October 2003
| 10/23 - 10/29 | ||
| I'm on a road trip to the #1 Super-Coolest, Ultra-Hottest Vacation Destination in the United States, Rock Island, Illinois. | ||
| 10/22 | ||
| The 191, then the 9. | ||
| I watched a young woman mash the front of her Cavalier on the rear end of a big pickup on I-94. | ||
| Three deer ran in front of me near Theodore Wirth Park. | ||
| As I pulled up to a layover, 70-ish Gladys Hofer (her husband was a Mennonite, for those of you who were going to ask) stopped her car in front of my bus and got out. I thought she was going to ask me for directions. She said, " I just wanted to tell you..." and I thought I was in big trouble for something, "...that you are the best-looking driver I've seen on this route in a long time." | ||
| Ha. I've still got it! Er... I can't seem to get women my age to call me back, but it looks like if I started to hang out in nursing homes, I'd be in business. | ||
| Then, on my last trip of the night, I saw a group of young guys arguing at 8th and Hennepin. One of them pulled out a gun and waved it around a little bit before his buddies subdued him. I'm going on that vacation now. | ||
| 10/21 | ||
| Overheard: Guy #1- "Do you remember Chuck E. Cheese?" Guy #2- "That's my favorite dressing... Roquefort." |
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| The Driver Groupie rode with me for a little while. Then, a little while later, a woman asked me, "Are you CJ?" She identified herself as DG's mother. They weren't on the bus together, but mom was talking to daughter on the phone. | ||
| Today on the 21, I encountered a difficult situation and took the low road. | ||
| As part of the pre-trip inspection on the bus, we cycle the wheelchair lift. It's something I do so often that I do it without thinking. Down, up, and stow as quickly as possible. | ||
| I pulled up to a stop in downtown St. Paul and saw a guy in a wheelchair. He's a young guy and he's ridden with me several times before. I don't get stressed when I see him, because he pretty much gets himself tied down and he does it quickly. | ||
| I went back to help him get his chair tied down. I think there is a different tie down apparatus for every model year of bus. As I was reacquainting myself with the equipment du jour, he got impatient. | ||
| He started in on bus drivers in general, saying that he knows how to do our job better than we do, etc. etc. | ||
| Well, naturally, I thought that was pretty funny and I laughed. Then he got even more angry and asked me if I thought it was f*cking funny. I had to admit that I did and he dropped the f-bomb a few more times. | ||
| OK, fine. I was a little angry with him at that point. But we got going again and I started to simmer down. | ||
| But his stop came too soon. I had resolved not to say any of the things that had been racing through my head. I was just going to let him out and tell him to have a nice day and be done with it. | ||
| Then things got ugly. I was concentrating on not saying anything and not really thinking about the task at hand. I brought the lift up, and before I even thought about it, I started to stow it (just like when I cycle it). Well, he'd started over it and when I began to stow it, a little part flipped up and caught his chair. So he was stuck. I have to admit that I didn't feel too bad when I realized what had happened. But he assumed it was intentional. And that was a completely reasonable, though erroneous, assumption. | ||
| We dinked around getting him out. I apologized, but he got more and more angry, and more and more vocal about it. | ||
| And then I stopped being pleasant. I told him that if I see him again and my lift isn't working, I hope he'll understand. | ||
| Then he threatened to have his brother drag me off the bus and kick my ass. | ||
| So I have that to look forward to... | ||
| I need a vacation. | ||
| 10/18 | ||
| I spent yesterday dodging construction equipment on the 9. | ||
| My friend Linda, who has probably known me for almost 35 years, rode my bus. It was great to see her. She told me that her husband Rob reads this, but he reported that it could use a little spice. Well, I'll be out on some late nights this week, so we can all cross our fingers. | ||
| As I was tooling down Glenwood Avenue, I saw a guy on the other side of the street indicate that he wanted the bus. I could see that he wasn't going to move very well, so I stopped in the middle of the block to minimize his walk. He glanced at the overhead destination sign on his way to the door and when he got there, he stopped. He kind of waved and didn't approach the door, so I assumed that he wasn't going to get on. I pulled away. I had a stop at the next block and I saw that a woman was running from behind. She was carrying a brace/crutch. The clouds over my head started to part. Then I saw the guy I'd left slowly making his way down the block. She got on and I apologized. She told me that he'd had a stroke. He had been asking me to wait for her. Yeah, I felt like a complete schmuck, especially for not recognizing that he'd had a stroke. (It was obvious once she told me.) The guy is almost certainly aphasic. I apologized to him, too. Both of them were very understanding and nice about it. But I'm still kicking myself. | ||
| A lady got on and immediately started to complain about the fare increase and service cuts. I told her, as I tell everyone with complaints along those lines, to call the governor. The conversation eventually got to a point where I had a lot of difficulty understanding her. And nothing was helped by her strong Spanish accent. She told me that there are more criminals in Minnesota than the rest of the world put together. Then she started in on the U.S. letting in criminals or something. I couldn't figure out what she was talking about until, just as she was getting off, she said something about Cuba. Ah. So she's probably one of those (formerly?) rich Cuban exiles who want the U.S. to fight their battle for them. I thought they all lived in Miami. Don't worry lady, I know there are human rights issues in Cuba, but Castro can't live forever. Then you and the CIA and the multinational corporations can go back and set up that wonderful feudal system that you had going before. | ||
| Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra last night. I think a good time was had by all... | ||
| 10/16 | ||
| The 21 was fairly uneventful today. | ||
| On one trip out of St. Paul, a guy was asking everyone whether or not they were registered to vote, handing out voter registration cards and encouraging everyone to vote. I thought that was kind of cool. But one young woman kept asking if it was going to cost her anything. She wondered if she was going to get a call when it was time to vote and if someone was going to pick her up to take her there. This was not a developmentally disabled person. (Of course she may have been, but I did talk to her a little bit and I didn't sense that at all.) She simply had no idea whatsoever about what it takes to vote. Honestly, and I'm not exaggerating, I almost cried. | ||
| I mentioned emusic
a few months ago (6/14). They are in the process of being bought out and what is currently
all-you-can-download will be a limited-download/month situation. So I've been getting as
much material as I can in the last week. And today I got the following email: Dear EMusic Subscriber, |
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| Well, I haven't been sharing my password or using a foreign automated download system, so I guess I'm somewhere in the sub-1% of their subscribers category. I guess I did download 276 titles (or 3312 tracks using the 12-track album average) in the last week... | ||
| 10/15 | ||
| I drove the 6 again Sunday. | ||
| I had a decent layover at Southdale and I ran in to JCPenney to use the restroom. I noticed that boxers and t-shirts were 30% off. So I got some. I went out to my bus and it didn't start. I got a replacement bus from South Garage and it was a much nicer bus. But I was twenty minutes late, so my instructions were to stay in service until 36th and Hennepin, then drop off only. José had to miss some football and drive a fill-in from 36th and Hennepin to the end of the line. I arrived at the end of the line seven minutes late. So I got a little break. | ||
| I picked up a little old lady on that trip. Turns out she's Swedish and she does not like W at all. In fact, she talked about both of those things the entire time she was on the bus, quite loudly. I'm not sure if she figured out that the person she seemed to be talking to was developmentally disabled. So it was a pretty interesting "conversation." She predicted a Bush victory in 2004 because "a lot of these people in this country are stupid." Huh. I just report what I hear... | ||
| I've still been on call quite a bit. But I'll drive the 21 tomorrow. | ||
| 10/12 | ||
| I was on call again yesterday. I filled in on the 4 for about twenty-five minutes and almost made a bus change. And I watched football. | ||
| I drove the 6 Friday night. I love that 6. | ||
| I had to make relief at the Uptown Station. When I got there, I saw Driver Groupie sitting by the drivers' room. So I went across the street and waited for my bus there. When I got back to the garage at the end of the night, I picked up some mail that was waiting for me. It was a note from DG, stemming from a conversation we had when Oz used her phone to call me. She wanted to let me know that she didn't keep my number because I hadn't given it to her. OK. That's cool. But I kept her number in my phone just in case. If her phone ever calls me, my caller ID says: Warning! DG. | ||
| I went into Southdale (mall) at the end of the line for something to drink. I got a Peach Julius. But it didn't taste like peach at all. I decided that it tasted most like the fake-buttery frosting that comes on a Cinnabon. Kind of icky, kind of delicious. | ||
| Then, on my way back north, I encountered a lot of people where there are usually none. I was on the Edina homecoming parade route and the cross street was closed off where I needed to turn. Fortunately, a cop was there and he rightly guessed that no one had told me (us) about the parade. I called Control and they had no idea either. | ||
| I picked up a girl who told me that she was meeting someone downtown for a date and she didn't want to go. Then she sat down next to me and asked me the best way to tell a guy no. I asked her if it wasn't a little late for that. She told me that this guy was going to ask her if she wanted to be his girlfriend and she didn't want to. I told her to tell him that she had (was having) a nice time but that she wasn't interested in doing anything else. NO GAMES. I think she heard me. But seriously, I'm not the guy to be asking that kind of thing. | ||
| On one of my southbound trips, I saw a guy who I call Weedies waiting for a northbound bus. I see him quite often when I drive the 6. Last year when I was working a hold down, I picked him up four times in one week. Three of those days and two of them in a row, he was wearing the same silk-screened t-shirt. It looked like a Wheaties box, but it said Weedies. (huh, huh) Featuring cannabis! (huh, huh) Breakfast of champions! (huh, huh, huh) So Friday night I looked at what he was wearing. It was a Captain America t-shirt. A few hours later on a northbound trip, I picked him up where he'd been waiting before. He had changed into a Superman t-shirt. | ||
| And the Gophers choked Friday night. I checked the score on my phone at one end of the line (Southdale) and it was 28-7 Gophers. About fifty minutes later, as I neared the U of M on the other end, a drunk guy got on and said it was 35-35. I thought he was messing with us. He wasn't. Michigan won 38-35. | ||
| But the cops were ready for anything. There were three to five cops on every corner of every block from Dinkytown to Stadium Village. As the NicWit said, there were cops watching cops. | ||
| And finally, a vaguely Daff-related story (see 9/21). On my last trip, I was waiting for a light at France Avenue when an SUV with some high school guys in it pulled up two lanes over. The passenger side guy was leaning out the window singing (mostly shouting) "AND I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MILES AND I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MORE..." | ||
| 10/8 | ||
| Uh, way to go California. Blackout Pete's (big, strong) puppet will serve you well... | ||
| I didn't even touch a bus today. As of 5:30 this evening, there were about ten of us on call. There just isn't any work. That is, the people who picked work are showing up like they're supposed to. I didn't read anything. I played some word and trivia games on the Megatouch 2003 (or whatever it is). I play the games no one else does, so I'm always #1. Yeah!!! I'm number one! Oh, and I watched TV. And talked. | ||
| 10/7 | ||
| It's my sister-in-law Tara's birthday today. Happy birthday! (Though I guess she'll see this tomorrow...) | ||
| I got forced onto the AM board again today. When that happens, I'm basically getting full-time pay to do part-time work. So it's easy, but it's split and usually rather uneventful. | ||
| My first trip this afternoon was kind of fun, though. There was a lady sitting behind me who kept laughing hysterically in a crazy lady kind of way. She may have had headphones on; I never figured out who it was. But no one was talking. | ||
| I also had two drunks on board. As he got off the bus, the second one starting yelling about all the interesting and dreadful things God was going to do. He didn't give us a timeframe, though. | ||
| And a young woman rode my bus twice. She was wearing a flimsy shirt, open in the front, and what I think was supposed to be a push-up bra. But it must have been too small. It was more like a mash-and-fold bra. I don't think it was what she was shooting for. | ||
| Hey, how about that football game last night? I know my aunt in Sarasota with Buccaneers season tickets reads this, but I must admit that my fondness for the Bucs pretty much left with Tony Dungy. Now Brad Johnson's positive vibes get overshadowed by twin annoyances Warren and Keyshawn. So I was more than a little pleased that I had an inkling that I should tape the second half of the game when I went to bed last night. It was kind of fun to see Sapp's face at the end of the game. Believe it or not, his mouth was shut. | ||
| 10/5 | ||
| It's been pretty dry around here again lately. | ||
| I drove the 21 for a few hours on Friday. I got smoked. Everybody in the Twin Cities seemed to be doing their business on Lake Street and Selby Avenue. I forgot to take my cold medicine and I was somewhat miserable. | ||
| At one of my layovers, I happened to be looking at my mirrors when I saw a couple of kids come around the side of my bus. One was shaking an aerosol can. Sure enough, he pointed it at the side of the bus and unloaded while walking his way toward me. I slid my window open and leaned forward so they could see me. They did the classic eyes-wide-open stop, then backtracked out of there. One of them suddenly got brave. He, uh, Michael Jacksoned himself and yelled something. Funny. Most of the silly string didn't even stick to the bus. | ||
| I saw Little Red Loafers Friday walking down Lyndale at 28th Street. I tried to get a picture, but I couldn't get organized before he was gone. | ||
| Yesterday I watched Gopher football and Twins baseball. They were on at the same time, but I pretty much just watched the Gophers. Everybody loves a (big) winner. Oh, and Pam Ward called the football game. I believe she's the first (and only?) woman to assume that role. She called a good game. I have to admit that it took a little while for me to get used to hearing a female voice, though. | ||
| I was on call yesterday at 3:50. But Friday was payday, so I knew I'd be going out. A lot of people call in sick on payday and the day after. That's a curious phenomenon and something I've never heard of before. So I drove the 6, doubling over to the 28 until 2:16 this morning. David, the guy with the signatures all over his clothes, rode with me twice. He was pretty calm, but in a good mood. | ||
| The Twins are on right now. They're losing. But the Vikes beat up the Falcons today, so I'm really pretty happy about the sports day. | ||
| I went to St. Paul to meet Eric, Nancy, Eric's mom and his brother's girlfriend at the end of the Twin Cities Marathon. Eric's brother Randy finished at around 3 hours, 28 minutes so he can go (back) to the Boston Marathon if he wants to. Eric's mom and Nancy saw a guy fall down yards before the finish line. Apparently, there was no pulse. That was quite the downer... | ||
| 10/02 | ||
| You know that woman I mentioned a few days ago who was coughing all over me? Yeah. I have a cold. | ||
| But the Alka-Seltzer Plus Liqui-Gels have been taking good care of me. I actually feel pretty decent. I'm already tired of blowing my nose, though. | ||
| So how about Rush Limbaugh? It was nice of that clown to take our minds off all the other crap for a while. Seriously, can that guy be a bigger idiot? Even if it wasn't a racist statement (yeah, right...), what was he thinking? A: He wasn't. Donovan McNabb is a solid quarterback. | ||
| I think my favorite part is that he refuses to admit that he might be wrong. On his radio show he said something along the lines of, "I must be right or there wouldn't be such a fuss." Uh huh. Go away. | ||
| I haven't really been doing much at work, which is nice, because, you know, I have a cold. | ||
| This morning I drove a little stub on the 9. A guy from fleet maintenance had a computer hooked up to my bus. He was monitoring the transmission for the fine folks at Voith. | ||
| I'm late for bed. |