| 10/30 12:55am | ||
| I had a busy day. | ||
| At about noon, I caught the bus to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I visited my friend Alysia, who's a librarian at the Minnesota College of Art and Design. | ||
| Then I ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the museum. | ||
| I went into the museum with a purpose. I was trying to get psyched to attend the Paul Wellstone memorial service at Williams Arena at the U of M. | ||
| I paid a little extra to see a special exhibit called AMERICAN SUBLIME: EPIC LANDSCAPES OF OUR NATION 1820-1880. It was pretty good, really. I'm not necessarily a fan of landscape paintings, but it provided a certain calm that I needed to deal with a memorial service. | ||
| Included in the exhibit is Thomas Cole's The Course of Empire series. It was rather interesting, but as with all landscapes, I have a hard time calling it art. I say that with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, for what it's worth. | ||
| I went to the Wellstone memorial. I was about 75 feet from Bill and Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, etc. etc. | ||
| The service itself had all the trappings of a liberal feel-good session. You know, the kind of thing that makes the conservatives smirk. Well, to be truthful, some of it made me squirm, but that's my problem, isn't it? | ||
| 10/28 | ||
| Yesterday was a busy day at work. I went 2-0 in cribbage and 0-1 in rummy. | ||
| After work, I went to Wyatt and Tina's to watch the Vikings WIN. We carved pumpkins and eventually, a few other folks stopped by with food. It was a nice, relaxing day. | ||
| I drove a quick trip on the 21 this morning. It's a trip that runs between the regularly scheduled buses to alleviate morning rush hour crowding. | ||
| I was on a split, so I had to sit at the garage for a couple hours, then I got to go. I came home for a nap and lunch and went back to work to drive the 18 for a few hours. | ||
| Will got on my bus this evening. I used to talk to him daily when I was part-time and had the same route every morning. He's a nice guy, works a warehouse job in Bloomington. I think his boss likes him so he gets treated pretty well, relatively speaking. | ||
| Tonight he was headed to a meeting of some kind. He and his girlfriend of six years are through, and he's trying to get custody of his three sons. | ||
| I hope that works out for him. | ||
| Anyway... as one guy got up to leave, a lady noticed that he'd left something behind. "Sir, you forgot your apple!" And he had indeed left it behind, but it was an orange. | ||
| Speaking of apples, I made two apple pies tonight. | ||
| 10/26 | ||
| I was on call today. Someone didn't show up to make relief, so I drove the 21. Uneventful day. | ||
| 10/25 | ||
| I was on call today. I made a bus change. I played cards and dominoes. | ||
| But today really sucked because one of a handful of politicians (at the national level) who I believe was honest and actually cared about the people he represented died today. I'll miss Paul Wellstone and I think the world is a worse place without him. | ||
| 10/25 | ||
| I drove two four-hour stretches of the 18 yesterday. It was a pretty nice run. I got done at 1:00am. | ||
| During the afternoon rush hour, I pulled up to a corner in downtown Minneapolis and saw a man with a sign on his rolling carry-on. It said: | ||
| 18S I AM DEAF-BLIND PLEASE MAKE SURE I GET ON THE BUS |
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| A young woman helped him on while I was still trying to read the sign. When he got on, he flipped the page to a sign that said: | ||
GO TO 54th |
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| Then he held out his hand, which I squeezed to let him know I understood. | ||
| So I tapped him at 54th, he more or less said "thank you" and got off the bus. | ||
| I wondered what he thought about. Does he think in feel? In Braille? Maybe he can hear a little bit so he can think in noises or even spoken words. Is all this covered in The Miracle Worker? | ||
| I made a quick search to figure out what that piece of luggage he had is called. A lot of people take them to work. I checked several luggage sites and never got a real answer to my question. But I did discover that luggage websites don't seem to care much about spelling. Two examples: | ||
| Great Deal on a 2 piece carryon set from Travelpro. Get a 20" Rollaboard that fits in airline overhead bins and a matching tote witch fits under the seat. | ||
| This luggage is designed for the occational travler that prefers not to be weighed down with all the extras. | ||
| I noticed that the Scientology store downtown is hiring. I wonder if you have to pay them to get hired. (Here come the lawsuits!) | ||
| 10/21 | ||
| I drove the 21 today. It's nearly always an entertaining route. I drove a lot of really nice, talkative people around. | ||
| But just about the only really interesting thing that happened was that a guy tripped over a curb and then decided to get on my bus. I thought he was drunk, but he wasn't. He was pretty embarrassed. | ||
| It's my Friday. I don't feel like typing anything else into this thing. | ||
| 10/20 | ||
| I won a pumpkin carving contest last night at Dan and Teresa's apartment. I'm not completely sure, but I think the tofu-laden chili inspired me. It was an evil-looking jack-o-lantern. | ||
| It had been what has become an ordinary day. I was on call, then drove the 4 for about five hours. | ||
| According to the name on the jacket, someone named Pam got on my bus. His real name was probably Jorge or Francisco or something. Clever alias, though, really. | ||
| Today I was on call again. I watched the Vikings game (ugh), then drove the 17 for three hours. I made one round trip. | ||
| I dropped a guy off at the terminal in NE Minneapolis and headed back to the garage on my pull in route. I got about a mile and realized that there was still a woman on my bus. | ||
| I don't know if she was sleeping, but she lifted her head when I spoke to her on the PA. I apologized for not seeing her and asked her where she needed to get out. She looked out the window and didn't say a thing. We got to the last major street where she could catch another bus before I cut over to the highway and I stopped the bus to let her out. She looked out the window and didn't talk. I asked her again where she needed to go. Silence. I turned to face her in case she was hearing-impaired or couldn't speak and asked again. Nothing. She looked at me, but not for long. She just sat there. I told her that my next stop would be at the garage. Not a word. So I drove back to the garage. I pulled over to the curb before I got to the driveway. She pulled the cord and got off the bus. She never said a thing. | ||
| I had breakfast with my friends Kevin and Mike, and Mike's wife Monique. Mike, Kevin and I knew each other at the University of Sioux Falls College and roomed together after college until I moved to Des Moines. I met them at a hotel restaurant somewhere just this side of Fargo, in Maple Grove or somewhere. | ||
| 10/18 | ||
| I've tried not to whine too much about how people drive, but it was pretty obvious that today is Friday. It really does get worse on Fridays. I saw a lot of people do incredibly stupid things today. | ||
| It really amazes me when people mess with the bus. It's a simple matter of physics, really. I'll win. | ||
| One guy was about 60 yards behind me when I put on my turn signal to pull out of a stop, and about 30 when I pulled away from the curb. He passed me in the lane that is customarily reserved for oncoming traffic. Did I ever mention the apparently little-known Minnesota law that requires cars to yield to a bus pulling away from a stop? | ||
| Another guy ran a red light and was upset with me (as he blew through the intersection) for starting my left turn as the light was turning from yellow to red. Naturally, he had plenty of time to brake. | ||
| I had a nice day, though. I saw my old friend Ross. He used to work for Monsanto making mutant corn, if I remember correctly. He's a plumber now. He passed me in his van on the way to a house and my route took me past him just as he was unloading his equipment. He's going to be a daddy. So that's pretty cool. | ||
| Well, rumor has it that Pete "Snappy" Knapp is in town this evening. I haven't heard from him, except by an email sent this morning, and I can't do something with him if I don't know what he's doing... | ||
| 10/14 | ||
| I was on call again today. I think all of the other call drivers got sent out to drive. I got sent on an S-98. An S-98 driver takes a bus to one of several places around the city and waits for Control to call. | ||
| I didn't even get out of the garage before they called me. I drove over to the U of M to make a bus change. A guy was having problems with his seat. So I traded buses, talked to Control again and took his bus back to the garage. As soon as I got back I got another bus and took it to Franklin and Hennepin for another guy with a seat problem. I took that bus back to the garage and I had just pulled out of the garage with a new bus when Control called and wondered if I could get downtown in 10 minutes for another bus change. This guy had a malfunctioning radio and he was going to be out until 2:00am. And you can't call the cops without a radio. When I got back to the garage this time, I was done for the day. | ||
| Even though he's not da Fonz, da Mons and I went to a movie. We saw Knockaround Guys. This is the kind of movie that my friend Shawn would drag me to in college, swearing that "this one isn't going to suck." I sort of figured that I should go into Knockaround Guys knowing it wouldn't be that great, but at least Dennis Hopper and John Malkovich would be in it. It was OK at best. I thought it was pretty thin in just about every way. Oh well, Dennis Hopper and John Malkovich were in it. | ||
| Inside the mind of Mr. Daniel Parke: | ||
| 'SECURITY TAXES; If Roosevlt had lived up to HIS PROMIES OUR MAXIMUN 'SECURITY TAX THIS YEAR WOULD BE $90 INSTEAD JOF OVER 6;000 ." jthe socurity act of 1935 would have never been enacted had Amrtovsnd nscj then known that WE BE SUBJECT TO A 'ANTI-CHRIST LIBERAL DEMOCRATS 6,000 TAX PER YEAR.' "Dump "ALL 'ANTI-GOD DEMOCRAT'S IN 'ALL ELECTIONS 2001 INTO 2004 AND ANTI-GOD REPUBLICANS TOO.' | ||
| 10/13 | ||
| Well, let's see. The Vikings actually won a game (sweet!), the Twins lost and they're done for the year (oh well) and I sat around and got paid for it for the second day in a row. | ||
| Due to a lot of things, some budget related, there are too many extra board workers at my garage right now. That means there are several more drivers on call than need to be. I've been on call a lot lately. I'm on call again tomorrow. | ||
| When I went to O'Gara's last night to see Dietrich, I saw that local music hero and former Gear Daddy Martin Zellar had been there the night before doing his tribute to Neil Diamond, called Neil! | ||
| I've never been to one of those shows, but they're rumored to be a babefest. So I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing that Zellar puts his own spin on Neil Diamond's songs, sort of in fun, sort of tongue-in-cheek. | ||
| There was a story in the paper a few weeks ago that featured a band that solely does Dave Matthews covers. OK, I'm not a fan of Dave Matthews at all, so I am not tempted to try to see these folks, but I thought it was more than a little strange. | ||
| Then, more recently, I read about Phix, a Phish tribute band. Big surprise, I'm not too big on Phish either, but this one killed me because apparently fans tape Phix shows and trade them, just like Phish shows! ha ha ha! That's sweet! "Duuuuude, that guy who isn't Trey Anastasio but plays him in a band plays a wicked cool forty-minute solo on "The Mango Song" on my tape! Whattayou got?" | ||
| If these bands are good enough musicians to even approach the musicianship of Dave Matthews Band or Phish, why don't they write their own music? In that genre it's not hard at all. Pick two chords. Add guitar wank for twenty minutes. That's it. That's all you have to do. Herds of patchouli-wearing business majors will worship you. | ||
| More wisdom from Mr. Parke: | ||
| 'ANTI-GOD HILARY'S
DEMOCRATS REJECT VOUCHERS' AND VIOLATE 'BLACK PARENTS' AND OTHERS THE RIGHT TO SEND THIER
'CHILDREN TO 'MORALLY S SAVE SCHOOLS |
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| 10/12 | ||
| You know, some music should never have been recorded. Pretty much everything that Peter Cetera ever did springs to mind. | ||
| And some music probably should never have been performed, even if it didn't make it to a record. Most of the opening bands that I ever saw in Ames, IA spring to mind. | ||
| And then there's music that should never have been written at all. I saw some of that tonight. I went to O'Gara's to see Diedrich Weiss, solo and with his college band. His solo stuff continues to intrigue me; I wish he would have played longer. The stuff with his band, the Bitter Melons, was OK, but not my thing. The band who played after the Bitter Melons were simply awful. Apparently this band is what two of the Melons are doing these days. And did I mention that the music was awful? | ||
| Today's fun from the Koble News: | ||
| Dassemocrats like Sen. Lieberman and Sen. Christopher J.Dod have histortically been "Very Protective of Accuntants and very "Proceative of "Excutives; becouse "41 % funds in De;mocratic Party come from 'ENRON AND OTHERS TOO.' | ||
| 10/11 | ||
| The Twins lost tonight. I'll get over it. Oh, wait. I already did. | ||
| I had a most exciting and tiring day today. I think I'll go to bed and finish this in the morning. | ||
| I almost threw up on the bus. | ||
| I was driving the 21, downtown St. Paul to Uptown Minneapolis. A lady got on in St. Paul and when she did, the wind came in behind her and brought the sickly stench of a week without a shower. She wasn't old and she seemed relatively normal, if a bit socially inept. | ||
| She sat a couple spots behind me and her smell made its way up to me several times during the trip. But the windows were open and it was a windy day, so it never got too bad. | ||
| She rode almost all the way to Uptown. When she finally got off the bus, the smell lingered. I held my breath as she was leaving, but when I inhaled again, I gagged. And when I get started gagging, there could be trouble. I continued to gag for several blocks and some of the passengers got concerned. One guy even said "emphysema." Even though the windows were open, the air would not clear. In fact, an hour later, I could still detect the lingering reek. When we got to Uptown, one of the passengers, who had the misfortune of sitting next to the the Smelly One, said she knew what I was gagging about. She said that if she had any cookies, she would have tossed them and she's been a janitor for twenty years. | ||
| But the best part of the day was that I found a treasure. It's the Koble News, a brilliant and insightful current events newsletter written by Mr. Daniel Parke, 2523 Portland Ave. S., Apt 901, Minneapolis, MN, 55404. It's three two-sided pages of typing and collage, photocopied and stapled together. You can write to him if you wish, but in all fairness, I should point out that he's 83 and has been publishing the Koble News for eleven years. Here is an excerpt from the top of the first page, verbatim: |  |
|
| ANTI-GOD DEOMCRATS STOLE FROM SOCIAL SETURITY' TRUST FUNDS MORE THAN 38 TIMES | ||
| The Anti-God Liberal Deomcratic Conggress stole mjoney out the "Social Security" Funds" 38 times.' Its time that "All Pro-God Seniors" and others stop voting for Annti-God Liberal Deomcrats in 2002 and 2004." | ||
| Speeking of Democratss with double stantard, [smudge] if not conflect of interest, the "Big Media" would do well to recall the uder the table financial dealing of Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAulile who in 1997. cashed in $18 ;Million worth of "Shares of Global." The telecommtions company "Delared bankruptey" in January this year, a month after its stock "Trateds At Livels That Rivale; Enrons dealing." ["dealing" was originally spelled "dearing," but apparently Mr. Parke caught the error and scratched an L over the top of the R.] | ||
| 10/8 | ||
| The Twins won again. We saw some excellent pitching. | ||
| I was on call at work today. I sat around for a couple hours, then took a bus to the Gateway Ramp, where I waited for a bus to break down or a route that needed someone to fill in. All that happened was a guy with an articulated bus needed a new bus so I gave him mine and I took the one that the mechanic brought. Then, after a few hours, I went back to the garage and watched the beginning of the Twins game. Then it was time to go. | ||
| I saw a pretty nice recliner at the Gateway Ramp if you want it. It would've complemented the chair that I saw there a couple months ago, but that one is gone. | ||
| It's my Friday. | ||
| 10/7 | ||
| I had another ridiculously easy day. I got up early again, though. | ||
| It snowed today. Like JCPenney's Xmas trees in September, this just felt wrong. I guess it's not really too early, but I'm still kind of hoping for several more weeks of nice weather before we see more snow. |  Hey! Do you remember Osama bin Laden? The "War" on Terror? Do you remember how bad the economy is doing? I sure don't! All I can think of is that damned Saddam Hussein! Let's kill him! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! (props to Arlo Guthrie) |
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| A developmentally disabled guy got on my bus today. He was really friendly and pretty excited about being alive. And he told me a string of about a dozen Jeffrey Dahmer jokes. He just rattled them off one after another. I didn't think he was going to stop, but fortunately he didn't have far to go on the bus. | ||
| 10/6 | ||
| If you get Comedy Central, don't miss Trigger Happy TV. | ||
| 10/6 | ||
| TWINS WIN! TWINS WIN! | ||
| Well, they won that series, anyway. What a great game! And they've played Anaheim well this year. My hopes are up. | ||
| I had another slow day at work. I had five hours on call, then 2.5 hours of the 18. | ||
| A very nice lady got on my bus with her two kids. They had missed the last four buses. It was raining and they were waiting inside a house about four houses from the stop. The other buses were moving too fast to see her (or they were driven by drivers with questionable customer service skills who won't pick someone up if they have to wait for them at the stop). | ||
| She works at McDonald's. Her shift used to be from 4-midnight. But at her 6 month review, her manager pointed out that she always clocks in at 4:05. So now her schedule says 4:05-12:05. I thought that was pretty great. She got pretty lucky considering all the little Napoleons running fast food restaurants in this country. | ||
| 10/5 | ||
| I had a very relaxing day driving the 17. | ||
| Then I went to Wyatt and Tina's to watch the TWINS WIN! | ||
| I have a very early day tomorrow, but that means that I get done in time to watch the game. I don't have high hopes, but it would be cool to see them win. | ||
| And I say that in spite of the fact that I'd really like to see Major League Baseball fold, leaving us with a bunch of smaller Northern League-type leagues. You know, leagues with owners and players who actually care about the fans and who think baseball is a game that's fun and can be fun to watch. | ||
| I pretty much quit watching baseball the last time there was a strike. But I've watched a bit of the Twins this year, largely because of their super-low payroll combined with a great season. It's good to see the little guys do well. | ||
| 10/4 | ||
| My day was spread out today. I drove two short pieces of express work with some on call time and a four-hour break in between. | ||
| And, as is typical with express work, there isn't much to mention. Everyone was very polite. | ||
| I ate lunch with another driver. It's the first time I've done anything outside of work with anyone from work. We went to Old Chicago, because Friends Don't Let Friends Get Bored. It sure was exciting! I had some INSANE lasagna and he had some SERIOUSLY WACKED-OUT fajitas. Crazy, man, crazy. Definitely not boring. | ||
| During my evening work, Control called to beg drivers for help with shuttles from the Twins game. I opted to be helpful (and pick up some overtime). We were supposed to line up on northbound Chicago Avenue at Franklin Avenue. When I got there, there were three rows of bumper-to-bumper buses as far as I could see up Chicago. After about 45 minutes I had moved five blocks. Good thing I had a book with me. At that point they decided that they didn't need the rest of us anymore, so I went back to the garage. | ||
| The Twins lost. | ||
| 10/3 | ||
| The Suburbs rocked First Avenue last night! Oh my goodness, did I enjoy that show. | ||
| Faux Jean, one of my favorite local bands, opened. I've wanted to see them and I was pleased to see that they were going to open last night. I wasn't disappointed. My friend Amy liked them better than The 'Burbs. | ||
| The Suburbs still have a lot of energy for being in their forties. (I know, I know, I've seen the geriatric Aerostones, but I think those guys might really be zombies or something.) | ||
| One of the coolest things they did was bring (some of their, I think) kids up on stage for "Baby Heartbeat." Hugo Klaers Jr. played the drums and three girls helped sing. | ||
| I got home at 12:45 and couldn't get to sleep. I think I dozed a bit off and on, but the last time I looked at my clock it said 1:45. I woke up at 3:19, eleven minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Then I went to work and drove a ten-hour shift. | ||
| The only remotely interesting thing that happened is some guy told me that the only true sport left is auto racing. Those guys earn their money. All the other athletes are druggies. | ||
| And that reminded me of something that I've been contemplating: I drive a bus ten hours and often have to hold it a long time before I see a restroom. If Buckshot Jones and Dick Trickle are athletes, then so am I. | ||
| 10/1 | ||
| I guess it's time to update the site when my brother sends an email about it. | ||
| I haven't really had much to write about. I've mostly been driving mellow routes and the day I drove the 21 was uneventful. | ||
| In the fashion department, a Latino guy got on the bus wearing a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt and a Vikings cap. |  Derek finished Mark's CD today! |
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| And I saw a Wisconsin truck with vanity plates that read DAY BRAK. | ||
| I finally finished Northanger Abbey. It lead me straight to Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, which I might read before I write about NA. It would have been somewhat helpful to read it first. But it's really long, so I might get sick of it and not finish it. | ||
| I bought Steve Earle's latest, Jerusalem, today. I'm only about four songs into it, but I really like it so far. |