8 posts tagged “light rail”
Saturday we decided to have a family fun day. Victor and I got hair cuts first thing. Then he had his first soccer practice of the spring season. Finally we spent the afternoon at Dave & Buster's.
We took the light-rail to D&B's so we wouldn't have to park in the horrible parking lot they have. It's just too crampt and the paces are too small.
We got our power cards and hit the games. Some of the games were new but a lot of them are the same as the last time we went. That was several years ago. We also noticed that they had expanded out the back of the arcade with new games, a new bar area, and a bigger prize redemption area.
We also found that some of the games are not very well maintained. at least three of the Skee-Ball games were not working properly and we found a half a dozen games that took our credit then broke or rebooted, or just didn't work.
I got a manager and he gave us 100 credits on each card to make up for it. He tried to apologize for the broken games but really was just making excuses for being understaffed and having aging equipment. I think that they really need a few more people working in a Saturday and need to do a bit of a refresh and repair sweep on the games. We felt that D&B's has slipped down a bit from the level of quality they once had.
Despite the problems we had a good time. Also, dinner was as good a we'd had before even if the service was a bit slow. I hink that this is related to the whole understaffed thing.
On the way home we had a bit of a holdup on the train. The one before ours broke down at the next station and it took about 30 minutes for them to route our car around the Yale station.
Finally, when we got home I got out the Wii and played some Super Mario Galaxy. It took me about 45 minutes to beat Bowser and win the game. I still have 57 stars to get so I'm not really "done" with the game until I get the rest of the stars so I'll be woring on it a bit longer.
UPDATE: I've made a few corrections of typos I made typing this originally on my Palm Centro.
"I know I had a good time, I don't remember anything" - kid on the light rail.
Is this measure of a good time for today's youth? Is it drinking so much you don't remember what you did a positive? I would guess that this guy was between 16 and 21 years old.
I had two blackout situations in my early days of drinking. At 20 I learned not to drink that much again. I didn't consider either occurrence to be "fun" at all.
Am I getting old?
Back in the '80s I always heard the joke that RTD stood for Reason To Drive, not Regional Transportation District. Having never actually read the bus I thought it was funny but didn't give it much thought beyond that. Beside the occasional ride on the 16th Street Mall Shuttle I had never ridden an RTD bus in Denver. My experience on the Mall Shuttle was that they had a lead foot on both the brake and gas, but didn't really have any complaints.
About eight or nine years ago I started taking the bus to Metropolitan State College of Denver at the Auraria Campus. I found it was generally on time, got me where I wanted to go. I could rely on RTD to get me from home to school and back on time in a consistent manner and all was good.
I continued to ride the light rail and bus for the years since to school downtown. As I moved around town I still found ways to get downtown to class. I even rode the bus to work form Littleton for a few weeks over the summer. It wasn't an optimal route but worked pretty well.
Then I spent four years waiting for the Southeast Light Rail to open so that I could catch the bus from Parker to Dry Creek and I-25. Unfortunately eight months before it was due to open our office moved to North Denver. I learned that I could take RTD from Parker to my new office and sold my car. I have been riding RTD to work for about ten months now and while it isn't fast it gets me there.
Now all of a sudden the service is breaking down. Twice last week and again my 6:00am 410 bus was a no-show. That's right on Last Tuesday and Wednesday (2/20 and 2/21) the 410 never arrived. I spent 40 minutes waiting for the bus. The first day it was in the upper 30s so it was bearable but the other two times it was in the low 20s with a wind chill below that. On all three occasions I called to complain while I was waiting and got no real help.
My only guess is that they driver either thought he was supposed to drive the 410L that runs up Parker Road to Lincoln, bypassing Main Street and Jordan, or the driver was new and the passengers directed him wrong. Either way I was left in the cold, and was left 30 minutes late for work.
Today I talked with a fellow rider who confirmed my experiences and has been in contact with the Director of Transportation for RTD after issues he had a few weeks ago.
I only hope that they can fix this quickly as next week the 410L is being replace with the P and the 410 will be my only hope to get to work on time. RTD, please don't become my reason to drive.
February 10, 2007 - The lazy cats hanging out on our bed.
February 11, 2007 - Dad at his 64th birthday party.
February 12, 2007 - Ok, I was a little hard up for a picture today, this is my collection of Robotech paperbacks.
February 13, 2007 - This is the federal courthouse I go past on the way between the 44 bus and the light rail on the way to meet Bonnie at school.
February 14, 2007 - D'oh!! I thought I had a picture for today. Nope!!
February 15, 2007 - This is my attempt at an artistic shot of the Design Annex at ACC.
February 16, 2007 - This is the vacant park-'n'-ride at Lincoln and Jordan. It's been this way since the light rail opened.
February 17, 2007 - Yikes!!! Twice in one week. How big a slacker can I be?
February 18, 2007 - We spend all day cleaning up the computer room and this is how nice it looks now that it's organized and neat.
February 19, 2007 - This is my view for 40 minutes today while I waited for the bus that never came. RTD couldn't get a hold of the bus so they couldn't tell me why it never showed up. I had to wait for the next bus 30 minutes later. Grrrrr.
January 25,2007 - This is a southbound Santa Fe engine across from the Englewood Station at Hampden.
January 18, 2007 - This is Skittles contemplating something on the wall. He is so dumb. ;-)
January 19, 2007 - Ok, here's where the "sort of" comes in. I actually forgot to take a picture today.
January 20, 2007 - Tonight we had blueberry-lemon waffles from our Couisinart Belgian Waffle maker. Oh, they are so good.
January 21, 2007 - Her is another bit of snow. We got 8-9 inches for the weekend. We are close to 6 feet of snow this season. Oy Vey!!
January 22, 2007 - Here is my latest sleep aid. I know, it sounds odd, but this round door knob keeps the cat from trying our lever-type door knobs in the middle of the knight because the dumbass is bored or lonely. We have slept well since I installed it.
January 23, 2007 - Here is the Arapahoe Community College Design Center where Bonnie is taking her classes in web design. I meet her here after work on Tuesdays and Thursdays when she has her late class. Then I drive home in the dusk/dark on the highway. That works for her because she hates driving on the highway, and in the dark.
January 24, 2007 - This is the view from University of Denver light rail station. The tower is the Richie Center. I have been wanting to take this picture for a week but I haven't had a wait at the DU station until today.
January 13, 2007 - I gassed up the Civic this morning. It was freezing cold so I figure the gas was very dense, thus the maximum for my bucks. It was only $2.239, the lowest I have seen in a month for the mid-grade. Then two days later it dropped 2c a gallon. Whatever.....
Bonnie started her classes yesterday and is pretty excited about the things she is going to learn in her class. She will be working with Flash, Dreamweaver, Lightwave and Final Cut Express. When she's done she will know how to edit video, do 3D modeling, and animate graphics. It should be very cool.
After a little checking I realized that I can meet her after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays by talking the bus downtown and transferring to the Light Rail from downtown to the Littleton Downtown Station. Her classes are across the street from the station. I tried it out last night and we had the 45 minute drive home to talk. I know she appreciated the extra time together.
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