TuttleTree.com

Last night (Some server trouble meant that I couldn't post this on Friday morning when I tried… so THURSDAY night) I had what I would call a less than stellar commute home from work. There were a couple of factors at play; namely that it was a Philly CFUG meeting night (so I was staying later than normal anyway), and a wicked storm blew through the region in the late afternoon. The Phillies game was paused due to the storm — here's a video. The fun starts around 1:30. Surprisingly, the storm blew through in about an hour and shortly after that they were back on the field, and it was bright and sunny again.

In some areas, this storm pelted the area with roughly 1-inch diameter hail, and it snapped even green tree branches just about everywhere there were trees. This meant that, as per usual, there would be downed trees across my lifeline home, the R5 train line westbound from Philly to Thorndale.

I remember thinking a few weeks ago that SEPTA (South Eastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority) — the Philadelphia equivalent to Washington's MTA — might have finally gotten their act together. It had been what seemed like months since I was on a seriously delayed or broken-down train, and for the most part I was getting to work and back home on time. That's what I get for thinking, right?  All it took was one bad storm to remind me just how awful the SEPTA management really is.

I knew that the storm would cause delays and there was no telling what the train schedule would be, so I didn't rush to get to the train station, I just went at a casual pace but got there as soon as I could. What follows is the notes from the rest of my night…

7:40pm
Arrived at 30th Street Station, not knowing which train I would be catching home. I expected delays and off-schedule trains due to the bad weather, but the next train listed for my stop — Thorndale — isn't scheduled for another 50 minutes, and is running 30 minutes late (so a total 80 minute wait). Hooray!

8:09pm
I let the 7:49 local to Malvern (which was running 20 minutes late) come and go, because that's only part of the way home, and we didn't want Megan to have to get Dylan out of bed to come pick me up. About 2 minutes later, I overheard a septa employee talking to another passenger and explain that there is a tree down and no R5 trains are getting past Malvern. Great timing! Now the next train isn't for another HOUR!

8:45pm
I caught the scheduled 8:29pm train (which was delayed), and was informed that it would be going all the way to Thorndale. Hooray!

9:55pm
Our train stopped between Malvern and Exton, and we were informed by a conductor that we would not be continuing on to Exton; that we would have to go back to Malvern. Everyone onboard groans. I called Megan and let her know; and since we're both running low on phone battery, we don't chat long. We agree that she'll get Dylan up and get on the road in the right direction while I look up directions, and then she'll call me back for the directions to the train station.

10:20pm
The train hasn't moved yet. The engineer informed us of basically the same facts over the P.A. system: We've got to go back to Malvern, but apparently they're down to 1 working track and there are several trains in line to use it to go back; so we're just going to have to wait our turn. Meanwhile, we can see a train or two shuffling around outside, and by now it's pitch black outside. We could have walked back to Malvern by now.

10:30pm
Megan just called to let me know she's at Malvern train station waiting for me. We still haven't moved an inch. Starting to feel like a hostage. The emergency exit has never looked so tempting.

10:35pm
We still haven't moved. We were just told that we will be following an Amtrak train up to Thorndale. He specifically used the word "promise" that we would get there. I'm torn on whether or not to send Megan home. How many times have they changed the story now? And because of this, Megan had to get Dylan out of bed, perhaps for no reason. I decided not to call her and send her home until we start moving in the right direction. The last thing I want to do is send her home and then make her come BACK out. Keeping her there for no reason is only a slightly better option, but slightly better is better. Slightly.

10:45pm
Still haven't moved an inch, in either direction. Some of the other passengers have resorted to cannibalism. Luckily I don't look that tasty. Scrawny pale white boy for the win.

10:55pm
We're moving, but in the wrong direction (back toward Malvern). It may be in order to switch tracks so that we can head toward Thorndale, but I suppose anything is better than sitting in perpetuity between stations.

10:58pm
We stopped again, but we haven't made it all the way back to Malvern. The theory running through the rumor mill is that we had to back up to switch tracks, and now we'll be moving forward. I'll believe it when I see it.

11:05pm
We're moving toward Thorndale! I'm going to give it a minute or two before I call Megan. At least until we get to the first stop, in case they change their minds again…

11:08pm
I decided to call Megan, and we agreed that I should get off at the next stop so there's no chance they can screw me over again. We can't get to Exton fast enough.

11:12pm
Got off the train at Exton, and the power was out in the area so the station lights were all off and it was pitch black out. I headed to a convenient place for Megan to pick me up and waited. Apparently there was a puddle right next to me, because a car drove by and splashed me pretty hard. This day just keeps getting better!

11:38pm
Megan drops me off at my truck in the Thorndale train station parking lot. There is a train (not sure if it was mine) at the station. I'm curious if it's the same train, but not curious enough to hang around and find out. I just want to go home and go to bed!

11:50pm
Home! Finally!

—

I should note that I do not hold a bad opinion of the conductors or engineers on the trains. They only work with what they're given. The real failures here were entirely the fault of the managers and organizers:

Failure to communicate clearly. As I mentioned in my notes above, there was no clear indication that trains weren't going past Malvern on my line; and I know I wasn't alone in my ignorance here because there were dozens of other travelers on the platform that were just as pissed as me to find out they could have taken an earlier train.

Failure to keep critical computer systems online. TrainView was down for the entire evening. They posted an official response (note that I didn't say apology — they didn't even bother to apologize!) which mentions that lightning "knocked out the server for the SEPTA website" — which probably means it was running on a computer under someone's desk, with no battery backup and no disaster recovery plan. Real professional, guys!

Failure to communicate via alternate means. Septa has a twitter account, which would be a perfect way to communicate in events such as these. Instead, they have spent months attempting to automate the service, often resulting in truncated messages that accomplish nothing. And worse, in situations like Thursday's, they didn't bother to have a dedicated resource to send clear and concise messages about which service was running and which wasn't. This is like a lesson in how not to use Twitter to connect to your customers.

These are the basic things that you need to do after a storm. If you can't handle that, perhaps you should step down and let someone else run the show. But you won't. And you're increasing fares by 9% across the board soon. Lucky you.

Tonight, for the third time, Dylan pooped in the tub. That in itself is probably enough content for Kevin Smith to write a 3 hour flip-out / argument scene about, but not having his talent, you'll just have to settle for this one little bit:

"I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

Honestly, that was the first thing that went through my mind when I realized what was happening; because it was true. If you're not familiar with the movie, Dante gets called in to work on his day off, and a series of bad things happens to him — after each of which he complains, "I'm not even supposed to be here today." Friday is bath-day, but on most Friday's it would be Megan giving him a bath, not me. (I do Sundays and the occasional Tuesday.) Tonight Megan was out having dinner with friends, so I traded Friday for Sunday.

I'm starting to think I got a raw deal.

What's worse is that the second place my mind went was the TV Show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," specifically to an episode entitled "Who Pooped The Bed?"

It's a little hard to see, but there is a silver lining to this poop cloud. A few moments — maybe as much as 60 seconds — before the event occurred, Dylan got my attention and made the sign for "diaper." Only now do I see the error of my ways. I should have immediately picked him up and plopped him down on the toilet seat.

Not to worry, it'll never happen again. I've sworn off ever giving the child another bath.

P.S. I considered posting a picture. Figured I'd spare you. You're welcome.

What is a blog, if not a soapbox for me to stand on and tell you about things that I love and hate?

For starters, I hate feeling ripped off. I won't say that I was ripped off, because there are two sides to every story and I'm trying to be fair; but at the very least, I feel ripped off.

You may have heard that our heater was out of service. On Saturday, November 7th, Megan was taking some things down to the basement and noticed a small puddle under the heater. Monday the 9th she called the same company that had fixed our sump in 2007, Horn Plumbing and Heating. They made an appointment to come out and inspect it that Friday, the 13th, and the guy they sent ("Jeff") was, I believe the technical term is, "dragging ass."

He took his sweet time working, knowing full well they charge by the hour — even for estimates. I was at work, but Megan says he was here for about one hour (the bill would list this visit as 2 hours). He hadn't scheduled enough time to do everything he needed to, so he scheduled a follow-up appointment for the following Tuesday, the 17th. He did a poor job explaining the problem and risks, left the heater off, and packed up and left.

Not realizing that he had (probably?) intentionally left the heater off — because he failed to explain that it should be! — we later discovered that it was off (it got cold!) and turned it back on, assuming he had accidentally left it off.

When he came back on Tuesday, he was here for around 3 hours (the bill would list 4), and although he believed he knew what the problem was, he couldn't show us what was broken. This time when he left, he left the heater running.

Knowing we had a broken heater on our hands, but not satisfied with Horn, we sought a second opinion. Brewers came out three days later, on Friday the 20th, and within an hour had taken apart the heater and diagnosed the problem; and could even show Megan the crack and leak with one of those neat video cameras on a tube that could get into tight places. And they did all of that for a flat rate, and didn't charge us anything for drive time.

The Brewers tech said that while the carbon monoxide measurements were currently extremely low and not anything dangerous, there's no telling how fast it might escalate. He said that he couldn't in good conscience leave our house with the heater running or advise us to turn it on after he left. Quite a difference from what the Horn tech had said before leaving, which was more or less nothing! (Thanks for thinking of our health, jerk!) So we knew we would be without heat for a few days. It was nothing too drastic as we generally keep it set pretty low and dress warmly anyway; but we bought and borrowed a few space heaters for Dyan's room and ours, and used our gas fireplace in the family room.

Unfortunately, the prognosis was made late in the day on Friday, so they weren't able to order our replacement parts until Monday, the 23rd — and then there was no telling how long it would be until the parts would arrive. It could potentially have been through Thanksgiving and Dylan's Birthday party on Saturday. Luckily, it didn't take that long. The parts arrived to Brewers the following day on the 24th, and they came back to our house on the 25th to do the repair. They sent 3 people to work from about 10:00 until noon.

Then the bill arrived from Horn. $700.12! For an estimate! You've got to be freaking kidding me! For comparison, the estimate from Brewers was listed on the bill as $95, but crossed out: they had decided to waive it out of the kindness of their hearts. So our estimate from Brewers cost $0. Megan called Horn to complain and after a few days of phone tag and quibbling they begrudgingly agreed to reduce it to $355.12. Definitely not what I consider a fair and honest business.

If I ever have another heating or cooling problem, I will call Brewers. I will never call Horn again.