Picture yourself on the Metra from Chicago...an hour away from your destination, the Wheaton stop...calling a cab to pic you up when you arrive. You speak to the switchboard operator and she says someone will be there to pick you up. It's about 10 degrees when you step off of the train and your back hurts from carrying your luggage. It's dark, it's cold, you are hungry and you cannot wait to get home! You look around....no cab. Okay, so you are 5 minutes early. You can't wait in the station lobby because the doors are locked (it's Sunday night). You spot a coffee shop next door, so you step in for a hot chocolate and shelter from the cold. Keeping an eye out for the cab, you call the switchboard for an update on the status of your taxi and ask if you can be picked up next door at the coffee shop. They say the taxi is on it's way and should be there in a few minutes, but no, the cab driver refuses to pick you up next door...hmmmmm.
10 minutes go by, 20 minutes go by...no cab. You call back, no one answers, 30 minutes go by...you have been ducking out of the coffee shop every 5 minutes to make sure the cab isn't sitting there waiting for you, but have been disappointed each time. Since you are in Wheaton, IL on a Sunday night, there really are no other options for transportation...so you are forced to wait. Finally, you get a call from the automated taxi lady...your cab has arrived! You step back out into the cold lugging your bag and grasping your hot chocolate (which isn't so hot anymore) and anticipate seeing that glorious automobile sitting there in the station lot with the heater blasting...but no cab!
You call the switchboard yet again, and another random operator implies that you must be blind because the taxi driver is clearly at the Wheaton station....you look around thinking, maybe all this travel and waiting has made you delerious...could you be blind??? But, no Switchboard Lady, the guy is NOT HERE! Finally, after 45 minutes of waiting (after giving an hour's notice and getting confirmation numerous times) you see the taxi drive past the one and only Wheaton stop...nearly frozen to death, you flag down the car...it does an illegal u-turn and stops in the middle of the road to let you in. Ahhhhh, finally!!!! So, apparently, the taxi driver, was relying on his best friend, and mentor, Mr. GPS. Granted all cabbie's use GPS these days, but c'mon! It's Wheaton! And there are only 2 train stations, one of which is called WHEATON. Despite all this, you are extremely thankful to be in this very clean, very warm, leather clad interior automobile. The driver is playing groovy tunes and apologizes for the delay. He does appear to charge about a dollar a minute, so the bill comes to about seven bucks....but he stays by your car as you have parked in a dark, shady lot near work, and makes sure you can start your car in the cold.
Ahhh, you love the sound of your own sweet engine at that point! And off to drive another 20 minutes to your house... read more
