Posts Tagged ‘The T’
Vroom vroom
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My ‘long walk’ day had played out fairly uneventfully, which was awesome and exactly what I was hoping for on a beautiful summery day. No close calls with traffic, random interactions with scary people, or anything like that. Great Pittsburgh day, this.
I made it to the trail along the Monongahela River that leads to that brewery I keep mentioning which sits alongside the CSX subdivision tracks, and was heading towards a bubbly glass of reward for my efforts.
Along the way, I couldn’t help but crack out a few shots of the T Light Rail crossing the river on the Panhandle Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been kept busy by the world of late. Lots of stuff to do, obligations to both worldly and ongoing medical drama, and trying to keep my head above water. Busy, busy, busy. It was really nice to not have a time constraint for this walk and I was enjoying every minute of it.
One continued his scuttle, and made it to the brewery where I took up residence at one of the outdoor tables they maintain. Ordered a Pale Ale, which was ice cold, and started waiting for the railroad show to start.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Didn’t take long.
I’m particularly fond of the shot above, which faithful readers of the Newtown Pentacle will tell you I’ve been working on variations of for a while now. There’s a few past iterations of it that I’ve liked, with similar composition and lighting, which I’ve displayed here in the past – but having the T randomly appear behind the CSX #958 as it was negotiating that curve was pure serendipity.
Back next week with something different.
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Catenaries and atavists
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned that the local transit agency – dubbed ‘PRT’ for ‘Pittsburgh Regional Transit’ – which operates the T light rail service, has been conducting a profound series of repairs and upgrades to the Red Line light rail service which runs through the area that HQ is located in all summer long.
The availability of rail based mass transit is one of the factors which decided where Our Lady of the Pentacle and I would settle, I’d mention.
These repairs have been going on since June, and in lieu of running the T service, rail shuttle buses have been carrying the load instead. Theoretically, the week after Labor Day was meant to see a return of regular T service, but a fallen tree had interrupted things again by pulling down a series of the catenary wires that power the thing. Outbound from Pittsburgh’s center was running fine, but inbound towards the City was blocked by repairs and rewiring.
Sigh. I finally rode on a bus in Pittsburgh, thereby.
The rail shuttle carried my fellow commuters and I via surface streets to the Station Square facility along the Monongahela River, whereupon we were directed onto one of the T platforms to finish our journeys. The other two lines were, and have been, up and running and while waiting for a Blue or Silver line light rail unit to show up at Station Square to carry us the rest of the way, an outbound Red Line caught my eye as it entered the facility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a ‘long walk’ day. The Blue Line T arrived, and deposited me at its terminal stop on Pittsburgh’s North Side, nearby the sportsball stadiums. I was eschewing the headphones on this scuttle for some reason, wanting to pay attention to my surroundings with the whole compliment of built in sensory equipment. My goal was to wander back to more or less the start of this walk at the Station Square T facility.
The North Side is absolutely lovely, despite it having a somewhat ferocious reputation. There were a few spots along a loosely decided upon route that I had in mind, but I had planned in ‘serendipity.’
Serendipity is when you happen across something which you didn’t anticipate on a photowalk, and is a joyous sort of experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As it turns out, there’s a Historic District tucked into the North Side, full of late 19th and very early 20th century structures, a fact which was otherwise unknown to me. It’s called ‘Allegheny West,’ and it’s one of twelve such historic districts in Pittsburgh which receive special attention from the City and the residents who live there. Neat!
I’ll definitely be wandering back through here again, and checking out what’s on display. How the other half lives, indeed.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Corrumpere meum braccas
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Latin title above roughly translates to ‘crapping my pants,’ which is what I was doing while on my way to an eye doctor’s appointment.
Last time around with this particular doc, the conversation included him saying ‘well, you’re lucky that it’s not affecting your vision yet.’
Between the first appointment and this one which Pittsburgh’s Blue Line T light rail was carrying me towards, I had described the diagnosis to another doctor – a Cardiologist – during a checkup earlier in the month. A rather amiable and cheery guy, as far as heart specialists go, he said ‘oh, no problem, I’m just going to adjust your prescriptions’ so just let me know what happens.
A word of advice that I can offer any of you – lords and ladies – regarding the medical establishment, is that you need to transmit your tales to them in some excruciating detail. You are the only connective thread and there is no master file which they refer to. When you are sitting in the paper robe on the bench, the ‘must’ is to transmit the totality of everything you’ve got going on – from the Dentist to the Podiatrist – and you need to do it quick.
I’ve got a 5-7 minute sum up of everything that’s ever happened to me, going back to a tonsillectomy inflicted when I was a six year old, but already quite humble, narrator.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As an aside, the tonsil thing still stays with me, in dreams.
Back in 1973 Brooklyn, it was still common for Doctors to operate out of a private house, and to maintain operating theaters therein for minor procedures. I cannot ever forget having my child head strapped down to a gurney on Farragut Road. A wire meshed mask, with a layer of cotton fitted onto it, was placed over my nose and mouth. Next, Ether was poured from a brown bottle into the cotton, and the world went away until I woke up in the back of the old man’s Plymouth.
I complained about my sore throat in the car on the way home. I was told to suck it up, and that it was stupid for me to think that surgery wouldn’t hurt, and that I should get used to pain because ‘you were put on this earth to suffer.’ Oh, that Mother of mine… so nurturing…
At Waxhaus, my grandmother soon arrived and mixed up some ‘banana mush’ for me – since she knew that’s what Magilla Gorilla would want in such circumstance, and that I kind of had a Magilla Gorilla ‘thing’ going on at the time. (…I later learned the ‘mush’ was milk, sugar, and a banana that she had squished up with a fork…)
The medical condition in question is something which I’m keeping the specifics of to myself, but the worst case scenario stemming from it involves the retina in my right eye being damaged – beyond repair – and blindness springing up in the organ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking strictly as a visual artist – ARGGHHHHH. The only good news would be having a reason to wear an eye patch – which I could definitely pull off mind you – but I really enjoy binocular vision, and the eye I squish the camera against is the one in question, so… ARGGHHHHH.
I was early, as is my habit. Needing a place to sit down for a few minutes before crossing the breech, I spotted a park bench. It just so happened to be on the property of St. Thomas More RC church, but that’s just a coincidence, it was just directly across the street from the medical office building. I wasn’t praying or anything, as a note, just trespassing.
In the end, the Ophthalmologist told me that the condition had lessened in severity since our last meeting, thought to be in no doubt due to the intervening changes in medication which my Cardiologist had instituted. See what I mean about cogently reporting your story to the Docs? It helps in keeping people from sticking hypodermic needles in your eyes.
Back tomorrow, and back to the usual folderol.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Outside, always
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After quaffing an adult beverage at a local brewery, and getting a couple of shots of a passing train, it was time to scuttle back to the T light rail station for my ride back to HQ. This was to be the ultimate T ride home for me, as the next day a prolonged interval of maintenance would begin and the light rail service serving my particular paradigm will be unavailable until autumn. They’re running shuttle buses in the interim, the Governmental Transit agency is, but it ain’t the same for one such as myself.
While shlepping along, I kept on shooting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are three active light rail lines which disperse into Pittsburgh’s South Hills region – red, blue, and silver. The Red one is getting the maintenance attention, and that’s the one which HQ is found along, unfortunately and of course.
As mentioned yesterday, it was ungodly hot out on this particular evening, and I couldn’t help but remark on the fantastic luck of walking in direct sunlight for most of it. Good stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the light rail service station was held in total shadow. Unluckily, the maintenance work, further upstream on the service, saw me cooling my heels there for the better part of an hour waiting for the correct light rail train set to arrive and carry me home. Bah!
The thing finally arrived, and I shoveled my sloppy from sweating pre carcass onboard and found a seat.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Hullabaloo, too
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a ‘get some exercise day’ once again, and a humble narrator executed his now familiar trope of walking to the T light rail station and then heading towards the center of things here in Pittsburgh. There’s a fair amount of maintenance work being performed on the service and the transit people are rerouting the T’s through a largely shuttered facility downtown called ‘Penn Station,’ pictured above.
The drill is to debark the light rail unit you arrived in, cross a street, and then board a shuttle bus. Said bus carries you to two stops away, where you then debark the bus and head down into another light rail station to catch a T, which then travels to the terminal stop on the other side of the Allegheny River nearby the Sportsball stadiums.
The shuttle bus and the T make all the usual station stops along the way, as you’d imagine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Penn Station sits alongside one of Pittsburgh’s ‘Busways,’ which are roadways whose occupancy is singularly restricted to mass transit, municipal, and emergency vehicles. Across the street is what used to be the actual ‘Penn, or Union, Station’ – as in the Pittsburgh HQ station of the Pennsylvania Rail Road company. This beautiful structure, clad in terracotta, has been converted over to luxury residential usage, unfortunately. There’s an Amtrak station alongside of it which now carries the passenger rail slack, but in the past I’ve described the station as looking like a Soviet orthodontist’s office and I’m sticking with that.
After my last long walk went down in flames due to dehydration and a sudden pall of infirmity, as detailed a couple of weeks ago, a humble narrator was determined to push the envelope a little bit on this one to explore the ideation that either it was a temporary thing or that there’s something wrong with me.
As it turned out, that episode seems to have been a one time thing. Yay.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Funnily enough, I felt absolutely top notch for the entirety of this walk, despite the fact that it was about three miles longer than the one which ended with me in bed at 9:30 p.m. feeling sick and old.
The weather was definitely on my side this time around – middle 70’s, with a fairly low dew point, and a steady breeze. The light was absolutely glorious on this particular afternoon, and instead of getting on that shuttle bus, one randomly decided to leave transit behind and get with the scuttling.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 