Sounder

Last week, I spoke poetically or Homeric ally of rosy-fingered dawn increasingly lightening up the view and distractions visible from the bus windows during the morning commute from Seattle to UPS. Since the clock change this weekend will for a while darken the commute again, this Friday I took advantage of the soon-to-end dawning daylight to use the Puget pass to ride the Sounder train, even though I had to leave at 5:20 rather than 5:40 to catch it. Fortunately there was a rosy-fingered dawn this morning, rather than the furry-paw fog of yesterday which enfolded us in dense mist. Mt. Rainier today was readily visible, and looked even more spectacular than usual. The train ride was a first time experiment, which I was eager to compare with the similar double-decked trains I’d recently ridden between Dallas and Ft. Worth My findings: trains in both systems are similarly double-decked, roomy and new, and the stations along the way are also new. However, the rail tracks here are not new, in contrast to those in Texas (or Europe). Along the old tracks, the Sounder lurches and sways, creaks and clacks, more so if you are elevated in the upper deck. The ride, in other words, has “character,” like the character lines one acquires after a certain age. But no problem, unless you are like the princess distressed by the pea under her lowest-most mattress. No one will ever be asked to perform brain surgery on the Sounder. Will I repeat this “experiment” in the future? More on my next blog. One has to ration these reports, since most commutes are usually so uneventful and not worth reporting, thank heavens.

Wallace, Faculty