Friday, September 03, 2010

So then this happened...

My motorcycle broke down today, so I walked a quarter mile or so to the bus stop. As I was waiting for the pedestrian signal to let me cross, I saw my bus, which was the last one of the day going to my town. I ran across the street (in front of the bus) and came panting up to the closed door. The driver was apparently mad that I'd made him wait by running across the street in front of him, so he looked right at me, scowled, and drove away.

I expressed my displeasure by waving my finger at him. Seriously, it would have taken him 4 seconds, no exaggeration, to open the door and let me on.

I got on the next bus, which caught up to the first one at a central bus stop/park-n-ride. I got off bus #2, and got on the original bus I'd wanted. As I got on, I said to the driver "Are you going to let me on this time?" He completely ignored the question, told me information about the fare, and pretended like nothing had happened. Then he was really nice to me for the rest of the trip.

Was it the finger that showed him the error of his ways? Probably not, but it kind of makes you think...

:-)

6 Comments:

At Sun Sep 05, 05:30:00 PM PDT, Blogger unca said...

So, how was he "really nice to you" the rest of the way? Did he tell jokes, give you candy or what?

 
At Wed Sep 08, 05:23:00 PM PDT, Blogger Cal said...

I wondered that too, Unca. I pictured a kindly smile and an occasional, gentle shoulder pat. Also, a sincere-if-somewhat-rambling-at-times monologue about the bus driver's own ne'er-do-well son, Steve, and how he wished Steve could be more like Bryan. I'm sure that was it.

Bryan, my guess is it wasn't the finger. Is it possible that he didn't recognize you as the wild-eyed, finger-waving maniac who tried to get killed by his bus earlier that afternoon? Given how well you came out in the point-by-point comparisons with Steve, I think that's likely. For all his faults, after all, I don't think Steve was much of a finger-waver.

 
At Fri Sep 10, 08:49:00 PM PDT, Blogger si said...

so cal, if you come back to this, i have a question. do you post to a blog? if not, how/where do you have an outlet for your musings? :)

bryan: were you wearing your leathers? i'm sure that, your ponytail, and your single-digit finger-waving might have made you seem like a bad-ass. i'd be proud! :)

how's the bike? hope it's been resuscitated (sp?).

 
At Mon Sep 20, 01:24:00 AM PDT, Blogger Rob said...

all very good questions. :-)

pretty sure he recognized me, because yes i *was* wearing all leather, hair down, and carrying two motorcycle helmets.

by "really nice to me" i mean went out of his way to volunteer information about the fare, why it was pay-at-the-end instead of up front on this particular route, and politely offered me a transfer as I was leaving.

steve didn't enner into it.

:-)

PS. bike's still in the shop, but i'm on the road so doesn't matter to me much. the pacific NW is about to become land-of-stinky-weather for the next 9 months, so i've pretty much resigned myself to no riding for a while...

 
At Mon Sep 20, 10:15:00 PM PDT, Blogger Blogball said...

I think the bus driver thought you were going to kick his a**
so he was nice to you.

 
At Wed Oct 05, 05:37:00 AM PDT, Blogger Unknown said...

congrats for attemt

 

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