Aftermath 4, night commutes...

Another interesting commute tonight.  Here are some pictures:

Aftermath 2, Night Shots

After snapping these, I hailed a cab at 7th and Greenwich.  When I was at work one of the last pieces of video I took in at NY1 was footage of the lines for the shuttle buses that are trying to fill in the holes in subway service between 34th Street in Midtown and Downtown Brooklyn.  I didn't want to brave that even though I had been trying for the last few hours of my shift to work out the logistics of such a commute.  It seemed more trouble than it was worth.  I'd have to bus to the east side (if the M14D showed up) and then take a shuttle bus to Jay St./Metro Tech and grab the R train to Prospect Avenue.  No.  Cab was my best shot.  The company will pay for it after all. 

This cabbie seemed harried and worn out.  I told him, after getting in the cab (because you never tell them where you're going until you're secure inside the cab because they can't refuse you once you're inside), Park Slope, 19th Street between 5th and 6th.  He said, flatly, "I don't wanna go."  I sighed and said, "Look, I get it but I gotta get home."  Before he could speak, I said for him to take me to the Manhattan Bridge at least and I could walk to Jay St./Metro Tech for the R train.  He said he could do that then went on to tell me all about how hard it was getting gas and how hard it would be for him to get back to the city.  We shared war stories for the length of the commute and somewhere along the way in downtown he agreed to take me to Jay St.  Before I knew it we had passed Jay St. and he offered to take me all the way to Atlantic Avenue where the new Barclay's Center is now.  I negotiated a drop off on the corner of Pacific and 4th and hopped out right into the subway station.  There were uniformed officers on the mezzanine.  The emergency exit door was propped open, the turnstiles roped off.  Free subway and bus rides until this ordeal is over. 

I wandered into that subway station, eyes wide, realizing just how long it's been since I've been in a subway station.  A couple of days doesn't seem like much until you consider that every day of my life for the past 3 1/2 years, I've spent at least a half an hour inside subway stations.  I reached out and touched the tiled wall on the stairway to make sure I was really there.  When I hit the platform and walked down to the spot where my usual car comes to a halt, I heard it.  The characteristic sound of a train creaking around the corner of the tunnel and crawling into the station.  I've never been so happy to see the R train.  I left work at 9:23 and I hit the street level at Prospect Avenue at 10:10.  That's the most normal commute I've had in almost a week. 

One day at a time.  Good night.