quasify

A long, interesting, difficult day. Up stupid early at 3:30, went down to our sub-branch of the FDA to present some work stuff, then over to the really quite stunning Union Station to meet up with Z before heading back to Boston on the Acela Express. It’s a great way to travel, infinitely more comfortable than being shoehorned into an airplane with the added benefit (one hopes) of having a lesser chance of accidentally cratering in an unsuspecting neighborhood. I don’t think it’s as scenic the Pacific Surfliner but fun nonetheless. The parts of Baltimore and Philadelphia you can see from the Acela are really impoverished, blighted looking places - they make the brief swing through Wilmington, Delaware look like Dubai by comparison. Things got really interesting (or annoying, obnoxious, and surreal) after Providence when we ran into several extended periods of sitting around waiting for the Amtrak guys to restring some wires that were “ripped down”. My speculative journalism credentials let me definitively say that either too tall trucks were wreacking havoc or (green!) meth-heads were out looking for recyclables. Two plus hours later, having swapped the gorgeous Acela for the creakity Northeast Regional cattle cars, finally getting back in Boston was enough to make all still awake happy.