The subtle rearrangement of my life to accommodate the transit system has been much less subtle than I had hoped. Busses are generally not on time, that's a fact of life... but here, it seems that in order to get anywhere on time, you have to pre-plot a route that transcends normalcy and gives a whole new meaning to creativity. What I mean is that if I know I have to be somewhere at 2:00, I'd best be sure to try to follow the bus schedule that would get me there for 1:00, otherwise all bets are off. Some people have looked at me like I was crazy when I voiced my disgust with this... everyone assumes busses run late, why should I be different? Well, I think the system should be mildly reliable. My observations have been that nearly 60% of the busses I have waited for have been late by over 5 minutes. That's enough time to miss your transfer in many cases. And not all drivers will wait for incoming busses they know people will transfer to. I saw one yesterday where our bus, which was 10 minutes late, arrived right behind another that people would be transferring to. The first bus started to pull away as we stopped. Our driver honked as two people ran to get to the first one, but he drove away without them. Sucks to be them, the next bus of that route scheduled to arrive was in 55 minutes. Loverly, just loverly. I honestly never know for sure if the bus I'm waiting for will show up. On several occasions I've waited for a bus for over 30 minutes with the assurance from the call centre that it would be right there... and it never came... in one case I waited an hour, which at that point should have allowed the next bus on that route to overtake and pass the late bus and get to my stop. It never showed up either, so I walked eight blocks and jumped on another route which went in a similar direction. Anyway, enough ranting about the bus system, it sucks, it always has and until they get a subway, it always will.
Now the people on the bus are nuts too. But everyone knows that as well. What got my goat this week was the little morning 'get-along-gang' at the front of one bus I had to take for 35 minutes. You could tell the driver and everyone up front knew each other. What a bad day to pick a seat near the front and to forget my iPod. Anyone that knows me knows I hate mornings, so my 8am drive with the people nearly drove me over the edge. after 15 minutes I found myself wishing an airliner would hurtle directly into the front of our bus, mercifully ending my misery and taking out those miserable, cheerful fuckers. To be honest, I felt like I was in an episode of Howdy Doody... damn puppet...
My decision to take the bus for a month or so was a smart one and I've found that it's a personal challenge to do it and deal with it. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Either that or it enrages me to the point I nuke the bus station and all the busses there. Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa!!!!!!!
Poit.
