Labor Day Weekend - Amtrak

     Amtrak Labor Day Weekend …. 

     Emeryville to Eugene .. Sunday ... 

      Maybe I should have given this more thought.

      ‘Sigh….. Humanity!’

      That’s what I said when I looked down at the platform at  Sacramento Station/. The Coach car was about half filled…. Modern filled, as Amtrak has it, is every passenger has both seats to him or herself. Lumpy overweight strange shapes …. Now I am being unkind. But is that the sad truth of this country… too much. (See Wall E the movie.)

      A little later on …We just had stopped at Chico I guess …. strangely. for me, I had been asleep. I get up to use the rest room and change into long pants to stay warm through the night. The overly round man who got on in ‘Sacamenna’ is snoring  ,,, no mask. The guy in front of me I look down viewing his smart phone, No mask. I walk back to the end of the car about 2 to 1 no mask. I decide to do a full coach visual survey It evened up to about 50 % masked. Would it be nice if a conductor made the rounds during the night? Poor folks are probably overworked and underpaid. I wonder if they have given up. Is this standard for Amtrak? Did they not get a little prepped for Labor Day weekend? 

   In fairness to hard working under appreciated Amtrak workers the next morning the conductor over the PA system was announcing the draconian policies of on the third warning you will be exited off the train at the next stop, to cover your nose. I think I heard that .. (you know how some PA systems work? What did they just say?)

   Earlier in the evening a masked conductor asked for tickets from an unmasked passenger. I noted that as ‘loose’. On the AC Bus Line and on the Golden Gate Bus lines drivers will Bark at customers to get your nose covered. 

   I tighten my mask continually around my nose, as I write. Time to see if I can make it into dreamland again. Pulled a T-shirt over my head eventually and found an empty seat a few

Seats back from the snoring man. I got a few hours sleep last night in the early hours. I woke up and sure enough right there out the window bigger than a breadbox, Mt. Shasta.

  I got carried away taking pictures of the mammoth mountain, I have to always get reminded that the mountain is a double cone. The one still with it’s snow cover, the other just the brown volcanic …. …..