Too cold for the train.

It's been the coldest week in a decade here in Dallas, and I will admit that I broke my New Year's resolution to ride the train at least once a week - but I do have a post for you, left over from last year.

There are signs all over the train prohibiting gambling, music without headphones, and eating and drinking. When I lived in San Diego, I used to ride the MTS express down to the border with Mexico at least once a week, and when I'd ride the train back to base late at night there was always a light rail dice game going on in the last car of the train. The players always got a little more boisterous than most of us who weren't gambling were comfortable with, and fights would break out quite often - so I certainly understand where the no gambling rule comes from. I also understand the music rule; I suspect that most people wouldn't like what I generally listen to, and I also figure that most of the folks who would be interested in playing loud music on the public transit system would not care if their musical tastes weren't the same as everyone else on the train. Eating and drinking I also understand, as I have noticed that for some reason people seem to be ok waith littering on the train; the cars almost always have some trash under the seat, on the seat, or in the aisles. If you mix food, indifference to mess, and a sometimes bumpy train ride, you would end up with an entire train full of garbage and seats you can't sit in. In today's world, however, we humans find it very hard to go without a drink for very long. If we are awake, we generally try to have a Starbucks, a soda, or at the very least a bottled water in our hands so we don't die of dehydration before we can make it to the next convenience store or soda machine.



This girl needed her hydration as well, and I don't fault her for that, but her choice of vessel is what caught my attention. When I first spotted her, her mason jar had a lid on, and was about half full of yellow liquid - a liquid which I assumed to be urine, to be honest. Needless to say I was a little surprised to see her spin the lid off and take a sip. Now I'm not going to pretend that I've never had a drink from a mason jar in my lifetime, but I will say that I've never used one as a to go cup - unless it was full of moonshine.