albadger | Snake Handlers must ride in the rear car.

Big Excursion yesterday was the Grand Opening of the new BART station at West Dublin/Pleasanton, a trip I took solus, as any friend who might have been interested was busy with IBR, and a good thing too, as the station itself was celebration-free and ugly as sin. It's an "infill" station, breaking up the long stretch between Castro Valley and the (now "East") Dublin/Pleasanton station. Both of those stations were built in the 1990s, and are fine work, with creative use of stone, angled and curved walkways to fit the environment, and the famous "braking-curve" awning at the Dublin/Pleasanton station that flows in time with the rolling hills to the east.

What a difference a dot-com bust makes! The new station is all right angles, and all metal; it looks like it was made out of parts left over from the nearby prison. The inside is brand-new but already feels dank and drained. This will not be a prime tourist destination.

I'm not sure if this had any effect on my dream last night, which had me riding a train. I had wandered into the car that was set aside for the Snake Handlers. There were big signs everywhere ordering ALL SNAKES TO BE PLACED IN BOXES BENEATH SEATS and NO SNAKE HANDLING WHILE TRAIN IS IN MOTION. I didn't see any snakes. The old lady I chatted with seemed nice, but I didn't want to get her upset.

Or did I dream about snakes because I saw the True Grit remake yesterday?