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TRAIN_CLIMBING

                                             July 1, 2013


On Caltrain this morning, after a trip to the
bathroom and back to the bike car, I happened to get
back just as we were approaching Palo Alto, which
meant over half of the cyclists were standing up and
wrangling bikes, getting ready to depart.

There were no seats open near the door I'd just
stepped in, but my seat up in the upper level was
still open.  So rather than fight my way through
the mass to get to the staircase, I decided on
impulse to just climb it.

I reached up and dropped by bag on the floor upstairs,
grabbed the upper edge, stepped up on one of the hand
holds mounted on the side of the seat, and smoothly--
well, reasonably smoothly, after bumping my head on the
low ceiling inside the door, before realizing I needed
to duck-- I swung up over the railing, and sat down
without any incident.

Then one of the conductors came in the door I'd come
through, I glanced back and saw him smiling up at me--
perhaps luckily, he was one of the younger guys-- I said
"Sorry", and he replied "Next time use the stairs".


    This is pretty much what always happens,
    one way or another: if you have some
    unusual ability-- let's say, climbing,              CLIMBING
    but this syndrome is hardly limited to
    it-- no one will give you credit for being
    able to do it.  The entire civilized world
    demands that you dial back what you can do
    back to an average level-- really, far
    below average.  You're not supposed to do
    anything that everyone can't do...


                               But I'll conceed the necessity of
                               dialing back what you can do to
                               below your own limits-- When
                               there's any significant risk
                               involved, you need some cushion,
                               a "safety factor".

                                    IDAHO_RULES






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