The Voice Of Reason

I haven't had a good bus rant lately. So yes. I fucking hate the bus some times.!
It's a dirty day. Rain and snow and slush under food. The wind is damp and cold.
I got to the bus stop after work about 5 or 8 minutes before my number 53 normally gets there. It didn't.
Nor did the one 20 minutes later show up.
And yep, the bus after that was late too. I'm so cold and near tears by now between frustration and anger.
Every other bus came by, some of them 5 or 6 times! There was one other guy there that was waiting for the same bus as me. We commiserated. Wondered what happened. There was very little traffic in the downtown area, too.
We finally took the next one along that would go to the bridge terminal.
This had the same effect as someone waiting for the bus and lighting a smoke.
We got to the bridge terminal, walked over to the stop for the 53. I stool there less than 2 minutes and the 53 pulled in. Yep. If I'd stayed where i was another couple of minutes, it would have came.
Didn't matter. I had placed myself right at the stop, where everyone else had been in the shelter, inside the terminal or back under the overhanging shelter. That meant i was first on the bus after the other people got off and so what? I didn't shove in front of anyone. There was nobody standing there in the wind and weather. You snooze you lose.
So at least I got a seat.
The bus was packed. Naturally. I don't think that was the missing buss(es). I think he was the one that was supposed to come at that time, perhaps a little late but not much. The other two just never showed up. and that never happens when the weather is good.
I get so frustrated and pissed right off. Everyone else's bus will rock on by. You can watch 6 or 8 number 10 busses in the amount of time i stood there. There must have been an additional 7 or 8 busses that went to the bridge terminal, too.
Why not take one of them? Because then I'm standing on the other side at the terminal, waiting for the bus that comes from Halifax where i was standing, anyway, and when the bus gets to the terminal, hordes of people get on and who knows if i would get a seat. Standing on a bus that's extremely packed is not fun. I'd prefer to wait where i was and get it from Halifax to my door.
If and when we move from here, I think I'm going to pick an area near the number 10! You never have to wait long for one of those at rush hour.
It took me ages to get warm when i got home and i still feel slightly chilled.
I hate the bus.

Note to Ms. Bus Driver.
When it's cold outside, and you've let your passengers off/on at the stop/terminal, could you please close the doors if you're just going to sit there for more than a minute? Thanks.

I'm all for having a cheerful driver who greets me pleasantly. Even better if he/she drives the speed limit and doesn't work the brakes for all they're worth. But come on. The driver has personal heating where they sit but I think they forget about the rest of us. The heating is on and it's nice and cozy and then we get to the terminal. Even if there's only a few minutes' wait until they have to leave, once everyone is off or boarded, there's no need to chill out the rest of the bus and let the wind whistle through. You can always open the door again if someone wants on or off. Sheesh. When will winter end? This part of Canada, it won't be for weeks yet. Other parts have a proper spring with weather starting to warm up by now or by the middle of March. What do we get? A day here and there that fools you into thinking Spring might just be on the way and then whammo with the snow or the sub zero temps again. At least now, it's more likely the snow will turn to rain or rain away within a few days. That's something.

Ok, weather whinge over.

Social media sure has it's positive side as much as some of it can be a pain in the butt. Endless photo shares, banal tweets, advertising. Twitter isn't quite so bad as Facebook because you don't seem to get quite as many repeat posts with half your friends sharing and re-posting the same cartoons and photos. Twitter isn't just about following celebrities either. I have a few that i follow, mostly Corrie actors but a couple others, there are people I know either in person or through the corrie community, a couple of local news and traffic feeds, and then there are things related to my interests of history, travel and photography. One of them came up trumps on the weekend. The BBC History magazine posted a notice about an upcoming exhibition at the British Museum about Vikings. Oooooh! We both like things like that. Quick-surf to the B.M. site and sure enough it's going to be on while we're there so I scored a couple of tickets. They have timed entry for things like this with a limited number of tickets for each time, in this case, on the half hour. It keeps the exhibit from getting too crowded and keeps the flow of people reasonable.

The last time I was in London during a major exhibit was for the Terra Cotta Warriors from China. We didn't manage to get tickets online before and when we went there in person we couldn't get in either. I'm sure they do keep some tickets aside for walk-ins. Anyway, that was over an Easter weekend the same as this upcoming visit will be so I didn't want to risk missing out this time. I snapped up the tickets before even talking to Graham but I knew he'd be cool with it and he was. We're going to that in the late afternoon on the Saturday and then to The Mousetrap that evening. Sunday we're going to the Tower of London and I"m hoping to catch up with any of you Londoners free on the Sunday afternoon. I'll get that coordinated through naturalbornkaos closer to the date as far as finding a suitable pub and letting people know.

The weekend was very nice. My sister and I took Mom out to lunch for a belated birthday meal because last weekend the weather didn't coorperate, or we thought it wasn't going to so we cancelled. It wasn't great but it wasn't as bad as forecast so we might have been able to go but anyway, we didn't. I also went shopping and replaced all of my bras! All at once! The only thing i've noticed is that the bottom edge of the piece that the hooks are on is scratchy against my back so i've had to undo the bottom hook. I suppose that will soften over time with washings. Picked up a few tops as well that were on sale plus another 30% including a hoodie that is made from sweatshirt fleece. I am finding it really hard to get sweatshirts in that material anymore and I don't know why. It's nice and warm and soft and all cotton. Sometimes you can get it but it's got polyester in it or something, it's not quite as stretchy as cotton and thus doesn't wear and age as nicely.

Our new manager seems to be working out so far, settling in, nice guy. I think this is the first time i've had a manager that was younger than me, though. The last one was but only by a few years and all the others have been older or close to my age as well. This man is a good 10 years younger, maybe a little more and looks it. Not a gray hair on his head nor wrinkle on his face. I know he's over 40 but he looks about 30. I feel old. ;)

Sometimes anyway. Days like this.
Because of a mess up that was not my problem, i had to go pay the rent in person. For some reason the new management company can't seem to get the automatic withdrawal in place. This is two months in a row now.
So this is me waiting for any bus to go across the bridge to connect to one that will take me right to the office. Except i waited a bit longer than usual.
Got to the other side, but the bus that should have been there in 5 minutes took 30.
I could have been on my bus and home and comfy.
In retrospect, i should have said screw the rent i'll do it next week.
I finally got to the office, the OPEN sign is still glowing
Except the door is locked and the sign on the door says oh yes they're open until 9, except Fridays. They close at 5. Now, no matter if i'd caught ever connection dead on, i still wouldn't have made it in time. I"m sure she said 9 when i called her earlier in the week. I might have missed the part where she said "except Friday".
Across the road to catch the bus that goes by my place.
Watched one of them pass me by before i got to the stop.
Arse.
The other one, according to the schedule, would have already been by.
Would i be lucky enough to get a third late bus? Yes!
By the time i got home i was that wound up i had to lay down and chill for a few minutes. Just let the frustration and rage at Metro Transit leak out into the mattress.
Damn rental company it's all their fault.
Bastards.
Anyway. Calm. Happy now. Home and comfy. And it's the weekend! :)

Transit strike still ongoing. They were at talks all day yesterday and all night, meeting, then talking amongst themselves etc. wash, lather, repeat. By this morning, the union walked away and said management doesn't seem interested in real bargaining at all and it now sounds like the union is also pushing for more money when they'd already said it wasn't about that.

Bah.

So the strike continues. I guess it will depend on public pressure as to which side blinks first.

Because i've been working long days to match those of my cousin who's driving me to work, i'm having Fridays off. I'm lucky they're being flexible enough to allow it. Weather permitting, I am going to renew my driving license tomorrow and pick up a few groceries. Mom and i will go together, maybe check out a few more shops besides.

2012 books:

18 Witches under Way - Debora Geary
The second in the spinoff trilogy "Witches on Parole". This series is about two women who are sent to a mentor, one voluntarily because she needs a change and the other was sent as a "parole", she is a young woman who has been in and out of trouble. Both are witches and the community of the Witch Central that Debora writes about are also part of these books. These books are such a delight, with wonderful, funny and warm characters. In this series, the two women have to find ways to change their lives and shake off the chains that have dragged them down. Full review here. I really love Ms. Geary's books and every one has been as good as the last.

And.... the transit is on strike. Apparently late last night they had another offer, one of which had the management cave on the next big deal breaker the union wanted. And they're STILL on strike!!! Bastards. They say yes, but what about all the other things we wanted? Well, if the management compromised on deal breakers, where's your compromise?

I'm traveling with my cousin and things went ok this morning. More traffic than usual to get on the bridge but it wasn't at a standstill and once on the bridge, it moved normally, which isn't speedily even on normal days. I got to work about 10 minutes later than usual. Not bad at all! It remains to be seen what the commute home will be like but as we're leaving after 5, maybe it won't be any worse than this morning since so many people seem to be out of work from 4 or 4:30.

Looks like there could be a transit strike by the middle of next week. Aaagghh! I'd be very surprised if they scramble out a tentative agreement because this time around they really seem far apart and it's nothing to do with wages. That's usually what happens. Everyone complains about a strike when the people on strike are usually well paid but most strikes aren't about money, they're about benefits or, in this case, the threat of contracting out services.

I'm hoping to line up a car share with someone and i'm willing to pay. We'll see what happens. Hugely inconvenient if you don't have a car and pretty inconvenient even if you do, especially if you don't normally drive to work. It's expensive working downtown for drivers.

B... as in Bus-terfuck
Today's adventures with Metro transit...
I've gone to the inconvenience of getting up and out earlier to catch the 6:40 bus because the 7:00 bus only shows up a few days a week, Friday not being one of them.
Today the 6:40 didn't show up.
for fuck's sake
But i thought, perhaps i just missed it as i thought i might have been one or two minutes later than usual and if it came bang on time or a minute or two early...
I waited until about 6:50 and went back inside the lobby doors to wait for the next one which i didn't think would come anyway as it's the no-show 7 and was prepared to wait for the 7:20.
You guessed it, at 6:55, the bus comes around the corner!
I scoot out.
I don't know whether it was a very, very late bus or a very early bus. It caught a few others off guard and they were running for the stop. These are the people that usually catch the 7:00 bus who probably would have been waiting in vain as usual. I gave it up as an exercise in frustration that i don't need. Or so i thought.
Metro Transit can't afford the bad publicity these next two weeks while the Canada Games are going on in Halifax. It might be time to contact the councillor for my district.

The bus didn't show up again this morning and i'm not happy. I emailed the controller that is in charge of that but no answer yet and i don't really expect or need one anyway. But this is the fourth time since mid December that it hasn't shown for this trip and route! Apparently there are staffing problems but it seems unfair that this route should be targeted each time. You can't even call the Transit line as it's only giving you the scheduled time, not real time departures and it's too early to call the city's call centre even if they were informed that the bus was not going to show. Which i doubt they would be.  The first three times was on a Monday. If it has to be suspended for a time at least they could keep it to the same day and then post a notice on all the bus stop signs. But noooooooo. Keep people on their toes, right? 

Yeah, I get it. It doesn't affect a route that is one that is always packed but the one i take at that time of day (7 a.m.) is usually filled with standing room only when it picks up people at the terminal to head to Halifax. Those people can get any bus going across the bridge but the fact remains, our street is only served by the one route that goes to the bridge terminal where, outside of morning rush hour, you have to get another bus to anywhere else. The other two busses that are close to my house go in different directions where you could get a bus going to halifax but by the time you get to a transfer point and wait for the next bus, you might as well have stayed where you were and got the next one in front of your house.

This end of the city seems to get the short end of the stick a lot and there doesn't seem to be anything you can do about it, no matter how much noise you make. Grrrrr...

Some days i really really really hate the bus. I really do.
Especially the ones that don't show up.
When my fingers are about to break from all the grocery bags.
When it did finally show up, it was nearly empty and the driver was being directed around the route by a passenger. She'd only been driving a bus for 2 weeks and had never done that route before! But i don't think that's why the bus was late, i think perhaps the one i was waiting for broke down or something. Otherwise this bus *should* have been packed full. Funny thing was, standing there, we saw a bus come to the intersection down the road. It should have turned up towards us. It disappeared. No idea where it went but apparently it wasn't her going the wrong way. I would put my bags down for awhile and then gather them all up when a bus headed down the road only to find out it wasn't the one i needed. Every single bus came along there except mine. One route was even represented twice!! There were no cabs in the area by that grocery store like the other one. If i'd just called a cab from the start i would have been home in 3 minutes. I could have walked home in 10 or 15 but i had too much to carry.

And of course if i called one while i waited, sod's law, a bus would come round the corner.
Kind like lighting up a cigarette.
If i smoked.
Instead, I steamed.
But i'm ok now. I have pie.