Final Post (for the foreseeable future)

Well, there hasn't been much for me to write about, and since I'm about to change jobs and resume commuting by car, there won't be anything for me to post about from this point on.

Bon chance, readers!

On changing drivers mid-route...

It's been a while since my last post, mostly because once things settle into a routine, there's not much to write about. Riding the bus is... riding the bus.
But something occurred to me today that I thought... Noteworthy? Amusing? Potentially disconcerting? You decide.

Some background first: The bus I take to and from work daily is one of several routes that go from the suburbs to the airport (DIA). It's a pretty long ride, I gather, maybe an hour, end-to-end. People coming from the airport are frequently sleepy, if not *sleeping* on the bus. They also usually have luggage stowed in the under-bus storage. The bus I catch at 4pm to get back home changes drivers at the station I usually catch it at.

So it's possible (likely?) for someone to catch the bus at the airport, fall asleep on the way to the end of the line, and wake up with another driver. In a few weeks time, it'll be dark by the time the bus arrives at the suburb end of the route.
I find myself wondering if anyone's ever woken up wondering if they've made multiple trips: the light's changed, it's a different driver, and all that.

The morning commute (Aug. 4, 2011)

I'm not sure what to think of the situation this morning. Apparently someone got on to the westbound route this morning, instead of the eastbound. Upon realizing their mistake, they talked with their driver, who radioed our driver, asking him to wait so that the errant passenger could switch to our bus before we'd left.

So, on one hand, it's interesting to note that drivers have that sort of flexibility. At the same time, it cost us a few minutes, and could've been more, maybe? I wonder how long our driver could've waited.

All in all, a good argument for reading the signs.

Bus home was *really* late today... (7/14/11)

Late enough that RTD had to pull in a substitute bus 30 minutes after we were supposed to be out of the station. This marks the first time that it's been this late in the... almost 8 months that I've been commuting by bus.
There was a fair amount of grumbling (and even I made a couple snarky comments).

But disgruntled though they were, mostly people were reasonably cheerful. At the very least, you can't blame the substitute driver.

In other news, RTD has emailed invitations to the opening of the new Federal Center Station, on the 18th or 28th of the month (can't remember which, offhand). So whatever hazmat stuff they had to deal with must at least be well on its way to being resolved. It'll be a few tenths of a mile closer for me to drive, and with better exit-points than the 2-lane, 30-second-window left turn I currently have to deal with, so I'm looking forward to it...

An unrivaled view (Tues., 6-28)

Riding on the bus gives what may be the most unrivaled view of goofy driving and general doofishness on the roads, I suspect. Take last night for example.

I left work just early enough that I could catch the earlier bus from Market Street (the 3:57), though I'd originally expected that I'd miss it, and would've spent a half hour or so at the Tattered Cover. Just made it under the wire, though. As we were tooling along the 6th avenue freeway on our way back out to inner outer suburbia, there was this black Lexus SUV-kind-of-a-thing in the left lane next to us. At 55+ MPH, the bozo driving said Lexus was busy juggling their smart-phone, and weaving pretty close to my bus with alarming frequency.

Given that the engine of the bus I was on likely massed more than their entire vehicle, it wasn't like I was afraid that we'd overturn if an accident happened or anything. I was simply flabbergasted that someone could either not realize that they were wobbling around the lane so much, think that they could handle the phone and the vehicle at the same time (when they obviously couldn't), or maybe just be such an idiot. Or any combination of the three.

After noting this on Facebook, at least a couple friends commented that I should've called the police. I'll have to go digging to see if there's a non-emergency number that I can call if something like this happens again.

In the meantime: If you're driving around the Denver area, and happen to notice a black Lexus SUV-thing, "720-JFU" on the plates, keep your distance in case they get a call or an email. Seriously.

Riding a *completely* different route tonight... (Monday, 6-27)

By all rights, I should be watching the route, to see where it goes, and all that... Tonight I'm heading to a joint birthday celebration for my wife and I, and rather than go back home, potentially having to drive two cars to the Arvada Lone Star, I'm busing it, and will meet up with everyone there, then ride back with the wife and kids to retrieve my car.

We're going along streets that I haven't been down for... maybe 25 years now? I'm not really sure how long it's been, to be honest, but 25 years feels just about right. It's an interesting trip down memory lane from that standpoint, at least...

Daily Commute - June 23, 2011

The driver on my morning bus is named Oscar. He's got at least four kids, is around 60 years old.(if I heard correctly), and has been driving for RTD for 28 years. He's a nice guy, and obviously enjoys meeting people on the job. I wonder how (or if) he deals with taciturn or hostile wretches (not that I want to see it, it's just idle curiosity)

Evening commute was uneventful, but the walk to the (air-conditioned) station was hot -  The Weather Channel app on my phone said 86 degrees, but it felt a lot hotter than that... I'd bet that the A/C is slightly less expensive during the summer months, what with the station being underground.

I didn't think to write about it yesterday, but I was amused (maybe disturbed) by the number of people who asked last night's driver if he was heading to the airport. Really? The buses have these signs that say where they're going. The station that they presumably walked through to get to the bus has a monitor at every gate, plus half a dozen elsewhere (a minimum of two that you have to walk past) that show what buses are stopping at what gate, and where they're going. Apparently brain-space for reading was at a premium last night.

Back on the bus again (finally)

Well, loyal readers, after driving to and from work for the last umpteen days (so I could go home at a moment's notice to deal with fence-related stuff), I'm back to my normal (summer) bus-schedule.

Apparently the new Federal Center Station opening was delayed because of a hazardous-materials issue/concern (asbestos is what I've heard on the rumor-mill). I haven't tried to verify yet, but knee-jerk reaction to "asbestos" would explain it (assuming it's not chrysotile, not crocidolite). I'll be interested in finding out if that is, indeed, the reason.

The Thermal Properties of Chewing Gum

OK, definitely not directly bus-related, but I found it amusing anyway.

If you've ever left a can or glass bottle of soda in a freezer for too long, you've seen what happens when it freezes, bursts the container, and oozes drink-flavored ice-stuff all over the place. All because water expands when it's frozen, right?

So: I keep a small (60-pc) tub of spearmint-flavored Eclipse gum in my car. Usually I remember to put it back into a shady spot when I get to the bus. Yesterday, I forgot and left it where the blazing sun (92+ F) could really heat it up. Gum doesn't explode like frozen soda, but I thought the results were amusing and kinda cool:

Busy busy...

(Post that I forgot to post yesterday)

 

So apparently the closure of my current Park-and-Ride's gonna be delayed. I certainly hope that's the case, otherwise I'm gonna be fighting with people over a presumably-dwindling number of parking-spaces. On a more whimsical note, I find the phrasing amusing: The opening was "cancelled." Not "postponed," but "cancelled." Which, by the way, is spelled "canceled..."

Really? Wow. I find myself wondering if they discovered gold, or fossils of some previously-unknown critter, or some such thing...

No word, currently on why the new station's not going to open on schedule, but I haven't gotten back to see if the sign's been updated...

Tonight's driver still believes that the close-and-switch will happen on the 18th, though... communication's sounding inconsistent... guess we'll just have to wait and see...

This post intentionally left blank...

No bus-ride today; Taking the day off.

A statement of the obvious...

Buses, traveling as they do on the public roadways, are subject to delays caused by traffic. As I started writing this post, my afternoon bus was 5 minutes late, and apparently stuck in traffic just outside the station. And had been for maybe 5 minutes already.

As I wrote this, we're just outside the station trying to get into traffic.

Though in a vehicle whose engine likely weighs more than the cars around us, it didn't take long...

Personalities at different times...

Second day on the earlier bus, and it's very different. Not because of the route, I think, or (directly) because of the time. I think it's because of the driver, or because of a handful of regulars, or some mix of the two. Lot of gregarious folks, at any rate. It's interesting to me that such a relatively small change in a mix of people can make such a difference.

Today also marks the first day that it's been warm enough in the morning that I felt comfortable without even a light jacket. According to the Weather Channel, it's 57F out. Still a bit on the chilly side for me, but tolerably not-uncomfortable. I guess the real proof will be in whether the walk from Market Street to the office is comfortable...

(Afternoon)

The morning walk was tolerable - and the evening was was downright nice. Near 90 degrees - sweet! The A/C at the station is a bit colder than I'd like, but not bad.

World-proofing a bus-pass

Coming as I do from over a decade of printing/publications background, I prefer to take steps to ensure that my bus-pass is fairly well protected from the elements. I know what water and other things can do to paper, and it's not pretty.

And at $133 (if I'm lucky) to replace that piece of paper... well, i'd just rather not have to deal with that.

So my solution is to laminate mine, and wear it on a lanyard. Here's what I do, step-by-step...

The bus-pass shows up in a generic envelope, with the pass and a receipt in it.

The pass itself is printed on a pre-perforated card, with the rounded corners cut completely. It's pretty easily removed from the card, just needs some folding on the perforations back and forth to loosen it up.

Freed of it's mailing-card...

Office Max and Office Depot carry hot and cold luggage-tag laminating pouches. I generally prefer the cold ones, but this time they didn't have any and the hot-laminate pouches were $15 for 25.

Slip it into a pouch...

Run it through the laminator...

Viola! The pass shifted a bit somewhere along the line (not sure why), but it's in it's own little world-proof bubble now... This'll survive water, being run over, run through a washing machine, etc., etc.

 The laminate pouches generally come with rubber-band-kinda-things (right above the pass itself in that last picture), so other attachment options are available...

End-of-school-year routine change

So, today was the last day of the 2010-2011 school-year for my girls. As a result, for the next couple of months, I don't have to walk the older daughter to her morning bus-stop. In turn, that means I can take an earlier bus in to work in the morning.

Between that and the retirement of my normal Park-and-Ride in not quite three weeks, I'm pretty much expecting that my morning ride is gonna be teetering on the edge of predictability. At best.

But we'll have to see. Nineteen days until the station-change. Morning schedule-change starts tomorrow.

Today's ride home is slow - there's some kind of road-work slowing traffic from I-25 to 6th Avenue. Slowest I remember it ever being. And, of course, tonight is one of my more time-critical nights. If the lane's still blocked off tomorrow morning on the trip in, I may take a different route back home.

Addendum: If the same thing's going on tomorrow night, taking a different route home won't matter - all of 6th Avenue was bogged until Federal. Whee... That'd definitely be an advantage of light-rail - no traffic delays...

Happy Memorial day!

Since I won't be riding the bus tomorrow, figured I'd share my brand-new, never-before-seen top-secret steak-grilling recipe by way of making up for there not being a post...

I assembled bits and pieces of this from various places around the web, but it all came together tonight (to a finish where my normally crazy-picky younger daughter even said that the steak was alright... ;-) )

This should work even with fairly cheap cuts of meat. Tonight I used a chuck top blade cut, 2 steaks totaling about 1.25 pounds.

1. Mix about a cup (yes, you read that right, a cup) of coarse salt (kosher or sea-salt, whatever you can get ahold of), and about 2-1/2 tablespoons of whatever steak-rub you prefer (I used some old Costco/Kirkland mesquite rub) in a plastic bag.
2. Pour a layer of the salt/flavor mix onto a plate, no more than 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick, and plop your steaks down on it. Pour the rest of the salt/flavor mix over it, and pack around the edges so that as much of the steak has a slat/flavor crust over it as you can manage. it isn't critical to coat any edge-fat you might have, but it doesn't hurt.
3. Let the steak sit crusted with the salt/flavor mix for about 20 minutes per 3/4-inch thickness of the meat (a good time to light the grill and let the coals ash over, in my experience).
4. Wash the salt/flavor mix off the steaks, and pat dry with paper towels. The meat should feel dry, dry, dry on the surface.
5. Place the steaks in a plastic bag, and cover with about 1/2 bottle of beer (I used Durango brewing Co.'s Amber Ale). Expel as much air from the bag as you can without getting the beer/juice mix all over everything, and let that sit while...
6. ...you dab a few tablespoons of olive oil over the grill, put it in place over your coals, cover, and wait until there's white smoke coming out of the vent-holes in the grill-lid - this, I think, indicates that the grill itself is hot enough to sear the meat on contact.
7. Plop your steaks down on the grill, and let them sear until any edge-fat on the meat is just starting to burn - the main part of the meat should be anywhere from caramel to walnut colored, which (for me) usually takes until there's just a few wisps of smoke coming out of the vent-holes in the grill. Turn and repeat.
8. The steaks will take 10-20 minutes, so if you're quick, clever, or willing to use prepackaged side-dishes, you'll have time to make one or two.
9. Once the second side is seared (or just slightly burnt if you have fat on an edge), take the meat off the grill, and rinse with hot water.
10. Serve. Enjoy.

This worked out really well for me today, so I figured I'd share it. It'd probably work really well with Crash Hot Potatoes.

Missed my normal bus this morning...

Riding the bus daily tends, I think, to reinforce routine. And habit. Case in point: this morning, because my normal morning routine was slightly disrupted, I forgot to grab my bus-pass/building card-key before heading to my Park-and-Ride. They're both on a lanyard (intended, I think, for USB thumb-drives), hanging with keys next to the door I exit from every morning. One of the first things I do when I get home is to hang them there. In the morning, before walking my older daughter to *her* bus-stop, I slip the lanyard on.

But I forgot this morning. Made it all the way to the PnR before I remembered, too...

Though it's only a few minutes round-trip to get back home, retrieve them, and get back to catch a bus, I missed it by about 2 minutes, partially because of geese on the road, and partially because there was a police-car with lights running trying to navigate around the geese...

The Mathematics of Light Rail

So a new sign went up at my Park-and-Ride yesterday:

Though it's a year or two away, I'd already done some preliminary number-crunching as far as the economics and scheduling of taking the light rail a few months ago:

• The light-rail and bus will depart from the same location;
• The light-rail has nine stops between where I'd be getting on and the closest stop to where I work;
• The bus has two stops, at most, between my boarding and deboarding areas, and frequently has only one, since I tend to walk from the Market Street Station to the office (as noted earlier);
• Once the light-rail's running, the end of the line is two or three blocks further from my office than the Market Street station (though I gather that they'll close that station down in favor of Union Station, where the light-rail will stop);
• The bus has to deal with traffic, while the rail won't.
• The rail will run every 8-10 minutes, I gather, while the bus runs every 30 minutes (though, to be fair, there are 4-5 bus-routes that'd get me downtown within walking distance of the office).

All in all, I'm still kinda on the fence about whether I'll continue busing in, or plan to be on the train. Guess I'll have to wait and see...

Different types of buses in the Denver area

RTD-Denver runs three different types of buses on the open roads, plus the mall shuttles on 16th Street Mall downtown. For the sake of being able to identify them, I'll call them standard, double-length and coach buses. In my travels over the last several months I've been on at least one of each of them, though my normal bus has been a coach bus every time but one.

Coach buses are tall, have every seat facing forward, and have luggage-compartments underneath them. Since I'm usually riding the AF that goes through downtown to the airport, it is perhaps no great surprise that the AF is almost always a coach bus. At least that's what it appears to me. Coach buses have six wheels - two in front and two pairs in back. I also noticed a couple days back that one of the two pairs in the back are tied to the steering. They seat 55 in the configuration RTD uses, and have room for one wheelchair next to the wheelchair lift without impacting the other seating at all. That may sound like a lot of seats, but during the first few weeks of classes at Auraria, I've seen 5-10 people standing because there weren't any seats left.

A standard bus has a mix of seats facing forward and inward, usually with the inward-facing seats over the wheels, of which there are four. I've seen standard buses other places around the country, so I suspect that they're about the same pretty much everywhere.

The double-length buses are, for all practical purposes, a standard bus with an attached passenger trailer. The trailer-like part has forward-facing seating, except around the pivot-join from the front part of the bus to the back.

I haven't ridden anything but the coach buses with any great frequency, though I spent a few weeks before the schedule-change experimenting with taking the bus all the way from home to work and all the way back, so I've had a bit of exposure to the standard bus configuration now too.

No post for yesterday or the day before...

More slacking on my part, I'm afraid...

Been slacking the last couple of days...

Thursday and Friday may or may not have been uneventful - I don't really know. I spent most of my rides in and out those two days watching a movie on my new Droid phone.

And trying to stay dry. It's been raining brass monkeys on the way to the evening bus, and both nights I was faced with the options of either standing out in the rain waiting for a bus that has (rarely) been known to skip the outdoor stop, or walking six or eight blocks to the Market Street station I mentioned earlier, and waiting where it's warm and dry. Colorado weather being what it is, it wasn't an easy decision to make on Friday (though I ended up heading for the Station). Thursday was easier - I lit out a few minutes early, hoping to make the walk during a brief break in the rain - which proved to be a fruitless effort.

So, lesson learned (and acted upon) - I now have an umbrella that can fold down to small enough to fit in a coat pocket. I think I'll also order a messenger bag from my CafePress store (http://www.cafepress.com/GeekWizardry), if we don't have one around the house somewhere that I can use, though most days (thus far) it wouldn't be holding much more than my new umbrella...

The Market Street station

Promised some online friends that I'd try to get some pics of my usual morning deboarding location, so here they are. It may not be obvious from the pics, but the Market Street station is underground (a fact that amused one of said friends - or at least prompted a comment to the effect that with all the mountains here in Colorado, it seemed odd to think of something being underground).

Market Street Station -Looking at Gate 2, where I deboard.

Market Street Station -The escalator up to 17th Street

Market Street Station -The entrance from 17th Street

Feeling bleah...

I suppose that one of the more significant downsides to a bus-commute, or any mass transit, really, is that if you aren't feeling well, you still have to wait. I'm not feeling horrible today, just a bit under the weather. I left work as soon as I could justify it today (got my 8 hours in, barely). But I still have to wait for the bus.

At least it stopped raining. Mostly.

And the wait wasn't horrible, just longer than i'd've liked. Ah, well...

The schedule-change noted yesterday did, in fact get me in to work about ten to fifteen minutes earlier than I used to. It might also allow me to get home slightly earlier as well, assuming the powers-that-be at work are able to relax their "must-be-in-the-office-during-core-hours" policy. Slightly. Like, by fifteen or twenty minutes.

Odds aren't good, though.

Taking the bus is definately preferable to paid parking on game-days, too. Today's Rockies game didn't bump parking-prices nearly as bad as the opening-day game (which increased at least one lot's daily rate to $25 according to one co-worker). But the ones I keep an eye on still went up as much as 100%.

Not feeling well enough to try and get a clearer pic of the new station today - will try tomorrow.

Schedule-change day...

So, as part of their ongoing light-rail efforts, RTD had to modify some of the line-schedules for routes serving the Cold Spring park-and-ride. This had been known for a few weeks, and to their credit, they had revised schedules and alerts to changes printed a while back. But for a few folks, the change wasn't apparent. And for others (me), it hadn't quite sunk in yet.

As a result, I missed my normal bus by about 30 seconds. I literally saw it pulling away as I was walking up the sidewalk from the parking area to the stop. Guess I'll have to kick my older daughter out the door a few minutes earlier starting tomorrow...

Ah, well... means I'll get in a few minutes earlier until they open the Federal Center Station in a few weeks...

Cold Spring PnR, Gate A

Cold Spring PnR - Lower level

 Can't really see much of the new Federal Center Station grounds from the current PnR, but it's at least paved now. They're claiming that the new station lot will hold 1,000 cars. We'll see... Me, I'm just happy it'll be a bit closer...

Can't really see it well at all...

When and How to Detour

The last couple of days were uneventful rides, and I was busy dealing with a change in cell-phone, some bathroom painting-prep, and other miscellany.

I've been on a couple of rides (inbound to downtown both, so far) where the traffic on the highway was bad enough that the driver felt the need to detour off the highway in order to try and keep to their schedule. I was curious, so I asked one of them once how they chose when and how to detour. I gather from his response that they have a reasonable amount of discretion, so long as they don't skip any stops. They don't have to stick to any particular route, though there are some pre-approved detour-routes available for them (routes where someone's already determined that the buses can make all the necessary turns, etc.).

I'd be surprised if they didn't basically just allow detours along any established routes, though. There're all these signs with route-numbers and arrows indicating which way various routes should go at key intersections, etc., etc.

Well, it turned out to be a weeks worth of labor, dealing with the bathroom.

Before (well, slightly into the process, really - I'd already gotten the old, broken tile removed before I thought to take pictures):

After:

I'm tired, but the majority of the labor is done - it's just re-attaching things here and there, putting drawers back, etc. Tomorrow, I'm back on the bus again...

Taking a few days off...

Since there's remodeling work going on at home, I'm not expecting to post anything for at least a few business days, maybe as long as a week - that will depend on how the bathroom re-tiling goes.

Wish me luck...

Quiet Commute Day, "Interline" buses

As I've been riding the bus, I've noticed more and more buses showing "Interline" on their route-signs, and wondered what that meant, exactly. So I asked. In retrospect, it should've been obvious, so I'll blame lateness of the hour and/or lack of coffee for me not making the connection and being able to answer it for myself.

Each route is a "line," in RTD parlance. From time to time, a bus may need to be taken out of service for one line, and put back into service for another (if a bus breaks down, or presumably gets swamped - I didn't think to ask under what circumstances that can/does happen). When they do that, they switch their route-signs to "Interline" so that people who might be expecting to see that route (before or after the switch) won't feel as though they are being skipped at a stop. Pretty straightforward, actually. I even saw an "Interline" bus change to a normal route the day I asked the question, as I was leaving the Park-n-Ride.

Uneventful Commutes: 3 May 2011

Today was pretty uneventful both ways - my normal morning seat-mate was poring over notes in preparation for finals (which start next week), so apart from the normal pleasantry-greetings, we hardly spoke. It was even slow on the convertible/bug/etc. game, for a *total* of maybe 17 points, if both ways were counted, though since the coffee-maker was out this morning the morning score might've been hampered by undercaffeination.

The convertible/bug/etc. game is a family variation of... "slug bug," I think it's called? No slugging, though, and our own specific rules that sometimes feel like they change without notice. To the best of my awareness, the rules as they stand now are:

• Volkswagen Beetles (classic or old) are worth a point;
• Convertibles are worth a point;
• Jeeps with removable fabric tops count as convertibles, but the newer hard-top models don't (at least until we can see that those hard-top roofs are removable like the soft-top ones are);
• Smart Cars are worth a point;
• Points are cumulative - so a convertible Beetle or Smart Car is worth 2 points;
• Scoring isn't allowed until the vehicle is in motion (and yes, backing out of the carport counts);
• Different people can call different scoring criteria (i.e., one person calls a red bug convertible and at the same time another calls convertible red bug, in which case each gets one of the 2 points for the sighting);

Points are compared and a winner is determined when the car is shut off;

My record (with these rules) for a trip back home on the bus is 28 points, and included (of all things) a convertible truck of some kind. Willy's? I don't know.

I've been proposing that we add license-plate rules as well - something along the lines of:

• Out-of state (more than 50 miles from a state border, and not counting the car you're riding in): 1 point
• Out-of country: 1 point;
• Out-of-contiguous states (Alaska or Hawaii): 1 point;
• Off-continent (Hawaii, which I've seen once, *and* on a bug; or south american or European plates, which we've never seen): 1 point;
• Off-planet (not in my lifetime, I'd guess, but I believe in covering my bases): 1 point;

These are a point per criteria, same as convertible/car-type are, so *very* theoretically, a convertible bug with plates from a foreign moonbase would be 7 points in one fell swoop.

Can you tell that when we take family trips, we're in the car a lot?

(edit: trips, not tripes...)

Daily Commute Observations: 2 May 2011

The Morning Commute:

So, pretty much as expected, the openings to many conversations on this morning's ride in was bin Laden. The guy that I frequently share a seat with (whose name I have, of course forgotten) asked first thing if I'd heard about it, and wondered about the relevance of the whole thing. Can't say as I blame or disagree, though I harbor some small satisfaction from the idea that we finally got the bastard who planned the attack that cost us so many innocent lives.

But, with that out of the way, he asked about my weekend, and given the fun we've been having with plumbing stuff I allowed how it was of some amazement to me that we can put a man on the moon, but the basic technology of plumbing haven't changed substantially (barring new materials) since the days of the Roman Empire.

I also asked if he'd heard the story about how the Roman Empire inadvertently dictated the physical dimensions of the booster-rockets for the space shuttle, which he hadn't. I won't reproduce the entire story here, but variations can be found all over the Web (including at http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp, as of this writing). My seat-mate is a history student at one of the schools on the Auraria campus, and was amused by the story, and the discussion eventually ambled to technology, history, and how the two interact - a favorite topic of mine, if only because I believe that it shows just how unpredictable and chaotic the world really is. I also mentioned the "Connections" series to him (see links at the end of this post - they are, I believe, links to the first chapters of each episode).

The Afternoon Commute:

You know your bus driver is good when he's a designated trainer for new drivers on a route. At the same time, with trainee drivers (who are, by definition less experienced, and likely less jaded as well), you end up with some odd or even awkward situations.

This afternoon's trainee driver was very tentative pulling in to the Market Street station. In all fairness, these coach buses are big, and probably handle like a beached whale on roller skates, so I guess it's only to be expected, at some level. He's got a good PA voice, though... And once we got out on the streets, he had no bravery concerns.

Connections: The Trigger Effect
Connections: Death in the Morning
Connections: Distant Voices
Connections: Faith in Numbers
Connections: Wheel of Fortune
Connections: Thunder in the Skies
Connections: The Long Chain
Connections: Eat, Drink and Be Merry
Connections: Countdown
Connections:  Yesterday, Tomorrow and You

Taking bets...

...on the most popular topic of conversation on tomorrow's bus-rides:

Osama Bin Laden's demise seems a shoo-in.

Daily Commute Observations: 29 April 2011

The Morning Commute:

This morning's ride was pretty calm. Fridays frequently are, since the route I take is a popular one for students at the Auraria campus (is it still called "AHEC?") Mondays through Thursdays. No classes on Fridays, apparently, though, so we go from 4 days of a packed bus (sometimes Standing Room Only), to a bus that's taking maybe a third of the capacity that it can handle. The ebb and flow of student traffic has been interesting to watch as well - they are teeming at the beginning of the semester, and dwindle noticeably within maybe a month or so, as they find other transport or drop an early class. The main route I take is also the only express-route that goes from my neck of the woods to the airport, so we get a variety of folks going to DIA, but today was pretty light on that count also.

Unusually, there was a baby on board this morning. A four-month-old boy, quite large for his age (he's already in 6-9 month sized clothing). I wasn't really close to him, but there was a lot of chatter, and he spent a lot of time (when Mom was holding him up high enough) looking around the bus and smiling at whatever he was smiling at. I didn't get a chance to boop him on the nose, unfortunately - timing just didn't work out. but he was happy, so it made the ride in somewhat lighter in mood, even for a Friday. The ride was uneventful, and I spent a lot of time looking at passing traffic.

The Evening Commute:

The main ride out of downtown was pretty quiet as well, though it was a bit late arriving at the station where I board. The ride from the main Park and Ride, though was anything but. There was this guy who got off his express-route and headed for the local bus, apparently fully expecting to just walk on. But the local-route driver was taking a break (the PnR has facilities for their drivers, probably about halfway between a Port-a-John and a real bathroom), and had closed up the bus to go do his business. The passenger-to-be, who was watching "Pineapple Express" on his phone while walking from bus to bus, actually went looking for a way to open the bus so he could get on while the driver was away.

Wow.

OK, yeah, it was cold and breezy, but the drivers are probably told to close the bus up when they aren't in it, if only so some whackaloon doesn't get in, start it up, and drive off with it, yes? He eventually gave up, at least (though I'm not sure he would've stopped if there hadn't been witnesses, frankly), paced around, leaned on the bus for a minute, then sat on the bumper for another minute before wandering to a seat in a nearby shelter. All the while, his movie was playing - loud enough that it could be heard clearly enough to identify the actors by voice. Outside. In the wind. At a 10-20-foot distance. Once the driver got back, and everyone got aboard, the volume of the movie didn't go down.

Wow again.

Are headphones really that expensive? I mean, everyone on the bus could hear the movie.

Well, everyone except for the gal talking to "Rachel" on her phone. About a co-worker of one of them named "Zack." And, to be brutally honest, probably anyone who was a seat or two away from her wouldn't've been able to hear the movie.

Ah, well...

Why a Blog about Riding the Bus?

Partly because it's an interesting experience for me, riding the bus to and from work. I'm not used to being around so many strangers. And some of them just keep getting stranger and stranger... Others? Well, it's an interesting slice of life, I guess. Some times more than others.

Partly, it's because it's also somewhat amusing to see what some of these otherwise normal, rule-following, law-abiding folks will do on or around public transportation, presumably because, well, it's "public" transportation, after all.

Partly because Randall nagged about the idea.

Finally, because, even when (or maybe especially when) the ride is uneventfully boring, that provides about an hour each day of near-pure right-brain time - and while I'm considerably more left-brained than right, I still exercise that other hemisphere. When it's early and I'm more-or-less operating on too little sleep and too little coffee, I may come up with whimsical, unusual, or interesting thoughts to share. Or at least it seems that way to me at the time. Your mileage may vary.