BUScapades

After almost a week off of work it wasn't as much of a struggle to get to the bus on time as I was anticipating.

What WAS difficult was the glaring lights on it first thing in the morning...I was looking forward to napping on the way to work but the bright lights eliminated that possibility!

They need a dimmer switch...

 

GennyK

BUScapades

Clinic ran late tonite and it was a hectic one. I'm riding home, savouring the anonimity of the bus.
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BUScapades

So its been a month since I've started using the public transit system...and to my surprise its actually been lovely. I have the best bus-pool buddy ever, there is no worrying about traffic or rush hour or weather/road conditions. I've even managed to finish a book!

 

This morning I was enjoying the quiet hum of traffic, reflecting on all the benefits of 'bussing' until...

I hear the distinct sound of someone CLIPPING their nails.

EW EW EW - that goes against every public hygiene/etiquette rule that I can think of!!

 

GennyK

BUScapades

Well, my ban on weather talk is blown before it even got started.
We are currently experiencing the first earnest snowfall of the season. Have been on the bus 40 minutes and travelled less than 10 blocks. Friday afternoon rush hour is not going well!

Hope to be home by 7.

Jenga
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BUScapades

Well this is strange. I have the 29 all to myself this morning. Just me and the driver. Wherever shall I sit!?
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BUScapades

Today I encountered a new situation. I discovered that not all posts are "blogworthy".
Sometimes, I write just to write...always have. I understand that is a sign of a true writer (notice that I did not say a "good" writer).
Today was one of those days. I began my bus stop day writing about the new snow and some drivel about heated bus shacks. Seriously, Jenga? Writing about the weather?
I promise never to bore you, the reader, with paltry weather details. Only if, I might add, there is some significant weather story to tell. And in the midst of a northern winter, in the throes of -40, talk of heated bus shelters may once again surface.

Jenga
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BUScapades

There is a certain comaraderie between regular riders.
At the stop it's a "morning" or a nod in greeting. There is the occasional "cold enough for ya?" in the winter. This morning, I got "it smells like snow today"....I understand this, as I can smell it too.
While aboard the bus, there are cliques. The later bus hosts a group of ladies who, from what I glean from their conversations, have been riding together for years but only know each other from the commute. They don't socialize outside the ride but share personal talk of work, family, and friends.
Then there are the people you see everyday for 30 minutes or more and never talk to but still I feel a connection to them. There's kobo lady who works at the hospital and walks her dog on my parents street. Blonde downtown girl who has the most amazing curly hair I am jealous of. McDonalds guy who's been wearing a toque since September.
My bus people....my community.

Jenga

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BUScapades

For Genga

Mouse at the bus stop
Do you have your bus pass?
What's your destination?
Can I pull the bell for you?

Jenga
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BUScspades

Kind of a sad story this chilly Tuesday morning.

It's barely 7 am and a young man (I know this is anti-stereotypical profiling), about 25 -30yrs, good looking, not shabbily dressed, and carrying a half (opened) wine bottle attempts to board the bus.  He was obviously drunk.

The bus driver, rightly, refused him service as long as he had open liquor.  Kudos to the bus driver.

The first sad segment of this story is obviously the young man:

·         Drunk at 7 am on a Tuesday (not that any other day of the week would be better).

·         Wouldn't toss the wine and get a ride home.

·         He wasn't a belligerent drunk, just sad sounding.

The second sad, and the more disappointing, segment is the other passengers on the bus.  Two women - who were no spring chickens - sat laughing at this scene.  I couldn't disguise my distaste for their behaviour.  This young man is obviously not in a good place and they are enjoying his despair.

I know we have all become accustomed in this city to expect the “losers” of this world to be getting on the bus drunk in the North End or Downtown but “NOT IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD”.  This young man is no different from the homeless addicts downtown in that he has a problem.  It’s certainly not normal for anyone of any race or social status to be drunk at this time of day and carrying an open liquor bottle around on the street.  I couldn’t help wondering what circumstance would have prompted his intoxication this morning.  Not unlike the unwanted homeless, it could have been depression or any number of mental illnesses, a time of acute distress, or an out of control addiction. Either way, it’s really just geography that sets him apart from the “downtown” drunks and we don’t openly laugh at them.  I guess the worst part about the whole thing is that like the other drunks, we didn’t offer help to this young man either.

Jenga

BUScapades

Well, there were rumours of S*** (snow) in parts of the city this morning so I wore my parka...and was glad to have done so.

This afternoon is an entirely different story, however. The sun is shining and it's morphed into a pretty decently warm day. So now I'm MELTING in my parka on the bus ride home.

This is so typical of Winnipeg weather -- known to flucuate as much as 30degrees in 24 hours. I should have known better. How does one, though, prepare for this? I do not fancy packing a bag with outerwear for any eventuality and toting it back and forth everyday. Which leaves me in the (enviable to be sure) position of freezing one minute and boiling the next.

I fear the only "out" is to move to a more even clime. "No way!", I say. I wouldn't give up this town for anything. No hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, deadly arachnids or slithery things. That's all I need to keep me here.

Jenga
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BUScapades

Pea coats. Colourful toques. Gloves. Ah Winter, you are bringing out the wooly fashionistas in all of us.

Where are my cozy mitts? Oh right, on my desk at the office I'm on my way toward. "I won't need those", I told myself Friday afternoon. Hands in pockets I guess.

Stay warm fellow bussers......snow is soon to rear it's ugly cold white head

Jenga
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BUScapades

Wow! Two posts in one day. As I type, there is a dude on rollerblades on the bus arguing with the driver about the safety and regulations about rollerblades on the bus. He's name dropping transit supervisor names (whom he's friends with on Facebook) who told him he could rollerblade on the bus.

If memory serves, and it generally does, rollerblades are prohibited if worn on the bus for OBVIOUS safety reasons for all passengers.

He's a total blowhard and lying through his teeth. The bus in front of us denied him entry.

Sigh....

Jenga
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BUScapades

Crap!  I knew Twitter would be my downfall!

Yesterday I "tweeted" to the transit poeple about an annyoing phenomenon on our city's buses.  Please allow me to regale you with the details here.

It was rush hour on the way home and there were 3 people (apparently together) each with a huge stroller with toddlers aboard taking up the seating reserved for the handicapped.  In total, they were eliminating 8 seats from the bus.  There were several peole standing and an elderly woman with a walker got on.  She had to squeeze past the offenders and nearly fell twice.  A decent guy gave up his seat, helped her sit, and folded up her walker.

Now, in this blogger's humble (?) opinion, the offending parents should have folded strollers, kids on laps, and taken only 4 or 5 spaces - which is still excessive but would allow for handicapped passengers to ride safely.

It is my understanding that our fair city is the only major city to allow strollers on the bus without being tucked away.

Anyone care to weigh in?  Share my righteous indignation?

I'm including a "busology" cartoon borrowed from the Winnipeg Transit website.

Some people make an obstacle course out of the aisle with strollers, and packages. Please keep your belongings out of the way of other passengers

Jenga

BUScapades

There's a blood moon out this morning. A perfect orb of glowing orange. My superstitious side wants to hail it as an omen....or maybe it's just science.

I want so badly to take a picture but alas I'm "enjoying" public transit this morning and I fear the other riders will not like me taking pictures over their heads. I knew I should have sat on the other side!
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BUScapades

Kudos to the bus driver on route 62 this morning! She actually stood up at a stop and asked the kid with the blaring music in his earphones to turn it down.

Sitting close to someone who is giving themself permanent hearing loss is incredibly annoying, not to mention inconsiderate.

Good for you driver!

Jenga
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BUScapades

OK. I freely acknowledge that I'm not a small person and as such, I'm aware of what spaces my body will fit in. It's like paralell parking a Cadillac. You are not going to back it into a space the size of a VW Bug.....right? (Yes, in this scenario I'm a large but luxurious overpriced car)
It's a shame the lady who sat next to me on the bus this morning failed "spacial relations" in fifth grade. She backed her "minivan" ass into a space for a scooter next to me. This, I'm sure caused discomfort for the third person on our bench as well. She then proceeded to reach into her pocket - elbow in my face - numerous times to retrieve books and read several texts.
How she found this arrangement comfortable I will never know.

Sigh.

Jenga
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BUScapades

Scene at the bus stop this morning: older lady, I'd peg her at 75ish, with cane (though surprisingly spry!), smoke in gloved hand, dilligently ridding the sidewalk of cigarette butts with her cane by flicking them into the street. I find this "Blog worthy" as it's the second woman of the same demographic I've seen doing this at this particular stop.

Jenga
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BUSercise

Who needs exercise when you ride the later bus in the morning and you have to stand due to lack of seats?
I call it bus surfing. Great workout for both core (balancing for stops and starts) and legs. Not to mention running to make the connecting bus..

It's only 830 and I'm already sore and tired and I don't start at the actual gym until tomorrow.

Jenga
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BUScapades

Let me tell you about the bus stop today. A woman walks up to the bus shelter, less than 2 feet from a large concrete cigarette disposal, and flicks the lit smoke in her hand onto the ground. I'm pretty sure I gave her a dissapproving look. She sits in the shelter (it's a nice sunny day) yelling at me. Luckily I am wearing my headphones (Evanescence today). Then she hustles herself to the front of the bus line holding her bus ticket out ready to embark....only to stop and question the driver thus holding up the line of people she just cut in front of.

I can only hope she has some mental disorder that would account for this boorish behaviour.

Jenga
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BUScapades

How do you, as a voluptuous woman yourself, tell the larger woman in your bus seat that she is sitting partially on your right leg and elbowing you when she digs around in her purse for her book? You know....without being rude.
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Correction

Seems, in a sleepy heater induced haze this morning, I said I felt like a NAKED potato. What I had intended to say was BAKED potato.

Kind of changes the context of the previous post and makes it slightly less creepy.....zombies and all.

Jenga.
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BUScapades

It's mid-September and the weatherman says -7 today. I hear they are talking windchill....just mere weeks ago they were talking humidex. Sigh...
So, it's cool this morning but not cold by any means and the bus heaters are running full bore! I feel like a naked potato. It's making the passengers look like zombies. Which, I suppose, is somewhat appropriate considering my brain has been "singing" Thriller" since I woke up.

Jenga.
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Misty Melancholy Morning

It's hump day in the 'peg. There's a misty spritz hanging about threatening to rain....and we all wish it would.

Bussers this morning are as subdued as the skies. It's nice not to hear some slack-pants kid's gangsta rap loud and clear through HIS earphones at 7 am for a change!

2 more sleeps 'til long weekend!
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