The ol’ bus is starting to wear on me a bit, and it’s only mid-January. Bad sign. Getting home last night was a real adventure. I showed up at the bus stop right on time, and noted on their fancy, supposedly GPS-driven sign that the bus was also right on schedule. Excellent. The sign changed to “arriving” as always. And then it stayed that way for about five minutes. Pretty soon it changed from “arriving” to “delayed,” and then the next bus showed up on the board as ten minutes out. Huh, that was weird, did I see that right? A quick conference among the other commuters confirmed that yes, our bus had fallen into some kind of abyss. So we watched the next one count down, and then promise it was “arriving.” Some time later it too went to “delayed.” This pattern continued over and over, and the ever-growing crowd was having quite a laugh about our fair city and their “services.” Over an hour later, the now very, very large crowd was morphing into more of an angry mob, and much of the humor had left the situation. I wasn’t really dressed for standing around in a snowstorm, and the cold was getting quite uncomfortable. (Yes dear, you can say “I told you so” if you like.) I was considering taking refuge at the Flying Saucer or maybe the Phoenix, but although that might have been a good temporary solution it still wouldn’t get me home. I noticed the northbound bus passing by regularly, so I finally bailed out and jumped on one of them, just to get warm if nothing else. We wound through downtown and I got off at 11th & Grand, and queued up for the southbound again. After standing there for quite a while, finally a Plaza-bound bus showed up. Not really my route, but I wasn’t in a spot to complain. My “theory” was that the buses were not making it up the big hill on 11th street, and were bypassing the stop I had been standing at on Wyandotte. Well, this guy chugged right along with no problems at all, and we picked what remained of the crowd at the stop I was originally at. So where the heck were all the other buses? What happened to all the ones that had passed by going north? (They turn around at the City Market and come back south.) Who knows, it’s still a mystery. I emailed them a pleasant inquiry, which I fully expect to be ignored. Getting on the bus proved to be just the first step though; Turned out traffic on Main was at a dead stand-still and there was no place to go anyway. Hey, at least it was warm. I made it as far as 42cnd Street, then I bailed out and Donette came and got me. The trusty SUV got along just fine.
This morning started off much smoother, and my “regular” bus showed up right on time. Unfortunately it only made it as far as the Plaza, where it broke down. Back out into the cold to wait again. Maybe it’s time to buy a Scooter Skirt and start driving myself to work.