Last Updated on: 9th January 2022, 10:28 am
We took a train yesterday to meet some of Steve’s family at a spot half-way between us and them. We got to the station really early, partly because we took the bus there and buses only run every half-hour, and partly because the train got delayed. Here were some of the things we saw or noticed.
Ok, how come two blind folks cannot find the ring for service bell? Seriously. We walked into the station, and there was nobody at the counter. We stood there for a minute, and I was really close to calling Via Rail and asking them to put me through to the Guelph train station because I didn’t know how else I would get the attention of the person behind the counter. We thought there *must* be a bell, so we both looked for it. Neither of us could find the bloody bell!
Eventually, the person would notice us and come help us, but if we could find the damn bell, it would make things a lot easier and a lot more dignified than a couple of blinks standing there like dorks, molesting a counter in search of some way of signalling the station folks.
What was really funny was as soon as we either gave up or got the help we needed and went back to our seats, someone would get up, walk over, and ring the damn bell. Why couldn’t someone come along when *we* were looking for the bell? We eventually joked that the bell was taunting us.
Guess who was working the station yesterday? The same lady who helped the shoe thief and I get to Anton’s play. It was nice to see her again under better circumstances.
Here’s a new thing somebody said to me because of Trixie. There appeared to be a bum sitting in the train station. The guy looked over at us and seriously started going, “Hey dog! Hey dog! Hey dog! Hey dog!” I eventually started to wonder if he was saying “Hey, doll!” So, as much as I didn’t want to respond to “doll”, I didn’t want him to keep yelling, so I said, “pardon,” at which point he seriously started going, “Will he eat me? Will he eat me? Will he eat me?” Ok, he was talking about the dog. Alrighty then.
There is one very patient dad in Guelph, that’s for sure, but I thought he was going to lose it at the end. He and 3 small kids were at the train station, and appeared to be waiting for his wife. The kids were having a grand old time, running around the station, smacking coke machines and pay phones and being silly little kids. Because of the number of times he had to tell them to stop, I knew all their names. But he was amazingly calm. I was starting to get worried, though, when he went over to grab one of his kids, and took him back to the seats. When the words, “Seriously, sit!” come out of his mouth, you know the patience is running thin.
I love it when I hear something out of context. I think the funniest conversation snippets I heard were:
Dad: Don’t bounce on her when she’s down there.
Kid: Why?
Dad: Because that’ll hurt, she’s on concrete.
then there was “If you guys don’t settle down, we’re going to go back outside. Or “Don’t hit the machine.”
The train came in with mommy on it. I think daddy was very happy to see her.
We finally got on the train, and met a very nice lady working there who helped us get to our seats. She made sure we didn’t get left behind, which was awesome, and she wanted to take care of us…but she did one hilarious thing. Every single time she passed us, she would smack Steve on the shoulder before talking to us. I guess she wanted to make sure we knew she was talking to us, but couldn’t she just ask us our names? She also was soooo scared that we were going to fall off the train when getting off. Relax. Breathe, breathe, breathe. It’s ok. We’ll be fine. Ah, but she was a sweet lady. She meant well. I’d prefer that to being left behind and having to yell for help any day.
And that’s about it. It was a pretty smooth trip.
