The Railroad Has Got Me Trained

The RR has got me trained. I now wake up each and every morning at 3 am. My husband's only been in the railroad business since October, but I've had so many middle-of-the-night phone calls (even when he's out of town, working for the railroad) that my body clock is set. I can't seem to break the habit. This has left me drained.

Of course I am not complaining. I'm not the one going out to scrape ice off the windshield at 3 am to face a 12 hour day. My husband's got it worse for sure. But I DO feel like I am earning every cent my railroad spouse pension.

It's a good thing I was up early this a.m. I turned on the news radio just as my hubby headed out the door, only to hear that the road he was going to take was completely blocked. He would have gotten stuck for an hour or more (at least) on his way to his training. I called him on the cellphone to let him know to not take that route. He could have been SO LATE. And that could have meant that he could have gotten canned.

Also interesting is that today is one of the rarer days when it was feasible to head to work via commuter train. He was actually going to ride the line that he will eventually be assigned to- in order to check out the parking situation, etc. Anyway, that train struck and killed a person today. If the road he was going to drive to the station to board the commuter train had not been blocked due to a serious accident, my husband would have been on that train. A couple of my husband's RR classmates were on that train and saw the a severed leg sticking out from under the train. (I think they were boarding at the station where it occurred. As of this writing, no one has figured out the sex of the victim. It is not yet known if it was an accident or a suicide. It was very icy and windy yesterday, however, and it happened at a commuter station, so it could be that the person was running to catch the train and slipped on the ice. May that person rest in peace.

As for my husband, I am glad that I checked the traffic report before he headed out the door. He was able to change his route, avoid the traffic jam, and take a different route into the city, arriving on time. So I guess checking the traffic report will be a part of the daily routine.