Finally, a bad bus day

I've ridden the bus to and from NYC over 100 times by now, and most of those trips have been pretty uneventful. There was something different about today, and it affected my rides in both directions.

The day started inauspiciously enough: My 12:55 bus was late. Then I noticed that, for the first time, all of the luggage compartments were at least partially full. To make matters more challenging, the driver was the only one who has ever given me a hard time about the unicycle, tho he and I had agreed that I could wrap it with a large garbage bag if the need arose. Luckily, I had that bag.

Once on the bus (and because of that garbage bag, I was the last on), I noticed that it was crowded enough that I'd have to sit next to someone. The 12:55 is often like that for the simple reason that the next bus isn't for 3 hours. But this one was more annoying than usual because a small number of riders near me talked loudly or used their cell phones at the start of the ride. Once we'd gotten underway, the bus was pretty shushy.

Speaking of shushing, at one point I'd nodded off, only to awaken to one of the loud young women nearby. She'd decided to phone someone, perhaps because the bus was running late. But she didn't keep her call short, so it woke me up. When someone a few seats away shushed her, she talked back. I've noticed that if there is ever a rude person on the bus, that person has invariably gotten on the bus before the New Paltz stop. New Paltz is an extremely polite town.

Eventually, we hit traffic. I began to panic about the time, but luckily the slow traffic was short-lived. Nevertheless, we pulled into the station about a half-hour late. I made it to my student's school (for a pick-up) with just minutes to spare; normally I have enough time to drop off my backpack at my mom's, play a few games of Scrabble on the computer, hang out with my mother, and then head back to my student's school.

The rest of my day went fine (except for the gear-change button that fell off my unicycle). I made it to the bus in time for the 7:30 ride home. That ride seemed to be going well, too. I had my own seats and the bus lights were strong enough to read by (unlike some of the older buses). The driver was making excellent time. Suddenly someone rushed up to him. A few minutes later, everyone on the bus except for the driver was talking about what had just happened: The driver had missed the New Paltz exit. This necessitated an extra 35 minutes of driving because he had to go all the way to the next exit 18 miles away ... and then turn around and come back. We actually got to New Paltz at the same time as the 8 o'clock bus did. I found it funny that the driver wasn't bright enough to make up for his mistake. He should have asked the riders who were going to Kingston to stay on the bus so that they wouldn't all be really late. Then he could have had the riders going to 'local' stops get on the other bus, which was quite empty. I suggested it, but it only flustered him. Some people treat fresh ideas like hot bread out of an oven. They wait for things to cool down, but then it's too late. This behavior doesn't work for bread and it doesn't work for ideas. You just get a lot of stale bread and a bunch of angry bus riders. It would have helped if he'd made an announcement. He'll be lucky if he gets this route again.

Happily, despite the late hour, the kids were still a bit awake, so I kissed them all goodnight and watched some tv with Shirra before heading to another (false) fire alarm down at SUNY. I played some Scrabble (to make up for this afternoon) and here I am, about to head to bed just before 2am....