Life's Persistent Questions

April 7, Tucson and the Holy Grail.

We are finally in Tucson, about seven and half hour behind schedule. I have been on a quest for the elusive electrical outlet since the start of the trip. My diligent online research has revealed that outlets are few and far between on these long distance coach cars. They apparently only exist at seats 19 and 55. I asked for one of them while boarding and got brushed off, was told by the ticket agent “I think I gave them away already.” Of course that was not entirely true. But I was initially buoyanted by the discovery that my assigned seat 33, next to the 250 lb guy in shorts and cut-off T-shirt, was an outlet not previously known to the entire Amtrak nation. I eagerly busted out my brand new power surge protector, carefully chosen from the South Coast Bestbuy for its right angle plug. Alas, the outlet was mostly hidden behind the seat, and the space was not enough to fit in my right angle plug. I then wondered over to seat 19, which was unoccupied. There the outlet is less hidden, but nonetheless is partially obstructed by the seat to prevent access. Twice crushed, I proceed to spend the rest of the day in the sightseering car where there are three outlets.

After our arrival to Tucson, seat 55 became unoccupied. I asked the conductor about switching to that seat and was again brushed off. The seat is labeled “reserved” but seats are only assigned when the passengers board. So I patiently waited until everyone boarded the train, then calmly took the unoccupied/unassigned/perpetually “reserved” seat 55. I watched as the conductor personally escorted a new passenger to her assigned seat and then offer her the option to switch to any seat she wants. She must be a VIP. Commoners like me just go on ignoring his repeated overhead announcement about the need to stay in the assigned seats. Ahab has his white whale, Arthur his Grail, and I the electrical outlet at seat 55. As Achilles of Pitt famously put it, “Glory. Take it! It’s yours!”

. . .

People are indeed attracted to power. In less than 30 minutes, my surge protector has been put to good use now. It is charging a laptop, two DVD players and a cell phone.

posted by hedgehog @ 8:04 PM