| 4/26-5/1 | ||
| I'm
vacationing in... Oregon by John Linnell Oregon is bad Stop it if you can Here it comes Here it comes Now it's after you Flee to someplace new Run away Run away From the penthouse to the prison Oregon is bad Oregon is bad |
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| 4/25 | ||
| I had a relatively low-key day yesterday. | ||
| I saw Oz a couple times. He got on my bus and rode for a few blocks to the most savory intersection of Nicollet and Franklin. Then on the way back through, I had to kill some time at that intersection. He was standing about ten feet from my bus, but he didn't notice that I was talking to him with the external speaker on my PA. He was deeply engrossed in conversation with another guy; I'm sure they were probably discussing the obesity-cancer link or the election in Argentina. (I find it interesting that that last one is on the business page at cnn.com.) | ||
| One of my favorite passengers, an older African lady, rode with me. I don't see her very often, but she always gives me something. Once it was a pack of Juicy Fruit. Last night it was a handful of peppermints. | ||
| And 360° got on my bus again. He's getting ready to sell his house and move to Tyler, Texas. Why anyone would want to move to Texas is beyond me. I've long advocated giving it back to Mexico. | ||
| 4/23 | ||
| I had an action-packed couple of days. | ||
| More birthdays yesterday, which was also Earth Day: my cousin Todd, my ex-girlfriend Aimee, and Jamie! | ||
| I got up yesterday morning and drove to Rock Island. I stopped in Iowa City to get fish for sushi and while I was there, tried to find Ross. I worked with him at Cambus and he drives for Iowa City Transit. I couldn't find him. | ||
| So I drove to Rock Island and Jamie showed me around the library where she works. | ||
| Then we went to her apartment and people started to show up for her birthday party. It was fun. I saw some folks I haven't seen for a while and met some others who I've heard a little about. Of course the best part was meeting Eric, her fiancé. Hell of a guy. Overall, I'd say a good time was had by most. | ||
| I got up this morning and drove to Iowa City, where I met Ross at work. He was on call. I saw the inner workings of Iowa City Transit. Then Cat came to work. I worked with her at Cambus, too. So that was cool. | ||
| Then, on my way back to Minneapolis, I stopped in Decorah to see Betsy and her fiancé Ketel and also Annette, plus Annette's husband Tim and daughter Ruby. Ketel was out of town. It would have also been nice to see Bill and Ryan, who I know from library school, but I didn't. | ||
| I'm pretty tired. I think that might explain the severe dryness of this entry. | ||
| More NicWit today... | ||
| 4/20 | ||
| It's a big day today. Easter, the anniversary of Columbine, Hitler's birthday, Driver 2165's birthday. But best of all, it's my brother Corey's birthday! He's 31 today. |  our little birthday guy |
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| I went over to Rosemary's house for brunch this morning. Rosemary is my parents' neighbor. She had most of her family over and there were a lot of kids. Her daughter Michelle was my first kiss; we were in kindergarten. If you're looking for a trustworthy mechanic in Minneapolis (Richfield), Michelle's husband Andy owns the gas station where I get my truck worked on. It's the Amoco on the corner of 76th and Lyndale. Go there. | ||
| Rosemary made me an Easter basket again this year. She really is awfully nice. |  thanks, Rosemary! |
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| I just got off the phone with Jamie. She requested my presence at her 30th birthday party on Tuesday. I told her I'd try to get there. But I am 34 now. I think that's a little old for those kind of road trips. We'll see. It would mean pushing back lunch with Kevin a couple weeks and moving a visit to the chiropractor to Friday. | ||
| I got an email from someone's mom today. She poked her head in here. Good thing I put all those asterisks in the naughty words, huh? | ||
| No one swore at me today. It was Easter, cold and rainy. I guess that means not too many people are going to get out and ride the 6. | ||
| I saw Will, a guy who rode my bus every day when I was part-time. The last time I talked to him, he was trying to get custody of his kids. He doesn't have all that worked out yet. | ||
| One guy got on and sat for a while. Then he asked me, "You know what I heard on the radio today?" I asked what. "You know who Mick Jagger is, right?" A fair question in this day and age, I guess. I said yes. "Mick Jagger bought his daughter a Learjet for Christmas." Small chitchat ensued for about twenty seconds. Pause... pause... pause. "We sure are kicking ass in Iraq, aren't we?" San Dimas High School football rules! | ||
| And in the Strange department, someone took a pretty healthy stack of 6 schedules from my bus. I looked up while I was on a layover and noticed that they were all gone. I know that it wasn't that I simply ran out, because when I got to the bus in the garage, there were already some on it. So I started out with twice as many as I usually do. | ||
| 4/19 | ||
| Well, the action on the bus sure has picked up in the last week or so. I had more fun on the 18 last night. | ||
| I picked up a guy at 43rd Street headed north into downtown. He had been drinking and it wasn't long before he was telling me all about 360°, as in a circle. He has the idea that when two people are supposed to be together, it will make 360°. Two people who have been married for 40 years? 360°. The reason men cheat? They're in relationships that aren't 360° and they're looking to fill in the rest. Anything short of 360°? That's a friend. Talking, talking, talking... | ||
| As he was telling me that the closest that he's ever been is 300°, another guy got on. They started talking about 360°. Then, at 26th Street, a third guy got on. He was young, well-dressed and quite drunk. He sat down near a lady and she moved. So he got up and wandered toward the back, then wandered up and sat down next to the talking guy, with the second guy across the aisle. And guy #3 told someone to shut up, gave someone the finger and pretty much tried to start a fight. By then we were stopped at Franklin Avenue (which would be 20th Street) and I kicked guy #3 off. He slowly walked in front of my bus and stopped. He stared at me, gave me the finger, and stumbled across the street. | ||
| Then we drove by a transit police car blocking the street in front of a southbound 18. | ||
| And now the conversation had miraculously moved away from 360°. The new topic was earrings on men. "I was in a store and some guy was with his sister and he was looking for earrings for himself. The bible says that in the end times, men will look like women and women will look like men!" I said, "No, it doesn't!" And both guys said, "Yes, it does!" And the conversation got louder and funnier and funnier. And I was laughing so hard I was in tears. | ||
| 4/18 | ||
| Jim Casci, St. Paul's next mayor, was living it up at Rick's Cabaret last night. You can't have a link to Rick's. Your boss will fire you. | ||
| Two drunk women splashed into my bus last night. One of them managed to give me a dollar for both of them and while I was waiting for the rest of their fare, they went to the back and sort of sat down. About five minutes into their ride I had to ask them to settle down. They were babbling and yelling and staggering around between seats. Everyone was happy when they flopped out the back door downtown at 6th Street. Then one of them decided she wanted to get back on my bus. ha. There was no way I was going to let her on again. She started screaming, "F*CK YOU, B*TCH! YOU B*TCH!" Over and over. | ||
| 4/15 | ||
| I went golfing again today. | ||
| Eric and I planned on going 9 holes, but 18 was just a few dollars more... | ||
| We got paired with a couple of younger guys: an out-of-work litigation attorney and a music teacher on spring break. They were nice guys and fairly relaxed, so it was easy to golf with them. | ||
| I didn't golf very well, but I showed improvement, so I don't think the coach is going to cut me yet. My final score looks a little like this: (Ooh fun! A number game!) | ||
| Take the number of days of Christmas and multiply it by the number of days in Ramadan. Take that result and add 20. Subtract the number of days in a year and add the number of studio albums by Pure Prairie League. Multiply that result by the number of currently known flavors of quarks. Now you're close. Subtract the number of holes of golf I played in the last two days, then subtract oh, how about 1? Then subtract the number of eggs that made it home with me intact after my last trip to the grocery store and you'll have my score. | ||
| Um, sorry. I'm sunburned and all wiped out. | ||
| 4/14 | ||
| I went golfing this morning. In spite of not having been out for a couple years, I shot a 45 on nine holes. I got some good shots off and had a very nice time. Oh, and you knew this was coming, right? It was a par 3 course. | ||
| Eric is ready to go out again tomorrow. I just might go. | ||
| On my way back home this evening, I stopped for some groceries at Lund's at Highway 62 and Penn Avenue. There is a bench at a bus stop across the street. The sign on the back of the bench says: | ||
McDonald's |
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| The problem is that Southtown is more like two miles from that bench. You can click on the map on the right, which I swiped from Mapquest, to see the distance. You should ignore the fact that Mapquest doesn't want you to drive down Penn Avenue to get from Penn and Highway 62 to Penn and Highway 494. The AVOID HIGHWAYS option still sends you over to 66th and 35W via 62. Anyway, I was thinking that maybe the sign on the bench was a clever trap put up by the business owners on Penn between 62 and 494. |  |
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| 4/13 | ||
| It was beautiful day today and everyone was driving on Hennepin Avenue. And around Lake Calhoun. And they were in my way. But it was OK, because it was beautiful day. | ||
| One pleasant fellow who got on my bus wanted someone else's transfer. I didn't give it to him. Technically, transfers aren't transferable to another person. Not that they don't get handed off all the time. But I'm not supposed to condone it. And when it comes down to it, it's a matter of bringing money in and trying to keep my job. Anyway, on his way out the door, I said, "Have a good one." He said, "Yeah, f*ck you!" | ||
| A little while later, four girls got on the bus. They were loud. Very. They sat in the back and I could hear everything. I was getting tired of it and I was trying to decide what to say when one of them screamed, "SHUT THE F*CK UP!" My temper flared a bit and I got on the PA. "Hey! You shut [pause, temper dies] up, please. I don't think anyone appreciates the language. Thank you." And they were quiet the rest of the trip. I'm a lot more tolerant of that stuff when I'm driving the 18 or the 21, but the 6 tends to be a very quiet route and I think the clientele like it like that. | ||
| I dropped one guy off at 50th and France and picked him up again on my way back through. He told me he'd been to a wake and now he was going to work. On his way out the door he said, "That guy was a month away from his 90th birthday. We hoped he could make it. He loved his booze." Let that be a lesson to you. | ||
| 4/12 later | ||
| I guess the big news is that the University of Minnesota men's hockey team beat New Hampshire 5-1 this evening for their second national championship in a row. And some of the more sophisticated members of the student body opted to celebrate like real adults. Maybe 2nd place would have been just fine. | ||
| I saw Oz again today. He was sleeping like a baby in the Columbia Heights Transit Hub. I didn't wake him up. | ||
| I drove the 18 all day today. Near the end of my night, a couple got on the bus, clearly on a date. They sat in the seats to my right. | ||
| And the woman totally shot the guy down. She isn't "ready to be tied down" because she "just got out of a relationship" and she wants "to be free." And she didn't want him to think of her as his girlfriend. She wants to be friends. Um, talking talking blah blah blah etc. It took ten minutes and she was still talking when they got off the bus. | ||
| It sounded like something straight out of How to Be a Girl 101. She really needs to enroll in How to Be a Girl 201 so she can learn to use such beauties as: "Dinner would be nice... [just kidding]," and "No, I don't want to go on a date but don't stop calling me, either." Or is that graduate-level material? | ||
| 4/12 | ||
| I ran into the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority Driver of the Year yesterday! Yeah, Paul was at my garage for aerosol training. He's driving the notorious 5 line now; I assume that's why he wants to carry the chemicals. | ||
| I had a pretty nice day yesterday. The weather is just about perfect- sunny, warm and dry. I got out of my bus at one terminal and some guy was all mad at me because I wouldn't let him on the bus while I took a quick walk. | ||
| I gave Oz a quick ride. Not much to report there. | ||
| Maybe I'll get to a St. Paul Saints game this year. (Maybe I won't- that has to be the toughest ticket in town.) It looks like the August 16 game is the one to get to. | ||
| 4/11 | ||
| I saw the Daff late last night. He was walking into a gas station on Nicollet. He didn't see me. | ||
| A drunk guy grabbed my radio and tried to make a call because I wouldn't give him an extra transfer. He said he wanted to talk to the police; they'd make me give him one. I sort of wish he'd gotten ahold of them. That would have been interesting. Instead, he sat down with his girlfriend and calmed down. Dumbass. | ||
| I see that Guy on Bicycle's and Snoop Dogg's programmi grandi were thwarted yesterday by a well-regulated militia (necessary to the security of a free state). I'm glad I wasn't driving the 21. | ||
| 4/10 1:18am | ||
| Mark and I just got back from seeing Kathleen Edwards at Lee's Liquor Lounge. Oh, so very good. | ||
| Here's a bit of an email that I got from an old friend of mine who's a teacher now. I'm putting it here completely without permission: | ||
| ...my kids are reading here for ten minutes...and one of them smells like pumpkins...you know that smell...old halloween jack o' lanterns on the compost heap | ||
| Well, it's still making me laugh a day later. | ||
| Hey, I finally did something with my books page. Raise your hand if you can believe it. I think I can maintain this one. The trouble with the whole thing is that I read a lot more magazines than I do books. | ||
| If you remember my entry on 4/2, you might recall that there's a lady who likes to sit on my bus through one of my layovers every Wednesday. (If you don't recall that one, I've helpfully left it below.) | ||
| Today my evasion plan worked. I sat in the cul-de-sac for nine minutes and enjoyed my layover a little early. And the rest of my day was better as a result. Yes, I know how silly that is. | ||
| 4/7 when I started typing, 4/8 when I finished | ||
| I watched my first and last complete college basketball game of the season tonight. Syracuse thought about blowing it, but held on to beat Kansas for the national championship. I met some people in St. Paul to watch it. | ||
| I was already in St. Paul when Wyatt called to tell me where they were. I had gone to Hamline University to see Vincent Bugliosi. He is probably most famous for prosecuting the Manson Family and writing Helter Skelter. Today, he mostly spoke about his latest book, The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President. (And I couldn't even make it through that linked review. I heard it all today...) He was really interesting. Yeah, he's really upset with the five Supreme Court justices who stopped the Florida recount. | ||
| Added bonus: Former Governor Jesse "The Mind" Ventura was in attendance. | ||
| 4/7 | ||
| I talked to Oz this morning. We didn't really talk yesterday. | ||
| He told me he got stabbed a couple weeks ago in St. Paul. It wasn't too bad, but he went to the hospital a few days later. When he was there, a couple of cops found out who he was, arrested him and he went to jail for a while. And why did he have a warrant out for his arrest? He didn't show up for a court appearance last month. | ||
| So today I told him that when he gets himself together and gets a job, I'll be happy to help him out. But in the meantime, I can't do it. (I pretty much told him what I wrote below.) | ||
| I feel like a hypocrite. | ||
| 4/6 | ||
| I just looked through the headlines on my homepage (I use my.yahoo) and this one caught my eye: | ||
| OK, seriously. If she wasn't from West Virginia, would whoever wrote that headline have even considered using the word kin? | ||
| When I wear my uniform in public, I rarely get looks of admiration. Not that I expect it, of course. But I usually get "What bus do you drive?" A butcher at my grocery store has twice asked me if I work a lot of splits. And it's good for 10% off at Karmelkorn at Southdale. So, bottom line, it hasn't gotten me a girlfriend or anything but it's OK for popcorn. | ||
| This evening I went into Southdale for a cookie and milk at Mrs. Field's. The kid behind the counter told me he gives a "personal discount" for bus drivers because he rides the bus a lot. He's my new best friend. | ||
| And I was driving through Uptown when a lot of noise made me jump. It was a marching band. But it looked like a bunch of people who just showed up at Hennepin and Lake, happened to have the requisite instruments for a marching band and decided to play some sort of jazz thing. | ||
| I saw Oz today. I haven't answered my phone for about a month when I suspect it's him. He pushed it with me when he called me on a Friday last month and told me he knew it was my payday and then asked me for money. I helped him out in February because he found a place to stay but needed to pay some rent. He told me that he was going to get a job and that was the last time he was going to ask me for money. Well, needless to say, I've heard all that before. I guess it takes about 2˝ years for me to get tired of hearing something. | ||
| 4/5 later | ||
| I'm pleased to report that the first of seven Sugarplastic 7-inch singles showed up at my house today. You can follow the links from their site, or just go to Tallboy Records for ordering information. I'm quite sure you want to. Oh yeah, if you are looking at this at work and someone might be upset by a little tiny picture of boobs, be careful. | ||
| Speaking of music, have you purchased Kathleen Edwards Failer yet? What are you waiting for? If you like Lucinda Williams (and don't tell me you don't), you're in for a treat. And I've heard nothing but good things about Lucinda's new one, so I guess I'll check that out. | ||
| I met Aloma today. The first words he said to me were, "How you doing, you blue-eyed, curly-headed piece of sh*t?" Then he asked me my name and introduced himself. He's about 50 and (obviously) very friendly. He had chef's pants on and I asked him where he worked. He's the chef at a frat house at the U of M. I guess that explains the greeting. On his way out the door, he tousled my hair. | ||
| 4/5 early morning | ||
| I got a call from Eric, who's in Las Vegas, wondering if the Jamie who's getting married is the one he knows. Yes it is. | ||
| And hello to Jamie's mom, who takes a peek in this direction every once in a while. My mom reads it, too. And my aunts. That's why I keep it nice and clean. | ||
| I got some not wholly unexpected, but kind of depressing news today. Due to budget cuts, my part-time instructor Ken is now a lowly driver. Well, he's a lowly driver with some killer seniority. My full-time instructor, Gil, is also a driver now. And that's too bad. With the hiring freeze, it makes sense and everything, but those guys were both really good instructors. I assume they'll be back in their old positions when things start rolling again. | ||
| It's cold outside. It snowed all day. We start daylight savings tomorrow. | ||
| 4/4 | ||
| As promised all those months ago, the mystery guest contributor finally coughed up the goods. He's a fellow bus driver and Olympic champion diver. I made a page for him. | ||
| Um, is my friend Mel hot or not? | ||
| Did you see ABC's makeover? | ||
| It was a slow day on the bus yesterday, but I did see a lot of fire engines and ambulances in a hurry. I assumed that the message we got from Control warning us of black ice had everything to do with it. | ||
| 4/2 | ||
| Quiet day on the bus today. | ||
| Listen, here's something you need to know about bus drivers. (And I do think this applies to almost every driver I know.) | ||
| When we get to the end of a line and we have a layover, we like to have some time alone. I don't care how quietly you can sit and how much of your own business you can mind, if you are on a bus and it's not within a couple minutes of the scheduled departure time, you are very likely annoying the driver. | ||
| Every Wednesday, on my first trip to St. Louis Park, a woman gets on my bus about three blocks before the layover, sits behind me on the right, waits out the layover and then rides back into Minneapolis. If she would wait 15 minutes and cross the street, I'd be there to pick her up on my way into Mpls with a big smile on my face. | ||
| The company I work for has a policy that passengers can sit on the bus during layovers. But the bus driver is supposed to be on board. So often, the only way I can get a break is to leave the bus and come back when it's time to go. However, I have been getting off the bus and letting this woman stay on, because, quite frankly, I think I'm a little more uptight about the whole thing than I need to be. | ||
| Today, though, I had a plan. | ||
| I was going to take my layover a little bit early. I drive into a cul-de-sac near some apartments about three minutes before I get to that woman's stop. On previous weeks, my bus has been empty long before I get there. So I was going to pull over at an out-of-the-way bus stop in that cul-de-sac, relax for ten minutes, then proceed. | ||
| Naturally, today a guy rode with me all the way to the end of the line. So we picked up that lady again. | ||
| I think I'm going to have to get over it. | ||
| 4/1 | ||
| OK, Jamie's had a lot of time to tell us all that she's kidding, so I'm going to go ahead and believe that she's engaged. Yeah, I know I'm kind of a jerk. I am truly sorry about that. | ||
| Yesterday, my mom and I went to the Minnesota Masonic Home Care Center to visit Marcie, who babysat me when I was 2 and 3. She's 87 now and recovering from a knee replacement surgery. But she was really in good spirits and anxious to get home. I was happy to see her again. I don't remember much of my time at her house, but I have distinct memories of her kitchen, her basement and her husband Al, who died a long time ago. The best part about visiting the Masons' hospital was that we got to watch the goat sacrifice and hear the monthly clue regarding the identity of Jesus' living descendents. Um, ha. | ||
| I hung out with Wyatt and Tina the rest of the day. We watched the Twins (win). Then we went shopping and played a lot of games: You Don't Know Jack (2), Yahtzee (2), Sorry! (3), Clue (1) and Scrabble (1). | ||
| I visited the record shop today. That store and I are both glad I made the trip. | ||
| So did you hear that we haven't found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Am I being far too Dale Gribble when I suggest that it would not be above our military and our government to plant some wmd to "find"? Yeah, I guess that's just ridiculous. Our government has never lied to us before... | ||
| 4/1 12:30am | ||
| Great news! Jamie grew an inch last year! And she's getting married! | ||
| Yeah, I know. I heard about it yesterday and immediately emailed my doubts. I mean, who grows an inch in their late twenties? She seemed to be genuinely annoyed that I'm doubting her. But I talked to Eric (that's her fella) and he told me the story about proposing to her. I don't know. It would be a great joke, especially if they're making it so elaborate. | ||
| Seriously, how can she be mad at me for somehow feeling that this might be a big April Fool's prank? (She's kind of mad at me.) | ||
| I asked for a reminder on the 2nd so I can relax and be happy for her without feeling like a sucker. ('Cause if it's not a joke, that's pretty sweet, really.) |