Iron rails & iron weights

Facing seats = ridiculous

I noted in my last entry how taking the 7:04 express from Ronkonkoma is a very bad idea, when compared to taking the far-less-crowded 6:56 to Flatbush Avenue.  Today was proof that the 6:56 can be a miserable experience too.  Mindful of yesterday's unpleasantness I made sure to get the 6:56 after arriving at Ronkonkoma on the Medford shuttle.  It was an M-7 consist, but I figured that chances were good that no one would sit next to me, and if someone did it wouldn't be too bad of an experience.  Of course I was totally wrong.  A shapeless blob flopped into the seat next to me at Hicksville and immediately crushed my torso up against the sidewall with a frightening degree of force.  This blob was not an amorphous collection of protoplasm, but was instead a huge jelly-like SCA.  He was pushing 300 pounds for sure.  It would have been Curtains for me, except for the fact that the SCA's aforementioned jelly-like consistency allowed me to wriggle myself into such a position that I was (barely) able to breathe.  Not that it was a pleasant ride, mind you.  The trip into Jamaica was only about 20 minutes long but seemed absolutely endless.  To make matters worse, the SCA actually gave me a bit of an attitude when I got up at Jamaica.  Having to move his enormous body apparently was an ordeal, one he wasn't about to suffer in silence.  It should go without saying that I was most relieved to get off that Train of Horrors and onto the blessed space that the grimy Jamaica platform accorded me. The 8:01 dual mode into Penn was a wondrous joy in comparison, and I didn't even mind being moderately squeezed on the 1 train to Houston Street.  Even the tightest squeezes on the subway are easier to tolerate, as one is standing instead of sitting and consequently has a bit more room to manoever in most circumstances. 

I stayed on the 1 all the way to Penn after work, there being too much crowding on the express platform at 14th, and instead of getting a train right away I met my wife at a store near the station.  We rode back together on the 5:53 to Ronkonkoma, a train I seldom take as it doesn't connect to the Medford shuttle.  It was quite crowded when boarded several minutes before departure, and because we couldn't get side-by-side seats we ended up sitting across from one another in one of the facing pairs of seats found on the middle of each M-7 car.  When designing the seats, the manufacturer forgot a very important rule of physiology - human beings have legs.  These seats have, like, zero legroom.  The back seat of one of those "2+2" sports cars is cavernous by comparison.  It worked out okay for us because we could sort of intertwine our legs, but that obviously wouldn't have been an option had I been sitting facing a stranger.  Indeed the two women on either side of us had their legs all crushed up against themselves even though both of them were quite small.  This was so even though the woman next to me, a South Asian of about 25, was one of those proverbial 100-pound women, or "Centuries."  Things got easier after Deer Park, as the 5:53 really empties out at that station, and by the time we got to Ronkonkoma there weren't more than 10 other people in the entire car.

Gym: It was back to weights tonight, after a week off, and I really didn't lose much ground.  A little, on bench press, but it shouldn't take long to recover.  Bench press: 6 x 135, 4 x 185, 2 x 205, 5 x 225, 2 x 4 x 225, 3 x 3 x 225, 8 x 185.  Cable rows: 4 x 8 x 180.  Overhead press: 4 x 8 x 100.

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