Thursday, November 02, 2006

Further Estuary Adventures

There was almost no possibility of a walk this morning, but I got one in anyway, barely getting drizzled on between cloudbursts. I started this project in the summer, when it doesn’t rain here, so I’m going to have to get used to rain slowing down my progress.

It didn’t stop me today, though. I took a very surreal walk down by the railroad tracks and discovered some sort of BART rail yard/equipment graveyard. There was a grimy contraption, so covered in what looks like soot that I thought it was a steam engine for a minute. It had lettering on it that I could barely see through the grime that cautioned that the vehicle was some kind of grinding machine—it was on a siding, and I wonder if it’s the thing they roll over the tracks at night to even out the rails and cut down on noise.

There was also a funny little abandoned mini-bus parked there, very faded and dirty. It had a manically happy smiley face painted on it, and it was tricked out to look like a BART car. I think I’ve seen a more modern version at BART promotional events (Pipi used to work for them), but this looked like what might happen if you dropped acid on public transportation. It looked so happy, yet so bleak sitting there in the rain where it looks like someone left it during the Carter administration. That alone made the walk worthwhile.

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