Week of 11/5 - Present

So i have decided to cut back on my blogging since I have started another job writing for an online journal. I will most likely blog weekly here.

I am actually just finishing up my first article for the journal. I will blog more about this in the future. The focus of this blog today is on last weeks transportation ventures.

The week was relatively uneventful. Eastbound were mellow with many of the same kids and adults making their way to school and work. For some reason the Westbound were standing room only twice. I stood at the front of the bus when i got on and observed a young Hispanic couple board the bus with their son. He was maybe 5 and the young couple stood while the boy sat with a Motorola xoom and commenced to manipulate a game of sorts on the tablet. It made me think of my 4 year old daughter who has been manipulating my iphone since she was 3 and figured out what it was. Amazing really.

On another evening homeward bound a very young Black couple got on the bus with a little tyke who was probably one and very unhappy. I was standing in the front again and watching this very inexperienced couple try and deal with a very you child who was upset. The mom kept telling the passive dad to hold the baby and he did but the little one squirmed and was frustrated so the dad would pass him back to the mom.

this went on for a few stops and i saw some people getting frustrated.

 i don't normally take action, but decided what the heck. I look over at the child and made a couple of silly faces, which caught his attention. After a few back and forth with faces and smiles and such, others around him seemed less frustrated. Also, the little one figured out quickly that when he smiled and giggled people around him copied. It was maybe 2 minutes into the whole situation that he figured out he was the center of attention. No more crying and less stressed parents. Mission accomplishment.

On Friday  i took the bus early in the morning for a doctor appointment. After my appointment i hit up Panera and then road back to town to meet my wife for some xmass shopping. I actually took the smaller transit when i got to town. I was not impressed by the smaller bus system. they call it the red or blue line depending on where you want to go. I took the blue line before, but this was the first time i took the  red line. The bus was half the size of a regular bus and was fitted with older seats like a shuttle bus. The bus driver was 15 minutes late and there was no place i could swipe my pass. I asked the bus driver about it and she said, "just let me see the pass.We're not that sophisticated here". There was a jar like attachment that people put money in, which seemed very primitive. 

The town is relatively small, but not that small sporting about 130K people. However, they support that sleepy town mentality and the buses do not go past about 7:00pm which sucks for us working folk who could use transportation at about that time.  

Life in the fast lane......