A Comedy of Errors
So we got about 4 to 6 inches of snow here in Eugene and our neighboring city is budgeting for a salt and gravel free hell hole except for the hospital and a few main roads. I ride a bike year round and this made for an unusually interesting ride to work at dawn this morning but without incident. I did have to put my foot down, literally, once. I have good new all weather tires on (slick with grooves but no tread) and a modest wind/moisture repellant outfit. I am suprised by how well the tires have held up having only peeled out twice outside of testing the road/sidewalk. The gear is medium weight but has been plenty and usually unzipped in front. I didn't see many other riders but plenty of people walked or took the buses which is another story altogether which I will go into later (the true reason for this title). I didn't have many to compare my riding ability to but I felt so cool and I felt like a real douche for even filling that seldom used neglected still half-empty part of my ego with such nonsense. I prolly rode 8 miles on an uneven crunchy sheet of ice today and with the uneveness of the sidewalks with all the cracks and driveway/crosswalk cutouts was a good test of my agility. Last year I had lost my gloves between seasons and as a result suffered severe knuckle cracking and wind rash so bad that it had to be gloved for a time in my profession involving the handling of other peoples food (sometimes salty or acidic, owwee!). I do have a good lotion for that purpose (not the one in the gutter) just in case the gloves don't do the trick but chapstick will be a necessity soon.
After work I returned home with an 2 hours before I usually head out to pick up th'kiddo for the evening. I decided we should come home early enough to catch some light and play in the snow and have hot chocolate and all that typical schtuff that is actually a joy to experience although cheezy and unoriginal. I figured I would take the bus all the way there and back so that I wouldn't have a hand on the bike instead of holding my daughter's. I had checked with their office and was told they were running slow/late but no detours or closed routes were mentioned. I had heard of a bus going sideways earlier in the day but I didn't realize it was actually further up the hill on the route I usually take with her. So I get to the stop a block from home, wait five minutes, and see a bus marked "Special Shuttle" heading the opposite direction. The driver stops and asks if I'd like to get on now rather than wait for her to go all the way round. Sure, what the hell, right? Big mistake. She drives a block round the corner and stops to converse with her associate in a van that to my ignorance had been doing the hills since that incident. They are debating the feasability of the trip for ten minutes and it was misunderstood that the van would be going to one of the stations where I could transfer to downtown and out to babymama's. So I am offered a ride by that route which I accept. Now everything's cool, right. Wrong again. She drives 20 feet and asks where we are going ... Downtown ... Oh I have to stay here to shuttle folks up the hill for a bus arriving in a few minutes so I can't take you. I get the fuck out, walk a block to my house cursing up a shit storm a half hour after originally leaving, get on my bike and ride downtown quite simply within 20 minutes.
But of course, the solution cannot be so easy to come by. I get there 5 minutes after a time saving departure and have to wait for the usual ride time. Traffic is so backed up it takes an extra half hour round trip and then my daughter (dressed by her mom in PJ's, sweats and a hooded bathrobe being as she was too lazy to go to the car for coat, gloves, and hat) and I have to take that damn shuttle to another station a mile from home to wait again for yet another bus to the intersection where this story began. Pookers and I had some fun in the darkening night and she was a good sport and interested in how the weather had complicated everyone's life outside playing in it. But she fell asleep 15 minutes from home and slept the entire time I had her until it was time to go back out to her mom's. I had to carry her/hold her waiting transfering and riding for about a half hour and noticed upon placing her on the couch that my entire left bicep had gone numb for hours. My housemate was so kind though to cook dinner and give us a ride back out there. I make use of a car about once every two months for a crosstown trip and this was that time. Just a little perspective. I will learn to drive so I can borrow for moving and take emergency trips or vacation. I'm not a bad driver so far and don't hate cars ... I just despise bad driving and internal combustion minus mass transit. I was as always more worried about someone else killing me than me hurting myself.
Like that dumbshit with loose chains on the drift wheels rubbing the wheelwell, or the fucknut that ran a red light from a complete stop in this weather, or the pisshead who didn't try less gas and went on peeling out in standstill for an entire green light. All in all I wasn't scared, just over it and ready for a beer. Guess that means I need to head down to the store. I walk but they just closed. I walk back and hop back on the bike and head off into the night to the 24 hour store. I will return and write this blah blah blog in twenty, a'ight? If I don't get back in a half hour, someone write it for me and tell all my LJ fwiends I love them. Hey Y'All ZCalebz (Mieko) Loves You! Oh and here he is to tell you himself.
*Blushes* "Oh I was that long, you already told them, now they think I'm dead. Oh, my day was fine but it's a long story, I'll tell you later"
After work I returned home with an 2 hours before I usually head out to pick up th'kiddo for the evening. I decided we should come home early enough to catch some light and play in the snow and have hot chocolate and all that typical schtuff that is actually a joy to experience although cheezy and unoriginal. I figured I would take the bus all the way there and back so that I wouldn't have a hand on the bike instead of holding my daughter's. I had checked with their office and was told they were running slow/late but no detours or closed routes were mentioned. I had heard of a bus going sideways earlier in the day but I didn't realize it was actually further up the hill on the route I usually take with her. So I get to the stop a block from home, wait five minutes, and see a bus marked "Special Shuttle" heading the opposite direction. The driver stops and asks if I'd like to get on now rather than wait for her to go all the way round. Sure, what the hell, right? Big mistake. She drives a block round the corner and stops to converse with her associate in a van that to my ignorance had been doing the hills since that incident. They are debating the feasability of the trip for ten minutes and it was misunderstood that the van would be going to one of the stations where I could transfer to downtown and out to babymama's. So I am offered a ride by that route which I accept. Now everything's cool, right. Wrong again. She drives 20 feet and asks where we are going ... Downtown ... Oh I have to stay here to shuttle folks up the hill for a bus arriving in a few minutes so I can't take you. I get the fuck out, walk a block to my house cursing up a shit storm a half hour after originally leaving, get on my bike and ride downtown quite simply within 20 minutes.
But of course, the solution cannot be so easy to come by. I get there 5 minutes after a time saving departure and have to wait for the usual ride time. Traffic is so backed up it takes an extra half hour round trip and then my daughter (dressed by her mom in PJ's, sweats and a hooded bathrobe being as she was too lazy to go to the car for coat, gloves, and hat) and I have to take that damn shuttle to another station a mile from home to wait again for yet another bus to the intersection where this story began. Pookers and I had some fun in the darkening night and she was a good sport and interested in how the weather had complicated everyone's life outside playing in it. But she fell asleep 15 minutes from home and slept the entire time I had her until it was time to go back out to her mom's. I had to carry her/hold her waiting transfering and riding for about a half hour and noticed upon placing her on the couch that my entire left bicep had gone numb for hours. My housemate was so kind though to cook dinner and give us a ride back out there. I make use of a car about once every two months for a crosstown trip and this was that time. Just a little perspective. I will learn to drive so I can borrow for moving and take emergency trips or vacation. I'm not a bad driver so far and don't hate cars ... I just despise bad driving and internal combustion minus mass transit. I was as always more worried about someone else killing me than me hurting myself.
Like that dumbshit with loose chains on the drift wheels rubbing the wheelwell, or the fucknut that ran a red light from a complete stop in this weather, or the pisshead who didn't try less gas and went on peeling out in standstill for an entire green light. All in all I wasn't scared, just over it and ready for a beer. Guess that means I need to head down to the store. I walk but they just closed. I walk back and hop back on the bike and head off into the night to the 24 hour store. I will return and write this blah blah blog in twenty, a'ight? If I don't get back in a half hour, someone write it for me and tell all my LJ fwiends I love them. Hey Y'All ZCalebz (Mieko) Loves You! Oh and here he is to tell you himself.
*Blushes* "Oh I was that long, you already told them, now they think I'm dead. Oh, my day was fine but it's a long story, I'll tell you later"