Yesterday it was milk. Today it's the TTC.

Today's rant is brought to you by the Toronto Transit Commission - your daily source for annoyance and exploitation.

Why annoyance and exploitation? Well, let me explain.

I get tokens to ride the subway each day. And I usually get them from the automated machines, to avoid the lineups of disgruntled people.

You put your $20 bill or $10 bill in the machine (no $5 bills... only 20s and 10s) and you get your tokens and change in return.

So, this morning when I put my $20 bill in, I waited for my 8 tokens and 2 loonies to drop into the tray so I could retrieve them and go on my merry way.

Only, instead of 2 loonies, I got 1 loonie and a 50 cent piece from some country I can't identify that uses characters instead of letters. (It's a beautiful coin, don't get me wrong. But it's not a loonie. Therefore, it is unfortunately worthless in the exchange of goods and services in this fine country we live in).

So I went up to the guy working the booth and showed it to him. He told me that to remedy the situation, I would need to either call head office or go to the Davisville subway station. (Which is 4 stops beyond mine.)

So, even though I found that slightly annoying, I went to Davisville - knowing that it would cost me another $2.75 to get back to work afterwards. (Yes, the math doesn't quite work out. Spend $2.75 to get $1.00 back. I know. But it's the principle!)

Once I got there and found the customer service office, I was informed that it doesn't open until 8:30am. (This was at 7:30). I would need to come back later on in the day. To which I said, "So I have to spend $5.50 riding the subway to get my dollar back?"

The guy just kind of nodded. He gave me a free pass to get back to my office. But yeah. If I want to go back later today, I gots to pay.

So now the TTC totally has me (pardon the expression) by the short and curlies. They'll either make $5.50 off of me if I go back to get my dollar back - or they'll make that dollar off of me if I decide it's just not worth it.

Friggin' robbery, people!! How many of us are out there deciding that it's just not worth it to get that dollar back?? And the stupid fat cats just sit back and get rich off of our HARD EARNED money!! I can hear them laughing at me now.

Argh. So that's my morning rant. I know it's not that bad in the grand scheme of things (and it certainly isn't as bad as having my milk stolen). But still. It makes me want to go to Union station and stand around yelling out: DAMN THE MAN!!! THE TTC IS ROBBING US!! THEY MUST BE STOPPED!!

Or........ maybe I'll just let it go.