I like borrowing ebooks. It’s easy, it’s free, all you need is a library card. There’s just one issue. How Maryland does it.

Competition

You might think, a government run digital ebook library, would be run by the local county. After all, that’s how the physical library is run here. But, no. It’s state wide here. That means, if I want to barrow a popular ebook, I have to wait in line, along with the rest of the state. From Oakland to Ocean City, everyone competes to get a hold in. However…

One State South

Down in Virginia, ebook libraries are done on the county level. And a few counties will give cards to residents of my county. So I drove down one day, and got a card. But why stop with just one VA county, why not go for two more.

Looking at a map, I can hit both Arlington, and Fairfax from the Metro. I like this.

So I filled up my Camelbak with ice water, and set off for the train.

Cards

After parking, I hopped on. Before I knew it, I was at an Arlington branch.

After getting a card, I got back on the train. Now for Fairfax.

Fax Fair

The Fairfax library I’m aiming for, isn’t next to a Metro station. However, it is next to a MetroBus stop. Good enough for me.

After getting off of the train, I was in the middle of nowhere. A nowhere, that someone is working hard on making a somewhere.

This is the first real time I’ve used the MetroBus. And it’s better than I was expecting. Clean, automated stop announcements. Way better than the one I took on my Denver day trip.

With the card in hand. It was time to head back home.

A Burning Issue

After much needed drank a backpack worth of water restroom break, and a food stop, I was on my way back to Shady Grove… At least, for a bit.

Turns out, Rockville had a fire. So the train I was on, dumped us at Van Ness, and turned around. “The next train will take you to Shady”, the driver said. So when the next train arrived, I got on, thinking nothing of it.

A few stops later at Grosvenor–Strathmore, we got kicked off. The train was turning around, due to the (now hour old) fire at Rockville. “The next train will take you to Shady”, says the driver… So I went on the platform, and waited.

When the next train came, I simply thought, third times the charm. So we set off, only to shortly later, stop in the tunnel. No issue, probably just traffic up ahead. Not uncommon. Until the driver made, the announcement, walked through the train to the other side, and took us back to Grosvenor.

The next train will take you to Shady

• The driver

Why do I not believe them.

So I said, fuck it. I’m not going to keep rolling the dice, and called a friend for a ride.

The Burning Silence

While getting kicked off of three trains¹, I noticed. My website, ismetroburning.com, hadn’t reported the fire. Hand checking the WMATA API I use, nothing was mentioned in it. And looking though the logs on my server, smoke or fire incidents were suspiciously absent. For about a month.

IMB relies on WMATA to put these incidents, in their rail incident API to work. At it looks like, they haven’t been. So IMB is on an indefinite pause. And seeing how I’m probably moving to Alaska, that pause is leaning towards permanent. The site currently as a notice on it. I don’t want to say the Metro isn’t burning, when it usually is.

So, is the metro burning… possibly.

• IMB

Return to Shady

My friend arrived with a much needed Red Bull, and took me back to Shady.

Let’s get the hell out of here.