As I rode the Metro to work on Satufday, I had the distinct feeling I was being watched.

Yesterday’s commute home from the Fruit Stand took far longer than it should have. It takes me nearly two hours (closer to 1.75 hours) to get home as is; leaving the store 45 minutes late and facing Metro delays on all five lines certainly didn’t help. Instead of getting off the train at Union Station, as I usually do, I alighted at Dupont Circle. At the very least, I was able to transfer to the same bus line I have to take home anyway, I just had a longer ride ahead of me.

And wouldn’t you know, someone left a message on the train …

Indeed.

Of course, the rain would wait until I stepped outside to start a ritual-like downpour. And naturally, my bus would be late.

Le sigh.

At least it’s finally picking up speed now, an hour since I got to the bus stop and half an hour since I actually got on the bus.

The mate tells me there’s some police activity near the house though… Hope it doesn’t delay me further.

It’s surprisingly comfortable out; you’d never know it coming out of my upstairs bedroom, where stagnant, humid air gets trapped with no hope of relief until winter. One step out of the house, and I don’t feel like I’m walking in soup. It’s delightful.

Unfortunately, it’s also starkly overcast, moreso than it has been in the last couple of days. I brought my umbrella in with me to work on Monday, but haven’t brought it home since. I figured the chances of the sky bursting on me before I got to work were smaller than when I left it. Besides, that’s typically what happens, because that’s just my luck.

As far as luck goes, I haven’t exactly had good luck on the Metro this week. I’ve experienced more late/bunched busses and missed trains than I care to think about. Add to that the number of times a faregate wouldn’t accept my Metro SmarTrip card, causing me to miss trains, and you can pretty well gather that my transit karma is down the shitter.

I look forward to the karma coming back.

Even after being summoned for jury duty on Wednesday (yes, of all days, I was called for September 11, go figure), this shaped up to be a rather odd week. Shall we start at the beginning?

Microsoft (or Microshaft, take your pick) released Service Pack 1 for its XP operating system on Monday. SP1, a whopping 133 MB download, does more to comply with the anti-trust suits against them than to actually improve XP, according to reviews. Further, a particularly hazardous yet unundisclosed bug was quietly fixed with SP1, which can be fixed (scroll down to “Boot Camp tip”) simply by renaming or deleting one file. No download required.

Wednesday night, the numbers 9-1-1 came up in New York’s Pick 3 lottery game. Over 5,000 people picked that number combination. At $500 a win, the New York Lottery will dole out at least $2.5 million.

Last night, a portion of I-75 in Florida was shut down after a woman tipped off police to three men “discussing explosives and saying that Americans would ‘cry on 9/13.’” Enemy thwarted? Maybe; it’s still being looked into.

Getting on the Metro today, I found out that there was a severe delay on the Red line — someone was struck by a train at Union Station this morning. Michael, on his way to work (he catches the train at Union Station daily), arrived just in time to perform last rites with a priest. From a conversation earlier today:

Michael (9:29:17 AM): cool.. that was the WORSE commute ever
Fredo (9:29:23 AM): i heard
F (9:29:30 AM): mine was wonderful
F (9:29:36 AM): i actually got a seat today
M (9:29:43 AM): yea, but you didn’t hear it all
F (9:29:54 AM): yes i did.
M (9:29:59 AM): from who?
M (9:30:03 AM): the town crier
F (9:30:26 AM): no… the loudspeaker in the metro station
M (9:30:45 AM): they broadcast my performance of sacredotal blessing on the loudspeaker?
F (9:31:19 AM): course not… you’re not that important… in terms of daily commutes, that is.
M (9:31:23 AM): lol
M (9:31:57 AM): and then when i did finally get on a train, it got stuck behind one that broke down
F (9:32:30 AM): naturally… see previous im
M (9:32:33 AM): lol
M (9:33:11 AM): i actually knelt next to the train with one of the basilica priests and did last rites and absolution… with 3000 commuters watching

See what I mean? In the voice of Comic Book Guy, “Oddest. Week. Ever!”