after the train passed, i rounded the vet school watching the cows quietly grazing in the mist, then off again home to my little family.
i am always torn, no matter how beautiful the sites, i want to be home. i was so ridiculously happy to be home it was painful to pause to get my backpack out of the car.