| 8/31 | |||
| I got sick Friday evening, so I took the time off to go to Gary and Margret's wedding in Iowa. Eric, Nancy and I drove down together. |
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| The wedding was really nice. A cricket chirped throughout the whole thing. | |||
| The reception was at the Hotel Pattee in Perry. What a beautiful place. Check out the rooms and suites. I saw the Japanese and the Chinese rooms. | |||
| After the DJ called it a night, we moved to the two-lane bowling alley in the basement. Pants-free bowling ensued. | |||
| Gary and Margret are moving to Princeton, NJ, so I was glad to be able to get down there for their wedding. With my schedule as messed-up as it is, I'm not sure when (or if) I'll see them again before they go. But I can't remember when they're leaving. Anyway, that might have been the most fun I've ever had at a wedding. | |||
| 8/28 | |||
| What we need is a wise-cracking oven mitt. | |||
| I'm still driving in circles around the GMG-T. And it's still pretty great. I typically get moved around so I get to visit with Rosemary early, then Bernice and Jeff for the rest of the day. Jeff is about 20, and he likes to snowboard. It shows. He's working seventeen-hour days. Today he fell asleep and his boss drove by. So he got in a little bit of trouble. But he was wide awake by late morning. | |||
| Monday night I went over to Paul, Jolana and Hannah's house. I helped Paul a little bit with his garage and then he put both of their cars in it for the first time ever. Hannah's getting big and she's getting a personality. She smiles a lot and seems pretty happy, even though she was supposedly grumpy that night. |  |
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| Last night da Mons and I raced each other in cars and those Star Wars racer things, then shot up a bunch of dead guys, monsters and dinosaurs. Yeah, we did like we did in high school and spent an hour playing video games. Only last night, we weren't skipping church. | |||
| 8/26 | |||
| I still love the fair. I got a hold down this week, driving free shuttles to the GMG-T. I seem to be the utility man; I've been moved from one shuttle route to another both days so far. I love driving the shuttles. Time flies and everybody's happy. And I've seen Rosemary both days. She's one of the parking lot workers who I met last year. She's really nice. I also met Bob and Joey, who are working at a church lot. Joey, who will be a senior in high school next year, was getting bored and rode a round trip with me. He told me he'd like to take over for Bob, who's 80, at that lot when Bob decides he's had enough. |  |
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| The Twins game was pretty great on Sunday. The Twins beat the Royals 8-1 and local legend Wally the Beerman stopped by! That's Wally and me hanging out over there... | |||
| I drove an articulated bus today that just happened to be sent to my garage straight from Hades. I had to stand on the pedals to accelerate and brake. I can still feel it. Three ladies got on at the fair and when we got to their stop, one of them noticed that she was in a "double bus." | |||
| "Is this a double bus?" me: "Um, yes." "Was it like this when we left down there?" me: <astonished silence> I managed a nod... | |||
| If you get together with the rest of Minnesota at the fair, don't miss the Delicious Knishes outside the main gate on Midway Parkway. Their sign does not lie. | |||
| 8/23 | |||
| What do I love? The Great Minnesota Get-Together! Yeah! My dad and I went today. We ate quite a bit of health food. I had a Pronto Pup, a chocolate shake, roasted corn on the cob, a turkey leg, chocolate-covered frozen key lime pie on a stick, and Tom Thumb mini-donuts. | |||
| I think we saw most of what there is to see. We looked at a lot of cars. Mazda has an RX-8 on display. I still miss my RX-7, but I sure like that RX-8. At one point, Dad went to find a place to sit while I checked out a Chevrolet SSR. He went in the direction of a stage where a band was covering a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. It was loud, so when I looked for him, I kind of looked in the areas far away from the band. I found him sitting in the fifth row, right in the middle. ha. That was their last song. We stuck around to watch the Hip Hop Co-op, which he also enjoyed. They were pretty entertaining. We also saw Henry, the biggest boar in Minnesota. He weighed in at 1040 lbs. Check that guy out. |  |
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| I'm living at my home now. Duke was pretty good this time around. | |||
| Have you been getting a ton of emails created by that Sobig worm? I sure have. | |||
| I drove a State Fair shuttle yesterday. I like driving those. We don't have to collect a fare and everyone's happy to be there. As a result, it's quite relaxing. I have a hold down this week, driving a Fair shuttle every day. It should be nice. | |||
| I saw my old friend Nate H. on Thursday. He was walking past my bus. We went to school from 6th grade through high school. I got too cool for him later on, but that was my problem. He was a really good guy. And really smart. We were in all the smart kid classes together, but he got A+ after A+ while I got Bs. Which is why he went to Yale, or wherever. Of course, when I saw him, I yelled "Walt!" That's what we called him, but obviously, it's not his real name. So he didn't look. (By yelling the wrong name, I probably just saved him some puzzlement, really...) nathan hudson | |||
| And, in words that will strike fear into every mom named Joyce, I drove the 5 the other day. It went well. The first really drunk guy who ever rode with me got on. He's ridden with me a lot, always drunk, no matter what time of day it is. Though I find it hard to believe, he wasn't drunk this time. | |||
| Twins game tomorrow... | |||
| 8/19 | |||
| All the Days of LouElla's Children's Lives, the soap opera about the craziest family I've ever had the pleasure to know, continues... | |||
| I just got back from a full-body massage. Yeah, I feel much better. You need to get one. | |||
| I saw Driver Groupie the other day! Of course, she was riding with Joe, her favorite driver. Joe and I got to talk a little bit. That poor guy. We're in the middle of picking our next work. He always suggests to DG that he might go to a different garage and he never tells her what he picks. That way he gets a couple weeks of normalcy before she finds him and figures out his schedule. | |||
| I can go back to Nicollet next pick. I am making a list of pros and cons. I'm pretty sure that I'll go back. | |||
| I drove the 20 Sunday. It was pretty slow. In fact, an early-teen kid who rode with me on one trip from south Minneapolis to downtown told me, "You better get some customers if you want to get paid!" as he was getting off the bus. | |||
| I was on call yesterday. The hot weather keeps us busy. Driver 2165 told me that seven of his last nine buses had broken down. I filled in on a trip on the 180, then went out on a 98. I got to my destination and immediately went out to trade buses with a guy whose bus broke down. Then I waited for a mechanic to show up. The bus he brought had a bad radio, so I went back to the garage. Then, when it was time for me to go home, I made a bus change on the 16. I love days like that. | |||
| 8/16 | |||
| I haven't been home too much lately. I've been hanging out with Duke. I think that's a pretty good picture of Duke. (It's a thumbnail.) In fact, I spent my weekend (Wednesday and Thursday) watching DVDs. I just didn't feel like doing anything. So I watched Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Big Lebowski, Monster's Ball, Punch-Drunk Love, Run Lola Run and Office Space. I can't say I didn't like any of them. I'd already seen the first two. |  |
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| Duke's doing a lot better this time around. He's eating and he seems as happy as usual. | |||
| I drove the 180 today, back and forth from downtown Minneapolis to the Mall of the Universe. I thought I was going to get slaughtered, but it went really well. There just aren't a lot of people around this weekend. (The 180 is a big tourist bus, of course.) Plus the heat and humidity probably kept some people inside. | |||
| Unlike last Sunday when I drove the 180, I didn't go into the break room at the Mall to get a handful of the hot dog-flavored almonds from the vending machine. | |||
| I had a split yesterday. The first part was a couple express trips in a bus that can do 0-60 in never. | |||
| The second part was the 12 until 2:00 am. It was pretty slow all night. On one trip, a couple guys got on at the Uptown station and I knew right away that they were messed up. The younger one is a kid who rode my bus a few months ago. That time, he was so messed up that he couldn't even talk. He didn't know where he was or anything. Well, last night he was drunk+ again, but at least he could talk and he knew where he was going. | |||
| The other guy asked me if I had change for a hundred. (Yeah, just a second, here you go...) Then he couldn't come up with any money at all. I stopped around the corner to let him out so he could go buy something somewhere and get change (and catch the next bus). He just sat there and looked through his wallet. After I mentioned the location of the door a couple more times, I just left. Then about fifteen minutes later, as I stopped at a railroad crossing, he decided that he wanted to get out. In fact, he apparently wanted to get out a block or two earlier. And he was getting angry, called me a dog. And so I reminded him that all he has to do is pull the cord to let me know when he wants out. (You know, like a well-trained dog...) | |||
| Well, it's 10:00 pm and I still need to check on my parents' house and get something to eat... | |||
| 8/12 | |||
| I've been on call for the last couple days. I made a bunch of bus changes and did a couple S-98s. 98s go out during rush hour and sit at designated spots, ready to replace bad buses or fill in on any route in the system if necessary. |  |
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| I've also been Steve-sitting and now I'm Duke-sitting. I think that's a pretty good picture of Steve. It's a thumbnail... | |||
| 8/10 | |||
| The extra board cycle worked its way around to afternoons and evenings for me. | |||
| I was split yesterday on the 16, out late. The 16 is an entertaining route; it runs through some of the sketchier parts of St. Paul. I had the usual late-night drunks, but everyone was well-behaved. Except the dumbass U of M kid who put his cigarette out on the side of my bus. I raised my voice in his direction and he asked me if I was having a bad night. ha. Nice try. I was having a most excellent night and I told him so. | |||
| The Vikings played last night. The 16 runs right by the Metrodome. That was a fairly significant traffic headache for a couple trips. | |||
| The Coach, #48, Shawn M. was in town this weekend and I missed him. That bummed me out. I can't remember when I saw him last. I'm thinking that some of next year's vacation time might be spent on a road trip to Nebraska and Iowa to see all kinds of people who I haven't seen for way too long. | |||
| Here's a little something that can be found on the current issue of TAKEOUT, the hanging information brochures on the buses: | |||
Please limit phone calls |
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| Seriously. While I have no argument with the plea for considerate behavior and low voices, I'm going to write to whoever's responsible for that and suggest the following be put on the next issue of TAKEOUT: | |||
| Please limit human
interaction Conversation with other people has become part of our daily routine. While talking is allowed on [MT] buses, lengthy conversations are discouraged. Remember that everyone around you on the bus has to listen to your conversation. Please be considerate of other passengers - limit your conversations to just a few minutes and keep your voice low. Better yet, shut yer trap altogether so you and your fellow commuters can enjoy the ride. Thanks! |
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| 8/7 | |||
| I got my truck back from the shop just in time to take my new iMac in for repair at the Apple store. The backlight wasn't behaving. So I can't get any email at the TL address for a while. (I don't feel like setting it up on this computer again.) | |||
| I had noon call today. (Yippee!) It was nice to sleep until I wanted to. I made a bus change and then drove a stub in the evening. | |||
| When I was living in Eric's house, he rode the bus to work for a month or two. He was amused by the people who had clearly been waiting for the bus for a while and yet weren't ready with their fare when they got on. That happens so often I barely notice anymore. | |||
| But today I picked up a woman in downtown Minneapolis. We arrived at the Plymouth Road Transit Center, her stop, about 25 minutes later. It was an express bus, a pay-as-you-leave route. She stood there and dug through her purse. I gave her one full minute (I watched my clock) before I told her not to worry about it. She protested ("I have a card!") but I basically kicked her off. | |||
| I think there was something else... | |||
| 8/6 | |||
| I just talked to Andy and I'll be getting a new alternator in my truck. That'll be nice, I guess. Because, you know, it'll go again. | |||
| I got my notes (and my uniform) from da Mons' house. | |||
| I see that I saw Wyatt and Tina sitting outside of Town Hall Brewery on Monday afternoon. I was sitting at the light across the street and it was a pretty long light, so Tina waved a pretty long time. | |||
| Oh, and a group of 18 kids from a day camp or a daycare got on my bus. I asked them if they knew any songs, hoping for something they'd learned together. They started in on a couple of songs, but it didn't sound like they all knew them. And they were really boring. "Wheels on the Bus" ??? I mean, they got points for appropriateness (predictability?), but seriously. What are they teaching kids these days? | |||
| 8/5 | |||
| I think I have quite a bit to write about, but I left my notes at da Mons' house last night. I also left my little pickup at da Mons' house last night, but not by choice. Richfield Amoco, here I come. Hopefully Andy and the boys will find a quick and cheap fix... | |||
| I had a long day at work yesterday. It was a 10-hour piece of work, split and spread out over 12½ hours. I got home for a little nap during the split. | |||
| I drove the 8 in the morning. Somewhere on my pullout, I assume, I blew out the bellows on the curbside of my bus. I'm not even going to pretend that I think I'm even using that phrase properly or that I really know what the bellows are. But it had everything to do with the bus riding very low on the right side. It's as if the shocks died completely. (My assumption is that basically the bellows are pneumatic shock absorbers.) The people getting on the bus actually had to lean forward while they paid. I got a new bus for my last trip. Yesterday was also the second day in two weeks that I've written up the Bad Order Bus Holy Trinity. I wrote up the farebox, the SmartCom [sic] radio system and the bus itself. Three forms in two hours. Not bad. | |||
| You probably know that the bus can't stop on a dime, especially if there are passengers on board. And we're supposed to keep an eye on green lights that are going to change. That's easy on a familiar route, more difficult when the route is unfamiliar. I have a good feel for the lights on the 18, a route I've driven a lot, but I don't know the 8 at all. So, even though I should have had a better idea, I got caught by a light change on Franklin Avenue on the east bank of the Mississippi. When I stopped, I was a few feet over the crosswalk. That's a complicated intersection, but I wasn't in the way of traffic. So it wasn't a very big deal. But I couldn't make my right turn on red, so I sat there. As I waited for the other fifteen streets to get their lights, I heard someone yell what I thought was "Mark!" I looked to my right and saw a nicely dressed late-40s guy on his bicycle. He looked angry. Sure enough, my late stop had forced him to go out of his way. As he drove those extra ten feet, he glared at me and yelled, "Are you out of your MIND?!?" | |||
| I thought it was a good thing that he was bicycling to work, because he's going to need all the exercise he can get for when his type-spazz personality catches up with his heart in a couple of years. | |||
| 8/2 | |||
| It's Uptown Nightmare time. I drove the 12 today, terminating in Uptown. It wasn't too bad, really. I feel bad for the folks driving on Hennepin Avenue. | |||
| I talked with a Samoan/Hawaiian guy who moved to Minneapolis about five years ago. In November. He got off the plane wearing shorts and slippers. He really likes it here. And regarding the cold, he says that if we can do it, he can do it. | |||
 The X is for Xtreme! Dude!!! |
 Tim spends a lot of time alone making pottery. |
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| Hey, you can see that I got my new phone. It's pretty cool. I went back to the Nightmare on my own time. (And I took the bus.) My friend Annette's husband Tim is showing his plates and bowls and vases. It was a beautiful day, so I hung out for a couple hours. | |||
| 8/1 | |||
| Well, I got back from Wausau. It went quickly, but I had a great time with my grandparents and my cousin Todd. I saw Todd's wife Sue briefly, but she left town on Tuesday. | |||
| As I pulled off Highway 29 into Abbotsford, WI for a traditional trip-to-Wausau ice cream cone, I got sick of the tape I was listening to and popped it out. One thing's for certain: when you travel in Wisconsin, you'll never be hurtin' for classic rock on the radio. So I cruised through Abbotsford with Judas Priest blasting... Eastside B-towners represent! | |||
| Todd and I went to the Wisconsin Valley Fair. That was pretty great, too. We ran into a bunch of our extended family (our mothers' cousins and their families). It was nice to see them there, as I wouldn't have otherwise. | |||
| There have been a dozen fires set in the past couple of months in my grandparents' neighborhood, I think mostly in garages. They live in a retirement high-rise, and I don't think they are too worried about it. This is pretty funny, though. | |||
| Hey, did you hear that the Vatican declared that gluttonous individuals should no longer eat at Old Country Buffet or any other all-you-care-to-eat restaurant and that it would be "gravely immoral" for anyone to support a glutton who did? | |||
| Also in the news: John Poindexter continues to prove himself to be one class act. | |||
| Good news from the workplace. Ten new full-time hires! | |||
| I saw Driver Groupie last Monday on the Nicollet Mall. She yelled my name when I pointed to her, but I caught a green light before she decided whether or not she was going to get up and try to catch up to me. | |||
Lloyd's Last Day |
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| Today was Lloyd's last day riding the 134. He's ridden it to work for eight years. Well, Lloyd retired and he's going to move to Florida. A lady made a trip to the Mall of the Universe for a few boxes of Krispy Kremes (a couple of days ago by the taste of them...) and handed them out to everyone who wanted one. Several ladies then led a rousing (for 6:15 am) rendition of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" to top off the celebration of Lloyd and His Eight Years of Riding the 134. | |||
