Walking and groceries and buses and stuff

[tejas]

In my continuing quest to use more public transportation and get more exercise, I walked and bused to two grocery stores today. The fact that the car's in the shop has nothing to do with this. :-) Kid went with me to the first one since we had some big stuff to schelp back. The other store is the cheap one and I more than made up for the cost of

Comments

[tx_cronopio]

If it makes you feel any better, when I first moved to Chicago I was terrified to ride the el. Took me a month. And I was 35 :)

[tejas]

I was 20 before I ever had to manage buses on my own. And that was here where I knew I could *walk* it, if I didn't mind the extreme distance. :-)

I do understand her reluctance. I'm just looking forward to her feeling comfortable with it. I've gotten her a bus pass and she'll have her cell and the schedules for each of the three routes. She's going to be driving soon enough and I really like the idea of her being comfortable with the bus system if she's ever somewhere and the car breaks down. Not to mention if she ever misses the bus at school and needs to get home on her own.

My independence thing, let me show you it. ;-)

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Repairing books is fun! I used to get satisfaction out of that.

I still don't like buses. I grew up in a city with a terrible bus system and we virtually never used it. I have a phobia of getting on the wrong bus. I once did get on the wrong train, in Belgium. It turned out okay, but it didn't help the phobia. I did fine with the bus system in Oxford (UK) though!

Walking does get easier--unlike running! I'm finally able to go on walks almost every morning again. During term, I was only getting to do it once or twice a week; I probably made up the distance on campus, but it wasn't the same as walking for fun.

[tejas]

I'm not crazy about buses and our bus system leaves *much* to be desired, but it's here and it's available and one thing I learned a long time ago is that getting on the wrong bus is not the end of the world. Oh, and bus drivers are your friend.

"I think I'm on the wrong bus. I need to get to Main and Texas, what do I need to do?" They're damned good at telling you where to go for the right connection and then you just question every driver along the way until you get where you're going. :-)

Here in Houston, if all else fails, go downtown. Once downtown, you can probably get wherever else you need to go. It might not be the fastest route, but it's better than ending up standing at Westwood Mall on the last bus of the night (yeah, been there, done that, never want to do that again).

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Bus drivers may be your friends. Conductors on trains in Belgium are not. I thought ours was going to pass out when he checked our tickets. He didn't actually exclaim, "Mon Dieu!" but he did everything else a stereotypical Francophone conductor would do. Of course, that led me to panic completely. It turned out that the train on odd numbered odds went all the way to Cologne, but on even numbered hours it stopped at the border (or vice-versa). We only had to get off and wait on the platform for an hour for the next train, but it took me nearly that long to recover (yes, I'm a sensitive soul

[tejas]

I only did that once. :-) I try to confine my bus riding to daylight hours. But, in a pinch, it's better than some *other* places I could be stranded. I also know better now. I know the buses don't all run all night. :-) I didn't know that *then*. :-)

[superbadgirl]

I hate riding the bus as much as I enjoy choosing to, which I know makes absolutely no sense. It would have been so much easier to keep my car and drive 4 miles to work every day. It sure would have been easier to have a car for grocery and errand-running.

But I really do enjoy the people watching and the chance to read a LOT, even during the summer months when sweat trickles down my back, my shirt sticks to me when I stand up and the unpleasant odour of too many bodies in too small a space threatens to make me hurl.

Really! ;)

[tejas]

Our buses are VERY well air conditioned. ;-)

[superbadgirl]

Some of ours are, but the electric/trolleys aren't. And even the ones that are equipped with A/C - the drivers don't tend to use it but on the hottest days. A/C makes it really tough for them to power up all the hills. It's kind of a pain working at the top of one hill and living at the top of another. ;)

[tejas]

Ah, no hills here. :-) Plus, we're all conditioned to use A/C at the drop of a hat. :-)

[tejas]

Ours are tricky depending on where you're going (and where you start). One of the reasons I took this apartment a million years ago was because it was on a couple of different bus lines.

I've used public transit in Manhattan and in San Jose, California and *damn*, I wish our mass transit was as good as theirs. ;-)

[tejas]

I think she'll enjoy it. If it works out, she can get 25 of her comm serv hours next week. Then, she can work again the week before school starts when they get ready to hand out textbooks.