Visit the kelpforest....

On the bus, on the way home from work the other day, we were only a few stops away from where I get off. I was listening to a podcast when over my headphones I heard the bus driver say loudly "You have got to be kidding me!" I looked up to see we were pulling into the outer left turn land from Golden West onto Yorktown. Ahead of us, I could see other cars pulling out of the lane, revealing a black Hummer, stopped, with what appeared to be a teenage boy pouring gas into to the tank from a tiny red gas can - it looked like it could barely hold half a gallon. He pulled the spout out and sprinted across the lanes to the Chevron station on the corner.

"I can't believe it!" the bus driver exclaimed. "You can afford that big honking car and you can't put gas in it?! Does someone have a camera? We need a picture of this."

"I do!" I said, pulling mine out of my backpack and jumping to the other side of the bus; unfortunately, he had already pulled up beside it to turn left, and it wasn't an angle you could see anything going on, and the bus had to keep moving. He continued on to the next stop, where he told me, "You know I should have stopped and let you take that. I might have gotten in trouble, but it would have been worth it."

"Maybe they couldn't afford car payments and gas," I told him. "After all, that's why I'm riding the bus."

Heh. I shouldn't be so amused at another's misfortune, as I've been in that situation before, but the huge vehicle, and the little tiny gas can...I don't think one fill from it would have been enough to get the damn thing started.

Until all the drivers were back to work, buses were free til the end of the week. Some of the drivers who came back early found this humorous.

I stayed home Monday as my tummy was bugging me, and slept most of the day. When I came in on Tuesday, I found little origami cranes perched on all the intersections of cubicle walls and one in front of my computer. Apparently, KP had brought in some origami paper she said she was never going to use, and Angela took it home, made cranes out of all of it, and brought it back. KP had previously brought in some beautiful computer paper decorated with whales and dolphins and had all of us take some home. I'm not sure what I'll use mine for - maybe I should start writing letters again. ;)

When I got off the bus in front of my office this morning, the male bluebird I mentioned in a previous post flew up and perched on a sign - for a moment I thought he was a black phoebe until I noticed his reddish chest and lack of a topknot. I noticed another bird sitting at the top of a short tree a few yards away - it also had a rusty breast although paler, and its back was gray - a female? That would be cool if they were nesting around here.

I am so glad I'm taking the bus now. The oil companies seem to always give some excuse for jacking up the prices - there's something haywire at one of the refineries that needs to be fixed, California gas needs special processing so it's more expensive, blah, blah, blah. Come on, they think we don't notice it happens the same time every year?

Most of the bus drivers are nice; although the morning driver of the 25 up Goldenwest/Knott is curt and never smiles. He always seems to be driving faster than the other drivers, and he's the only who has to actually stop and wait at the designated time check stops. For some reason, he seems to get cut off a lot, too; he's also the only driver I've heard honk the horn. The bus I transfer to in the morning is driven by a very nice blonde lady; she doesn't talk much (neither do I), but several times she stopped for me when I hadn't quite made it to the stop (once nearly a block away from it), and she always pulls over in front of my building without my having to ding the bell. I say thank you and we both wish each other a nice day (sometimes at the same time), and I get off. Granted, it's not a busy route - there's only one bus making the round between the Seal Beach Leisure World and Westminster Mall, and there are seldom more than three or four people. Sometimes, I'm completely by myself.

The guy in the afternoon, however, is a talker, and so are many of his passenger. It's from them that I know his name is Frank and he plays tennis, although he told me himself he's going to visit his daughter in Colorado next week - so much cheaper to buy a house there than here! He's gotten a summary of what I do at work, but grimaces at the thought that anybody would eat squid! Sometimes he's already engaged with another passenger in Spanish before I get on. And again, he knows where I get off and stops without my having the pull the rope. And all in the space of two miles.

The bus home is sometimes crowded and I often sit near the back because for a long distance I prefer facing forward to sitting sideways. This is the bus that seems to have the most characters get on. A young man in a Quizno's uniform was questioning all the passengers around him whether they were Saved or not the other day - I tried to appear small and hide behind my paperback, but luckily he got off at the next stop. When I started riding, there was a fairly good-looking guy who would get on carrying a surfboard case, and as the bus took off again, would pretend to be searching his pockets for a fare. When he didn't come up with one, the driver would make him get off at the next stop, or he deliberately target the old ladies riding and ask if he could use their day pass, if they were done with it. I saw several of them smile and give it to him. I think most of the drivers have caught on to him, though; I haven't seen him in a while.

And I've read more books since I started than I did most of last year!

I am such a klutz.

At the point where I change buses I have a 15 minute wait in front of a high school. I don't like sitting down there because there is a big soda machine right next to the stop that blocks my view of the street, and also the bus driver can't see me sitting there. If I stand where I can see, I'm blocking the path of all the students coming to class. So today I figured I had plenty of time so I would just walk to the next stop. I had enough time, and I could use the walk.

Actually the next stop was still in front of the high school, so I kept going. It's one of those typical Southern California neighborhoods where the houses are surrounded with 7 foot cinderblock walls, and the main artery streets in residential areas are really rather ugly. The sidewalk runs next to the wall, and there's a dirt strip next to the road. In newer, more well-to-do areas, these may be prettily landscaped (either part of your taxes or your homeowner association dues), but in older neighborhoods, either there's a bare dirt strip or the sidewalk goes all the way to the curb.

Anyhow, I knew I had plenty of time before the bus came; however, I couldn't keep myself from looking over my shoulder to check. On one of these checks, though, the turning of my head coincided with stepping off the edge of the sidewalk into the dirt, tripping, and totally going sprawling onto the sidewalk. In front of a street full cars and bunch of high school students walking by, no less. I picked myself up and inspected the damage. A bleeding pinkie knuckle and a scraped knee, and a pair jeans I won't be able to wear to work anymore because now there's a hole in the knee. Ah well, if it'd been thirty years in the future, I could've broken a hip.

The next stop wasn't until after the next signal, a half-mile from the first, not too far, and I still had a few minutes to wait. Luckily we have a first aid kit in the wetlab,so I was able to patch myself up ok. Note to self: spare pair of pants at work. I should have them here anyway, in case I have to run to the docks, but since I usually wear jeans anyway, I haven't had the need to change.

Well, I finally did something I've been threatening to do for a long time and bought a bus pass. It takes a half an hour longer each way, but I can use that time to catch up on my reading. John will have to take over getting Angus and Gareth to school (which I will miss), but I think he's better at getting them there on time anyway. Possibly I can come in earlier, and leave earlier, however the bus schedule on street my office is on is kind of weird; it runs every hour and 15 minutes, so I'm either leaving fifteen minutes early or staying over an hour until the next bus. I'll still drive in on dock days, but for now, I can get a thirty day bus pass for the same price as it costs to fill the Trooper up once. I'll try it for a month and see how it goes.