Didn't you see the sign?

I had to work on President's Day, so I did something that I can never do on a normal day when I catch the 7:32. I parked in the near parking lot by the Merrick Theater. Typically, I park in the long lot to the west known as Timbuktu. Or, if I'm catching the 7:43 Timbukfour. As is often the case, my wife picked me up that night so I left the car to be used another day. When I picked it up on Thursday, there was a ticket. I looked around - there is no sign mentioning a time limit. The next day I checked - it's on the sign as you drive into the lot. This is the kind of gotcha scenario that one expects from places run by Republicans, so I checked. Sure enough, the town of Hempstead is run by Republican Kate Murray. I'm sure they get a nice income giving 70 dollar tickets to people who didn't read the sign. We have a system of monorails to the airport to encourage people to take public transportation to JFK. No doubt Kate Murray has a limo to take her wherever she wants to go, so this might not occur to her.

Acting on the fly

Yesterday was one of those days I knew would be coming. The regular, methodical rhythm of my commuting days was disrupted. A serious snowfall had got me out of work on Monday, and I wasn't prepared for how bad things would be on Tuesday. When I got to the top of the platform there was a double helping of bad news: The train was running late and it was two cars short. As the Canadian air ripped into my bones, I heard somebody behind me mention that the train after the 7:32 started in Merrick, so everybody got seats. Sure enough, when the 7:32 came at nearly 8, it was packed, with people standing in the aisles. I waited for a few more minutes, and the "7:43" was, indeed, empty. It stopped at Freeport and Baldwin and then zoomed in to Penn. In the final tally, I was only 15 minutes late to work. Now I know that I have a viable alternative if I have problems catching the 7:32. I'm getting the hang of this.