Day 9.5

10/27/11

Westbound (going home)

 It was crowded, but I got a seat towards the back. I sat in front of the marine who I saw a week ago. He had the same hat, white shirt and jeans on. I turned around and asked him the standard marine questions…Who did you serve with? After he told me I thanked him for his service and struck up conversation. I reminisced a bit with this gentleman about Marine Corps days and duties. He was coming back from the VA. We talked about how things were in the world as well as some mental health topics. He got off the bus about ½ ways to my stop. Semper Fi brother.

Day 9

Day 9

10/27/11

Eastbound [towards my work :^)]

The bus was pretty bare. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening (if we know what ordinary is). I put my backpack on my lap and laid my head on it. While I listened to talk radio (the goofy lawyer who is very opinionated but entertaining nonetheless), I dosed in and out of sleep the whole way to work. Apparently I was more tired than I thought.

I am trying to faithfully follow some international news. Specifically the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has struck my interest. Looks like things haven’t changed much…

Score Killed by Bomb Hit in Tel Aviv

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BRINAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hGoDAAAAIBAJ&dq=city%20bus&pg=6465%2C3812112

I am also following some things that are going on in Africa. It seems that I am in agreement with those I talk to about these international issues that these two areas are would-be next American intervention ventures.  

Day 8.5

10/26/11

Westbound

I seem to be getting my directions mixed up on this silly blog. My Westbound is going home and my eastbound is going to work. I’m such a dork sometimes.

So my transport home was fairly uneventful. I again watched Netflix and ignored most of the people on the bus. It was crowded, but I was tired and did not feel like making observations. Instead I chose to be entertained by a series on Netflix called “Madmen”.

I have watched this entertaining series in the past but have not scene every episode. It's a little over the top, but I like the vintage cultural 60's style, which is a far cry from the hippie era of the 60's.

Ironically it clashes with the whole occupy (insert place).

DAY 8

Day 8

Westbound

10/26/11

Well once again I made it to the bus stop early and the bus was later than expected. Ironically I got to work 15 minutes early. The ride was ok. The back was filled so I sat in the front. I was going to sit about 2 seats back from the front, but I caught the fact that the window seat had a yellow small amount of liquid in it and I was just not in the mood to deal with that. A little later a person did sit down in it, but did not seem to notice.



The socks looked like a mish mash of these but were white



It was not as whacky Wednesday as before, but the skinny schizophrenic with high waders on did get on. Prior to his getting on the bus he very loudly exclaimed to no one in particular (the street) “I HATE GRAFFITTI” as he sat on the curb waiting for the bus. This time he was dressed in all black with a white shirt, but to his defense had on Halloween socks that depicted pumpkins, Frankenstein, and ghosts all in traditional color on his white socks. A construction worker found his antics and dress funny. I could have found the construction worker just as funny for he had on a bright florescent vest, backwards baseball hat and an orange construction hat on very fitting for Halloween.

Kids, kids, kids loaded onto the bus and got spit out near one of the high schools.

Near my old work a lady in her 50’s got on but I don’t think she realized she was in her age. She may have been dressed for Halloween or not, I couldn’t tell. She had on a long button up sweater which was looked to be knitted and big old 70’s style platform shoes.

Yeah they pretty much looked exactly like these but with black shoe strings on the front.

Everything was purple except for her hair which was the color of a traditional redhead and cut to an old school Pat Benatar (or Janet from 3’s company which ever will give you the visual) look.

Although I am in no position to judge I did wonder if she had bought these clothes and such new or recently for again she was quite a bit older to be sporting this stuff….

Another early arrival and I was in my cubical by 7:45 am sipping the  java…

Day 7.5

10/25/11

Eastbound

I had a busy day, but I was glad to be finished. I caught the 6:30 bus home. The bus was practically empty, which is a far cry from before. Tuesday night light? No matter, I put on my headphones and watched an hour of a movie on Netflix. It was a classic one and one of my top five movies that I could watch over and over. Escape From New York.



 http://youtu.be/ckvDo2JHB7o



I only watched an hour of it.

My favorite movie would of course have to be Blade Runner

It’s hard for me to believe how far ahead of its time this movie was. Unfortunately I never saw it in the movies.

In other news I am still trying to comprehend this bus story:

Controversy Erupts Over Sex-Segregated Brooklyn Bus

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/20/141559320/controversy-erupts-over-sex-segregated-brooklyn-bus?sc=emaf

Here is another link to the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/nyregion/bus-segregation-of-jewish-women-prompts-review.html

New York your killin me! Who would have thunk this has been going on for decades in the big apple?

And these two stories confuse me as well:

Detroit Bus Drivers Paid to do Nothing

http://www.freep.com/article/20111024/NEWS01/110240433/Detroit-bus-drivers-paid-do-nothing?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

Report: Snyder to propose high-speed bus system for Metro Detroit operated by regional board

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/10/report_snyder_to_propose_high-.html

Maybe they need to read this book...

Although the articles have some transposition, it seems like something is amiss or the transposed elements need to be reevaluated with the fixed ones. What the heck is going on Motor City?

DAY 7

10/25/11

Westbound

More rested today. I was able to get to the bus stop a bit early only to find the bus a bit late. There were a couple of dudes waiting as well. One was a younger Hispanic man probably just out of high school. He was carrying a skateboard and intently listening to the older 30 something Caucasian guy who still seemed to be stuck mentally in his late teens early 20’s. I recognized him from a prior ride when I accidently stepped on his bright white sneakers when the bus jolted after I got on. I was quick to apologize and he was receptive. There are some places and people who will respond to such a trivial accident with extreme violence, so I am always careful and cordial. You never know what to expect from whom. After I sat down he vigorously rubbed at a small scuff that I imprinted on his shoe.  

Today the transitional age dude (that’s a technical term meaning anyone from late teens to mid 20’s AKA transitional age youth or rather TAY) sported a black hooded jacket with fake fur on the ends of the hood quarter length. It looked like something you might see in Alaska. It was not very cold out maybe 70 degrees so I ventured to guess it was more for show. He was talking with a lot of slang and ghetto type phrases which again reflected his maturity level. He was also wearing black sneakers. How funny.

I used to be guilty of this type of dress in the past. It was in at the time and I was a teenager. This was of coarse 25 years ago….

There was an opening at the back so I ventured back there. As I listened to my morning talk radio stuff the bus continued to make its stops until it was filled. I was the only adult in the back and there were teens all around me. The irony was that I had had a dream just the other day that I was back in high school, but much wiser and smarter. But for some reason my first class of the day was fishing 101 out on Lake Michigan with friends I had not seen in years. These friends were well aged though and my one friend had a head full of gray hair. For some reason we were fishing for saltwater fish in fresh water and kept arguing with the teacher that this was all wrong. Strange dreams are a norm for me these days.

Like clockwork the bus barfed out all the teens about ½ way through the route.

 The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful except me getting caught shaving....



This is not really me, but i thought this was funny



Day 6.5

10/24/11

Eastbound

It was standing room only on the ride home. It was a classic end to a long day. Things could be worse I guess….

Day 6

10/24/11

Westbound

Man I was tired. Basically I had not slept well. Too much crap swimming in my head and this might be TMI. Got on the bus and crashed for almost the whole ride. It was busy and I rode in the front. Occasionally I would glance up to see a bunch of high school kids prior to their mid way route departure.

It was going to be a long day I could tell. I arrived safely on time and ventured up the 3 flights of stairs to my little cubical starting the day with a stiff cup of jo.

Day 5

I dont work on Fridays so there was no need to ride the bus. I did ride the bus Saturday for a spill. It was uber crowded. I recognized a young lady who I used to live next to about 2 years ago. She was all grown up, attending the city college. She had her LVN and was working on her nursing degree like her mother. She was also duing some modeling for the mall. She indicated that there was some evictions on the street and that some of the houses were baorded up. I used to live in a historic part of the city and my house was built in 1911. We poured about $60K into that house and finally moved out about 1.5 years ago. It was a craftmans style house and had a lot of character.

Day 4.5

Westbound was pretty kick back. I was to meet my better half, half way home but that did not transpire. People were on and off the bus pretty regularly. No problems to speak of. Nothing out of the ordinary. I got to my stop and walked the mile and 1/2 home.

Day 4

10/20/11

Eastbound

I got a text at 6:30 this morning that Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi had been killed. I receive breaking news texts from a local AM radio station, the same one I listen to in the morning on the way to work. It was all over the news I listened to on the way to work.

The machine was not working correctly on the bus and it would not accept dollars. The bus driver told the people in front of me “don’t worry about it just hop on”. I slid my card for my payment. There was a steady mixture of free riding passengers and people paying with cards or change that trickled on at the next few stops. At the stop by the mall a guy came on the bus and fixed the money machine.

The bus was relatively empty at the beginning, nobody I recognized like yesterday morning. The back was filled so I sat directly behind the bus driver so I could put my backpack on the round ledge to my left and rest it on my leg freeing up the seat next to me.

Some kids came on the bus with hair that looked like upside down jello. This must be a trend.

The kids' hair looked like this

A couple stops forward a lady got on the bus that I was able to observe. She was a bit on the heavy side and used a cane. She was dressed very classy and I heard speak on the phone, again classy. I admired the self respect and high self esteem that she portrayed.

After the lady left, a young college age girl sat in her place. The bus continued and got pretty full, so much so that a girl was standing kind of in front of me. She seemed a bit flustered and put her coffee on a ledge across from her (mistake #1). You can see the ledge to the left of the lady in the picture above. She then proceeded to put her bag in the middle of the isle (mistake #2) and try and fix/put on makeup (mistake #3). The bus came to a stop, the coffee spilled on a passenger across from me, the lady tried to pick up her bag from the middle of the isle while attempting to catch the spilling coffee and accidently made a big smudge of lipstick on her arm. It was like some kind of slow motion movie. The lady who got coffee on her was cool about it and the bus driver gave her some paper towels. I felt bad until I saw what she did next. After everything was cleaned up the coffee spiller placed the coffee on another ledge and put her bag back on the ground and returned to her makeup. “Lady, your killing me!!!!” instantly went into my head and I almost said something, but bit my tongue at the last minute. Some people must learn the hard way.

The rest of the ride went smoothly; college kids occupied and emptied most of the bus at the city college stop. By the time I go to my stop the bus was fairly empty. At least I was on time.

Day 3.5

10/19/11

Westbound

There was a marine in front of me on the bus home. He had a camouflage baseball cap on that had the logo on the front and “marine” on the side. He was probably late 40’s early 50’s sporting a high and tight and his shirt said some kind of construction company on the back. Normally I would assertively go talk with my brother and get to know him, but I was tired and did a lot of talking throughout my day at work so I decided not to assert myself.



The marine is holding the rail about to get off the bus. Thanks for your service leatherneck!

At the local SEIU office we passed on the route there were some Occupiers with approximately 6 tents set up in the parking lot and piles of banners and picketing type sticks with varied sayings on them. They were not currently protesting such as with walking around and antagonizing horn honks but kind of gathered in small groups outside of some the tents. I wasn’t able to get a picture in time.

As we passed the city college, the band was in full dress uniform on the orange white and green football field practicing. The field was relatively new and lots of renovations were going on at the campus such as a new nursing department. For a state that has no money, they sure are expanding a lot. Maybe it was a grant or something. At the stop a young black lady jumped on the bus. I had recognized her from the days before and was almost positive she was a college student.

Two nursing students were sitting next to me wondering why I was taking pictures of outside every so often, but I had my earphones on listening to the news and kind of ignored their curious stares. I was catching the story about a man who freed a bunch of zoo animals in Ohio and then shot himself. There was something like 40 wild animals including tigers and lions and monkeys. The news indicated that the local authorities were killing them all to protect the local citizens. I’m not animal rights PETA activist or anything, but I found it hard to believe that there was not another more human way to gather the animals such as with tranquilizer guns or traps and such. Maybe I just don’t know the whole circumstance, but it seems irresponsible to kill a bunch of animals that the zoo and city took on the responsibility of caring for and maintaining. World is a freak show!

The ride home went smooth and stops were un tainted with abnormalities as far as I could see.  

DAY 3

10/19/11

Wacky Wednesday morning Eastbound

I arrived at the bus stop 10 minutes earlier than usual. It was very foggy. Within a few minutes a #1 bus rolled up so I got on it. It looked like it was going to be an early commute which was fine.

As I was boarding the bus I heard a man behind me talking to himself. I looked back and recognized the man barreling down on me. He was a local character in his mid 40’s whom I had seen around town. He was tall and slender always with short black hair and clean shaven. He was always dressed rather decently, but just a little off like with his black slacks a little too short showing his multi-colored striped sox or his white shirt would be tucked in and his pants a little too high around his waist. I had seen him often years ago when I lived on the south side of town. My professional guess would be chronic mental illness with psychosis, but that is just a guess. I had never interacted with him and he seemed harmless except for his boisterousness and sometimes odd ticks (possibly due to Tourettes). He was kind of a fascinating character and I remember (before I became educated about mental illness) wondering what might be going on in his head.

The bus was pretty empty and the bus driver was very pleasant greeting me with a hefty “GOODMORNING!!!” I shot it back as him just as vigorously. I am a fond believer in greetings. I make it a practice at work, home or wherever to do them. I learned to be fond of them when I worked as a mental health therapist for a highly stressful environment. Every morning I was greeted with at least 2-3 crises. This lasted for years before I set some well needed limits. After that I would not deal with anything unless I was greeted properly by those in need or crises. A simple “good morning” or “how was your weekend” were a couple of greetings that I would insist are present prior to business. At first there was resistance, but after time it became the norm. It was nice when the bus driver did that and reminded me of the civility I need to practice.

As I boarded I glanced to the back and noted the seats were occupied so I was to sit in front. One of the seats occupied verified my thoughts from a prior day and kind of made me wonder about the day’s events to come. The seat was filled with another local mentally ill man that I had seen around for years. I suspected I saw him yesterday, but today he did not have glasses on and showed his piercing eyes and inappropriate glare. If you did not know any better you would think he would possibly be a surfer for he had shoulder length blonde straight hair and a full brown beard often sporting jeans and vans. His cheek bones were high and his face was stern. Actually his face reminded me of the old school Jesus photos people used to and still hang on their walls sporting an Americanized handsome Caucasian version of a long haired Son of the Lord. I never came in to contact with this man therapeutically, but I could tell he was chronically mentally ill, most likely schizophrenic. I had never interacted with him but came across him on multiple occasions around the 2 cities I frequent and in one case I came across him in a city 35 miles away at a burger joint. Hazards of being in the field I guess. I did sometimes wonder if he recognized me and thought the same thing…”man I see that guy everywhere”, or worse yet if I was incorporated delusional wise which sometimes happens to those  who work the severe mentally ill. No matter, I was happy to get a seat.

As we ventured east I put on my headphones and listed to news/talk radio that I sometimes do in the morning. The first guy I spoke of earlier sat next to me on the opposite side of seats and proceeded to loudly and randomly greet people as they got on the bus with a rather aggressive “Morning!!!” He settled down as some youngsters boarded the bus many of them in the perpendicular seats in front of us and one actually sat next to me. 2 of the 3 kids in front of me had white earphones as did the one sitting next to me. I was guilty of Apple-ness as well. The mentally ill man in the front started talking to himself sort of loudly and even though all the kids around had their headphones on I was sure they could hear him due to the odd glance every so often. Most of them seemed oblivious to this mentally ill mans ranting and I wondered if they had become numb from TV, video games or an over abundance of similar people around their own environments. It has been estimated that 1 in 5 people have a diagnosable mental health disorder in the United States. That is an astronomical number in my opinion.

Another couple stops down and the kids got off to go to high school for the day. The news in my ears told me that a man had been shot on a freeway by the police in my city. Not uncommon but news nonetheless.

When we stopped at the mall, a younger guy who was fit, sporting a pony tail and looking exhausted got on the bus with a few bags. As he sat in front of me he put his stuff down, took off his jean jacket (haven’t see one of those in a while) and proceeded to place his hands on his knees and take very deep breathes, 3 at a time with about 30 seconds in between. He kept doing this as we rolled away from the mall and finally stopped about 10 minutes later when we came to a bus stop where a handicapped older Hispanic lady and her husband were boarding. He moved to the back and the bus driver worked the machine to get the lady on board. He approached the seats in front of me and after making a few adjustments looked at me and asked if I could move so he could lift up my seat and make room for the handicap lady. Absolutely was my response, but he just looked at me like “didn’t you know that all this stuff needs to come up?” Once again I was doing it wrong. As I watch the driver adjust things and kind of buckle the wheelchair in, the woman’s husband shot me a dirty look. I almost smiled and stated have a nice day, but thought no that would be inappropriate and instead listened to my talk radio and starred at the back of the mentally ill high wader guy in front of me until he got off a few stops up. Like clockwork the bus emptied at the city college and I arrived at my stop 20 minutes early. This prompted me to head to the coffee shop for a coffee and beagal.

Day 2.5

10/18/11
Westbound
There were very few people on the bus the whole way to my stop. There was an opening in the back so I ventured there. The bus was on time and sailing smoothly stopping occasionally to pick up a person and let one off. At the stop before the city college a guy got on mid 20’s white and very bloodshot eyes. He moved with a sense of slowness which I initially attributed to a developmental disability or being on a substance of some sorts. I noted a red and black checkered iron cross on his forearm and pretty much dismissed some type of developmental disorder in favor of drug use. I was listening to some old school rap music and trying to observe others, when the mid 20’s guy abruptly got up and staggered to the front and sat down. Maybe he could hear my music and did not like it. I checked to make sure if my music could be heard by others, but it was so low that I could not here it outside of my earplugs. It was probably a random thing that guy moving for there was only me and sitting to my right across the 4 seats was a younger black guy sporting a New Jersey hat workout shorts and clutching 2 bags; one a workout and the other a backpack. I could not jump to conclusions based on my limited observational material. Later, the mid 20’s guy was playing peek-a-boo with a small black child sitting on her mother’s lap. That was nice to witness as the child was cracking up.

A little over ½ ways to my stop, the bus driver pulled over on the road and stopped the bus at a gas station. Without warning she got up and went to the gas station. It was kind of weird and random. There were 7 people on the bus and all were looking at the gas station. It was very quiet, until I abruptly exclaimed…”well I hope she comes back”. Someone chuckled in the front. Tuff crowd! The bus driver came back roughly 5 minutes later, relieved I presumed. She must have been ahead of schedule or had to go so bad it did not matter, but I was just thankful she came back.

glare from window inside the bus

Smooth ride the rest of the way. Got off and strolled home.

check out the Chicago city bus story

Today’s Headlines – 10/11/11

I like the idea of making city employees mandated to utilize public transportation. Maybe we could learn from Chicago.

Day 2

10/18/11
It was cooler this morning and there seemed to be fewer people on the Eastbound this morning. One thing that was different was that there seemed to be an abundance of trade workers all of which were Hispanic. A few stops in an older Hispanic lady was having trouble with getting the machine to take her dollar. A 30 something Caucasian man got up from the back and went to the front and gave her a crisp dollar in exchange for the one she was having problems with. It’s nice to see civility (or maybe he was just in a hurry and wanted the bus to get going. I put my faith in civility). The bus driver just sat the whole time and seemed disinterested in the whole situation. Thankfully there was no bus stench, but the smell of sweet strawberries. My guess was that someone had just put on some sort of lotion, which was nice. I did recognize 2 people who were on the bus the day before. The civil guy and another middle aged guy who, from the way he was dressed looked like a short order cook. Also, I thought I recognized a mentally ill man who used to roam around a lot, but he had a hood and glasses on and could not be sure.

There was a student a few seats up who was studying some type of mathematics. I thought he was in high school, but maybe college as the math looked fairly advanced calculus and he stayed on the bus after I left, which was right before the university stop. It was hard to tell.

As we continued to move east, the college students trickled in. I took a quick estimate about the number of people with white earplugs protruding from their ears. Although the bus was not totally full I estimated that roughly half either was utilizing Apple products or faking it. Steve Jobs would not have been contempt with this number though, if he was alive. He probably would be focused on the ones who did not have Apple products and also on why the bus was not equipped with plug-ins or Apple friendly bus mechanisms. One of the college students (presumably) was a black girl who had piercings in both ends of her bottom lips and was sporting something I had not seen in a while = traditional Vans shoes. The other thing that struck me about her was that she had pulled a zip lock bag full of hot Cheetoes out of her checkered backpack and was munching on them at 7 in the morning. Nice.

I was surprised at the amount of kids who got off at the stop by a middle school along the route. I didn’t realize that so many middle school kids road the city bus as opposed to the school bus. Once again ½ the bus off loaded at the city college.


This is the stop right after the city college stop. Empty.

 A black man got on at the and sat in front of me. He was probably middle aged, bald and well dressed with his no collar shirt tucked into his jeans. What struck me about him was that he had the skin discoloration disorder on both his hands. At first I thought he had on gloves, but upon closer observation from my well hidden eyes I noted that his hands were as white as mine. The gentleman made me think that maybe the recently deceased Michael Jackson may have very well suffered from this disorder intensely, as opposed to rumors of self shading and such. I suppose we will never know. The bus was 10 minutes late to my stop.

Day 1.5

10/17/11
My day was pretty hectic and tiring as I called out sick for a couple of days the week before. This in turn prompted my work to pile up. No matter the day was done and I was off to jump the bus at 6:30pm. I was to arrive at the library in a town to the west at approximately 7:35.

The bus terminal busy and as I approached the # 1 westbound, there was a line to squeeze on to the already crowded bus. Somehow I managed to get a seat in the front on the outside not close to the window. No bus stench, but there was the strong sent of ETOH (alcohol) coming from someone close, but I could not detect from whom.

The guy next to me was I presumed a college student and had earphones on. I was sitting in a seat that was perpendicular to the seating in front and the girl sitting in front of me was a younger Hispanic girl with purple hair. She had a few piercing on her face and a tattoo of a name I could not make out due to half it being covered by her spaghetti strap shirt and bra on her left shoulder all of which was directly in front of me hard to miss. She looked kind of bitter and was off and on texting and covering her texts. I had on my dark wraparounds so as to not be seen observing people.

The bus cruised westward and on the outskirts of downtown stopped and picked up what appeared to be a street person who sported black dirty shorts, a gray jacket and a black hat that covered his ratty gray hair. As he got on the bus he loudly told the bus driver “where ya been I called you an hour ago?” and abruptly cackled.  The funny part was that the heavy set blonde bus driver indicated that they were a bit behind but otherwise on schedule, all of this with a flattened affect or rather no emotion. The man apologized and said he was only teasing, but again the driver showed no emotion. The man sat down between the purple haired girl and an older Hispanic lady. This seemed to irritate the purple haired girl and she rolled her eyes and put on her headphones. I couldn’t understand why until I got a whiff of the man who smelled like a mixture of bus stench and booze.

We continued west until we hit the city college and again the bus offloaded a bunch of eager young minds including the guy sitting next to me by the window. As he exited I scooted towards the window to make room for a passenger on the end. An eager young mind approached me and even though I was listening to Korn on my iphone, I could hear him ask “can I sit here?” as he pointed to the seat next to me. I replied with an “of course” and moved my backpack out of the way. I am always happy to see younger folk with manners (even though I really am not that old). The youngster stayed in the same spot even when other seats opened up until his departure.

About ½ ways through the trip a heavier Hispanic man boarded the bus decked out in an Army hat, shirt, lanyard and USA on his sox’s. If he was not in the army he sure fit the bill although he was pretty overweight. The thing that solidified my suspects that he was prior army was that he had 5 plastic grocery bags full of Top Raman which is often a staple of prior military, college students, people who are not able to afford much and for those who grew up in an era where those noodles were a hit and tasty. Mostly I believe they were tasty because of the excess of salt in them. When I was a child my mother would make the noodles for me and add an egg and some peas and it was tasty then. Unfortunately I grew allergic to eggs so I can’t have the egg or the noodles Top Raman uses for they are egg based. My recent way around this seeing as how I love noodles (really who doesn’t?), is to eat more Vietnamese noodles or Pho as it’s called, which contains rice noodles. I digress.

At the stop by the mall, the bus emptied a lot and the seemingly homeless man (or maybe he was just dirty like pig pen) got off. A younger man came on and sat next to the purple haired girl. She seemed more at ease with this. The guy that sat next to her was Caucasian, in his early 20’s and had a full sleeve of tattoos on his right arm.  The striking thing about this fellow was that if he had a shirt on he could pass for one of those high end waiters you come across at extravagant restaurants. His hair was short and clean slicked back with gel. His facial feature were like something out of the mafia and the only thing I could think to call him was Bruno, for he looked like Angelino Bruno, a well known crime syndicate Mafioso boss who at one time ruled the city decades earlier. The man I tagged Bruno was also thin and muscular and sported very small traditional triangular dots in the middle of his left arm. These 3 dots have been associated with decade old Mexican street gangs with each dot representing a word = My Crazy Life. Again I digress.

As we continued towards my destination the bus trickled people out left and right at smaller bus stops between large stops. The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful and I arrived at the public library at 7:33 pm. So far the busing schedule coupled with my calculations have been fairly accurate = sweeeet!

As I left the bus I thanked the driver and a few others followed. It was dark out but I needed the exercise so I walked the 1.5 miles home and prepared for the next day’s commute.    

Angelino Bruno

Day 1

10/17/2011
The morning was not cold but I had a jacket on just in case. I was dropped off at the bus station about 5 minutes prior to my calculated time to catch the bus at this bus stop. There was a younger couple in a car that seemed to be making out at 6:45 am and I presumed one of them was waiting for the bus. There were also two short Hispanic ladies waiting for the bus with me as well. I had arrive early as the bus times posted are only for main stopping points so one needs to guesstimate the time the bus arrives in between main stops at the smaller bus stalls. The bus I was hoping to catch was the #1 which leaves from a main stop prior to my stall pickup at 6:42.I arrived at approximately 6:45 at my little stop and my timing was perfect for the bus picked me up at 6:48 am.  

After the two ladies got on the bus, I got on and proceeded to try and swipe my card. Already I was doing it wrong. The older bus driver with a pony tail said “no no you have to validate it first in this slot” as he pointed to another part of the machine. I apologized and indicated that I had not done this before, but he did not seem to care and gestured to me as I said good morning. As I walked back I heard the bus driver say "I'm not waiting, she's always late", but he did. It was the girl from the couple who was making out in the care.

The bus was relatively empty maybe ½ dozen people so I headed to the back noting no bus stench which was refreshing. The bus darted off east bound for the next stop. At the next stop a few people got on. A well dressed heavy lady who sat in the front, a couple of what I presumed were teens and an older Hispanic man who sat in the back with my. The very back has a row of four seats and we were on opposite sides. I was on the south side. The older Hispanic man hung his freshly dry cleaned clothes on the hand rail near the top of the bus. 2 short sleeve plaid shirts and khakis. His gray hair was short and well trimmed as was his oversized grayed mustache. He wore dark wraparound shades even though it was still not totally light out and had 2 sleeves of tattoos. I could tell he was a solder of the streets and most likely had did some time at some point as indicated by his mannerism and tattoos. The woman who got on was already asleep resting her head on her bright yellow blouse in the front and both the teens that got on had headphones in their ears.

There was a nice breeze that went through the bus as went ventured from stop to stop picking up more teenagers, middle school kids, college people, and nursing student’s, trade workers etc. I read out of my public policy book trying to focus back on my dissertation, but casually noted some other things on the ride. I noticed that when we arrived at the city college stop about 2/3 of the passengers got off and I suspected that the large number of other college age people would stay on until the end, which was at the university.

The rest of the ride was uneventful and I was able to finish up a chapter I was reading prior to our arrival at 7:57. There was just enough time for me to get off the bus, walk about 25 yards to the corner of the station and into the building directly in front of (or behind depending on where you are located and facing) the main bus terminal in downtown. I was in my seat at work at exactly 8:01 am. Mission accomplished relatively unscathed.

(in Jamaican accent) "Hold on to ya heads its gonna be a bumpy riiiiide" - from beginning of Harry Potter 3 and it was, but you can make out the lady sleeping in the yellow shirt in the front.....

Initial run through 10/14/11

The bus guide was off and old. I went to the metro station, where I expected to catch the #1 bus which is a straight shot to my work in another city. It was a hot Friday afternoon and the depot was empty except the guard who was probably 23 years old at most. I asked him about the bus and he said "this guide is the old guide...its all wrong". Unfortunately he did not have a new guide anywhere, but he was helpful in pointing me in the right direction. I left the depot for another stopping point. After I figured out a good starting point along the route, I parked my car by the library and waited for the bus.

There were no bus times for stops between major stopping points for the bus, so I calculated that I needed to be at this bus stop 10 minutes prior to when the bus left its last major stopping point. I believe the last starting point was Smith/6th on the west side of town.

The bus arrived and I paid the fare ($1.50/one way). It had been years since I had taken city transportation and a decade or so with this particular city. The bus looked relative clean and I took a seat mid way through the bus = mistake #1. I had forgotten the rules about taking the bus. First rule is always sit at the front or the back depending on who is on the bus. If you sit in the front, the bus driver is there and chances are you will not be bothered by shady characters. If you sit in the back (pending any elements in the back) you can see everything that is going on on the bus, which could be a good thing.

As I sat down the smell hit me pretty hard. It smelled like a combination of Broccoli, Underarm Sweet, Soup, Tires, Earwax, Nachos, and Cooked Halibut = (BUS STENCH). Granted I have a strong sense of smell, but these are just a few things that came to mind. It was hot out and thankfully the air conditioning was on blowing the bus stench around with a chill to it. I made note to put an extra splash of cologne on for Monday morning commute.

People started to board at different points along the way. One person that sat directly behind me looked like a retired aerospace outdoors man, hefty in build most likely in his 50's with a well trimmed gray mustache, a black baseball cap and dark 70's sunglasses on. He was well groomed and dressed for the season. He also incoherantly mumbled to himself and grunted loudly the entire time he was on the bus. Another person sat in front of me at one point. He was an older man of Indian ethnicity (Asian not American) and had huge earphones on attached to a very small MP3 player. He also had a paper with him and proceeded to glance through the whole thing. It did not look as though he was reading it, but went page by page and seemed to land in the Arts section where he seemed to be checking out local shows. At one point prior to his departure from the bus he whipped out a rather large wad of cash and proceeded to count it out in the open. Although I only saw 5's and 1's, it was a lot of them and I thought this was probably a mistake as he was opening himself up as a target of theft for sure.  While the Indian was counting his money a younger Hispanic man sat next to me and proceeded to put his arm on rest behind me. At first I was thinking "dude are you kidding me? You have about 2 seconds to remove your arm from behind me!" I was very uncomfortable. Not because he had his arm on the rest behind me, but because I did not know him and he seemed to be watching my texts. I observed that his boots had cement on them and that he looked tired. I could relate for he was probably coming home from a construction job. I basically let his arm stay where it was and eventually he moved to another seat after one opened up. I also noticed that he was watching the Indian count his money. Hmmmmm

There were other things that happened on the way to and from my trial run, but they are saved for another time.

It took me an hour one way and I could tell it was not going to be a problem for me to take the bus for a while. If nothing else, it would get my creative juices flowing again.

what the H!

My name is David. I live in So Cal.I was recently forced to take city transportation. This is how it went......