Just got back from taking three of the grand kids to see the BIG RUBBER DUCK in Pittsburgh. I thought it would be fun to take the trolley downtown. The trip into town was uneventful. The BIG RUBBER DUCK was really cool.
Now, the trip back was an experience. First, most of the lights in the trolley went out. Then the train (dare I call it a train?) started to make noise, and began to slow. After a few stops, the operator's communication with the passengers ceased to work.
Another stop, and another transit worker stepped aboard, conferred with the operator, opened an electrical panel, looked around, reset something, and everything shut down. He told the operator to wait a couple of minutes, and try to restart it.
All along the grandkids were asking what was wrong, I told them it was Congress's fault, and the trolley ran out of gas 'cause the government had shut down. They didn't understand, but it brought some laughs from the other passengers.
Finally the train restarted, still no lights or communications, so the new transit guy aboard, told us all to shout out if we wanted to get off at a particular stop. My wife told him where we wanted to go, and he quipped that he hoped we would make it that far.
Well, we got to our stop safely, and the grandkids had a great time.
I guess the point of all of this is to let everyone know that even the big boys sometime run into trouble. It's not just us, who enjoy running, and sometimes not being able to run, our smaller versions.
