House of Sunshine

Life has overtaken me. There's nothing to report, but I'll write anyway.

Bus rides have been interesting. Seattle Sound Transit or Community Transit or one of those has purchased a small fleet of double decker buses. They look kind of scary to me. I don't like that they are so tall and imposing. I find myself wondering if they will tip over in high winds or if everyone sits on one side on the top deck. I ended up riding one this last week. Great windows. Very quiet upstairs too. They still make me nervous. Double decker buses and the back end of the articulted buses make me nervous.

Monday someone let spill a can of beer on the bus. That was intresting. Of course, no open containers are allowed on the bus in the first place, covered coffee excepted (this is Seattle). The bus reeked of beer. The small rivers of brew flowed along the floor to a woman's grocery sacks. I called out for her to pick them up before the beer got that far. The fella behind me got off the bus in a hurry at the next stop. When I left the bus several stops later I saw the seat was wet as well.

I dunno...the neighbor just finished mowing the yard here at my little palace. I've been looking for a new home. Something that might have a little light. My apartment faces north and I get no direct sun at any time of year here. Rent is heading back up in the burg so no telling what I can really afford. Now that I own this job I actually make less take home pay than I did as a contractor. The kids have been upping my phone bill, and my electric bill, and my car insurance and well, I'm not sure I can really afford where I'm at right now even. I used to stress over this stuff. It would really pull me down into the dumps. On a lark, I applied for part-time work at a retail shop nearby. It'd be a good stop-gap for a bit. I just don't want to get suckered in to holding two jobs for more than a four months or so. Seasonal is how I think on it today. We'll see if they call. Next year I can change some deductions and in two and a half years or so all my debts will be paid in full. That's kind of exciting for me. Money is a very fluid comodity. Sometimes the pool is full, sometimes it aint. I'm glad I have the things I have. I'm glad I've done the things I've done. It's all good. That house with sunshine isn't that far away.

Give Us This Day

My morning view from the Light Rail...

Our daily bread.

Good Morning!

Infinite Possibilities

Under the city of Seattle is the tunnel built for public transportation. It is dry here when it is raining up above. That is how I found the tunnel, looking for a dry place to wait for the bus. This week the tunnel became a little of a metaphor. Or at least it added to an idea that has taken the forefront of my brain space lately.

"There are infinite paths to happiness. Don't sweat it."

Me ~ 2011

There are six different buses all going downtown at ten minute intervals each - every weekday morning. Of those, I chose one, the one that is right in front of me. There is no need to wait for the next bus, even on principle, it is the same as this bus. I have umpteen connections I can make once I reach downtown. I can take a bus, or the light rail. I can walk a block or two to make a quicker connection, or to not make a quicker connection (sometimes its cool to just hang around). In the end, there are three different bus routes that swing past my workplace. After all the options, and routes, timetables and cityscapes, it is one of three buses that will deliver me to the door of where I work. Most weeks I cannot catch the same driver twice. Traffic changes everyday. Timetables are guidelines only. It is an infinite mix of possibilities.

And so it is with life.

Bifurcation vs. Articulation

We have buses here in Seattle that carry me from one county to another. They are usually wonderful, warm, comfortable places to be in traffic or otherwise. Lately, and after some rather harrowing bus rides, I'm finding the bifurcated buses not as comfortable. It's beginning to flavor my decisions on how I get home. I prefer to wait for a non-bifurcated bus.

The buses are not actually called bifurcated. They are called articulated. I've attached the dictionary definitions to these two words. Essentially, bifurcation means pretty much just one thing - divide or fork into two branches. That's it. That's what these buses are like. They are two part buses - with the back end swinging separately from the front to enable it to negotiate corners more effectively.

Articulated - this throws me for a loop. What does articulation have to do with a two part bus? I mean these buses belch. But, they don't speak. They don't use language at all, never mind articulating clearly. Okay, the belch counts - but is that truly articulate?

So why, for gods sake, are these buses called articulated buses and not bifurcated?

I do understand why, in today's liberalist society, we do not call these buses "jointed". That term may never work (with a straight face).

Have I whined about this already? That's how much this bothers me...

Bifurcation = to divide or fork into two branches.

Articulation = 1.uttered clearly in distinct syllables.
2. capable of speech; not speechless.
3. using language easily and fluently; having facility with words: an articulate speaker.
4. expressed, formulated, or presented with clarity and effectiveness: an articulate thought.
5. made clear, distinct, and precise in relation to other parts: an articulate form; an articulate shape; an articulate area.
6. (of ideas, form, etc.) having a meaningful relation to other parts: an articulate image.
7. having parts or distinct areas organized into a coherent or meaningful whole; unified: an articulate system of philosophy.
8. Zoology . having joints or articulations; composed of segments. (Oh - this one....got it. Hmmm, still don't like it.)

Redeeming Bus Rides

Bus rides...usually my favorite time of day. I get serious meditations done. I get eye candy with all the activities going on outside the bus windows. I get novels read. After the bus ride from hell on Monday night - six and half hours of gridlock, icy road conditions, 27 mile an hour sideways blowing snow and no book to delve into - I wasn't too keen on getting on the bus tonight. Bus riding has been redeemed. Just have to get back on the horse and ride, so to speak.

The young lady sitting next to me was wholly interesting. Youth. Youth has a great optimism otherwise forgotten over time. Really, the conversation was nothing. We discussed the virtues of crock-pots and having friends over for dinner, for no damn reason. We got onto the subject of work. She's in training to be a psychiatrist. She's working while she works on her masters (as everyone is here in this town). I don't know what possessed me to tell her something I truly believe. People want two things - to be recognized; to know they've been seen, acknowledgement if you will and they want to be heard: listen, just hear them out, listen to the whole story without interruption or judgement. I get a lot of thank you's at work for just letting these people tell me their troubles. I can't do much about it. But, I let them talk. And I listen. Esther had not heard it put this way before. Is she that young? Maybe. I could see she was putting the ideas into her head for future use - whatever that may be.

Between you and I, at home, I appreciate those times of comfortable silence among the people I love. Then I know all is well. I wonder if I gauge life's contentment in those moments of silence. If one is compelled to be silent does that mean one is content? Maybe that's what I seek. Is this too Zen? It is pleasant, regardless.

If Hell freezes over...

It will look like Seattle yesterday.

I've searched YouTube this morning already. During my six and a half hour bus ride home from work yesterday - got on the downtown bus at 5:17 p.m., got off the bus at the Park and Ride at 11:48 p.m. - the bus driver asked for volunteers to push the bus to get us up a slight incline so we could get on the parkway (oh, I mean freeway). "Anybody wanna push?" We all laughed with the bus driver. Then he said, "I'm serious." and opened the back door. About 15 or 20 young men unloaded from the bus and went around back to push. It was making a difference - believe it or not. (Twenty young men pushing a massive articulated bus, this still blows my mind.) But not enough of a difference.

The driver then said, "Anyone wanna move to the back of the bus? We need some weight over the back tires." I left my seat, I had felt so lucky to actually have a seat, and stood over the rear tires with so many others on the bus. I watched a young man put his hat under the rear tire to give some traction. It actually helped. Out the other side of the bus I saw two young men standing in the sideways sleeting snow filming the event on their phones.

I'll keep searching YouTube. It's got to show up eventually.

(Yes, I got my seat back. Yes, we got going and the young men had to run up to the ever slow moving bus to jump back on board. Yes, I am staying home today. I had enough yesterday.)

Homecoming has changed

I stayed downtown last night after work for a lecture and book signing. It was wonderful. I'm glad to get away for a little entertainment - interactive and all. I didn't get home until quarter to ten. I jumped on a late bus from downtown to take me to the nearest Park & Ride near home. It was late. I left the house at six a.m. and by then it was almost ten p.m. as I stood under the non-shelter waiting for my daughters to swing through to pick me up.

I watched the truck pull into the lot and the headlamps do the quick blinding thing. I smiled because they are here. I smiled because I can see they are both in the truck. May opened the passenger door to swap seats to the back. Except she didn't. She stood there in front of me and said, "You are so beautiful. I am so glad you're my mom." I can hear April from the driver's seat laughing at her sister's randomness. May, still chattering on as she got back into the truck said, "They say if you want to know what you will look like when you get older just look at your parents. I am so lucky. You really are beautiful, Mom."

For that moment while I am taking my seat and shutting the door to the truck I felt absolutely beautiful. I've always known my children were beautiful. Last night I got a taste of it.

What I really like...is coming home. My girls make coming home more than it was while I lived alone. They really are beautiful.

Welcome to the Metro Fitness Program

As is my usual MO when I see my bus coming I break into a jog. Somehow just seeing my bus, well, it’s hard to not want to catch it. I have the morning schedule worked out. If I leave the house at 6:10 am I don’t need to run for the bus. I don’t need to stand around the kiosk for very long either. Once I get into downtown I have to keep my eyes open. If Mr. M got on the bus when I did then it takes some additional time to load and unload the scooter that is his wheelchair (damn, those scooters are fast). If Mr. M is not riding the bus then I can get an earlier connection, but not always.
Coming home is a completely different game. I never get out of the building the same time twice. The buses going past work at the end of the day are more erratic than those in the morning. The schedule is posted at the bus stop; but we all know that is for show and has no basis in reality.
Yesterday I was strolling on the sidewalk after work making my way to the bus stop when I see my bus coming up the street toward me. I’m on the wrong side of the street and I have at least a half a block to go before I get to the designated stop. I start jogging. I cross the street and jog a little faster. I come up to the bus waiting for me at this point and the driver says, “There’s one trouble maker every day. You must be it.”
I pay my fare and hoping I am in good snappy retort mode I reply, “Nah, I’m just trying to get my exercise in.”
“Ah, you’ve joined the Metro Fitness Program. Good to have you on board.”
Some drivers are good with the comebacks.

Seattle Architecture - Somewhere

Downtown Seattle

Somewhere between 3rd and 4th Avenue

Somewhere between when I get off the first bus and get on the second one.

Somewhere around 7:30 a.m.

Outwitting the Weather AND Metro!

There is construction blocking my favorite bus stop downtown. I will have to walk either two blocks north or three blocks south in order to catch my usual bus. I am so adept at bus riding now, what with knowing the Metro System AND the Sound System I am Bi-metro. (When I figure out Pierce and Kitsap Counties I will be Tri- and eventually so advanced as to be considered Quad-Metro. In the meantime...) I can now pick my bus and my bus-stop to best suit my requirements for either proper Downtown Seattle sight-seeing or immediate pick-up and getting home the absolute quickest way possible. Am I becoming a bus-snob? I never would have thought that possible. Not moi....To most of you I am sure the above scene looks like any bus or transit platform in any metropolitan area you care to name. (Okay, so it is) I would like to point out, dear readers, that this transit platform...pause...wait for it...is dry. Yes, my dear readers. This is a non-wet, dry platform.
So is this one....
And this shiny one is dry too.
And the final transit platform before we come out of the downtown tunnel system - yes, this too is dry.

I get comfort, speed and a veritable plethora of options (okay, just four) for dry platforms throughout this fine city.

Maybe tomorrow I will post the story of the Friday downpour, the speeding bus, the curbside tidal wave and how spontaneous crowd reactions are still available among the commuter crowd.

Until then, please stay dry.

Am I wrong? Bus ride hell...

These people that ride the bus with me each day are absolute idiots. Half-wits, dumb-bunnies, goof-balls, nuts. This would be so entertaining if it didn't drive me so crazy. I rode two different buses this week. Two days on the one route, and two days on the other. Both routes are commuter routes. These buses are filled with people carrying briefcases disguised as backpacks. These people are wearing slacks, not "pants". They wear hard soled shoes that do not come with steel-toes, nor broken in "tennies". These people have earbuds and Kindles(tm) and read newspapers (that one has to pay for) when they are riding the bus. Moreover they ride the bus pretty much every work day. They know the "rules" to getting on and off the bus in a crowd. They understand not to hum along out loud to the music coming from the earbuds. They know how to pay their bus fare efficiently, whether with coins or bills or sliding cards or tap cards, they got it down and they keep the line moving.

My issue is at the end; at the end of the day, at the end of the ride, at the end of the route. I live in the north county. I am "up there". The bus ride from the time we leave downtown Seattle to the time we come to my stop, the last stop on the route, takes between half an hour and an hour depending on traffic. Both routes that serve me best have their respective last stop at the two different "Park & Ride"s in the north where I can leave my truck. What hit me this week is that this same event is happening regardless of which bus I take. It must be happening on buses all around the world. Just think of the implications, this same phenomena is more than likely occurring in Budapest, Hungary, somewhere in Bogota, Columbia and probably even on the Isle of Man. You can't deny this. I will have to get over it. There is nothing for it.

This amazing moment of stupidity happens each night as the bus driver makes the announcement detailing the last stop on the route over the PA system to all of us 10 to 25 riders still on the bus. Yes, folks, 10 to 25 people are still riding the bus after everyone else has already gotten off at their respective stops, and are probably home by now by the way. Each driver says, "Last stop for Route [insert bus number here]." It is not until that announcement and it is always after that announcement that some poor panic'd fool feels the burning need to pull the cord to notify the driver to stop for that next and final stop. Well, duh. Did they think the driver is going to take us home with her? Dipsoid.

"Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination" Mark Twain

Anything can happen...

Under the heading of, "Apparently anything can happen today." (My favorite quote by Mark Twain) today I was handed over $100 in bus passes from a co-worker that no longer uses the passes. Merry Christmas!

Downtown diversions

I had a tough day today. Well, yesterday too. As I was riding the bus home this evening it dawned on me there are diversions right here downtown between bus rides.There's Santa in the window at Macy's. There's the long line of parents with their children waiting to see Santa (straight out of the movie A Christmas Story).
There's the model trains running around the tracks in another window at Macy's. The model train window had airplanes, and gandolas and all sorts of cool stuff moving and spinning.

Seattle in general is doing the festival of lights thing. I walked blocks I don't normally walk. I stood outside shop windows I would never linger at any other time of year. I did change buses at a new corner. The people watching was far more fascinating than usual.

I forgot about the day and being beaten down with mediocrity...until I got home. Now I just want to go to bed. I've another two days of quacking with the ducks for this week, another three weeks for this contract. I feel poorly for these people I work with. This is turning into a hard contract to work through.

In the meantime, I've decided I really like golashes. I may need a pair...but only if they are pink.

Two faced moon

That's not the moon you see...that's the clock I watch near King Street Station to see how long I must wait for my bus. I waited a long time this evening. My umbrella is above, someone else's bus is below. From here it looks like a two faced moon with a rocket beyond the orbit climbing to distant galaxies. Interesting, both faces tell the same time.

Seattle - 7 a.m.

3rd & Pine at 7 a.m.

Bus ride through Seattle yesterday and today is a tad bit chilly these days. This morning it was 21F/-6C. Thank goodness there was no wind to speak of. Yesterday I wore a skirt and a long coat. The long coat did me very well. Today I wore slacks and a short coat. Oh baby, those bus seats are COLD! Gloves are now a necessary evil. I love my scarf. I wear a big, wide, colorful scarf to wrap around my neck and stuff into the front of my coat. It's wide across the back of my neck. It's not even winter yet. I'm wondering about hat hair. I don't wear a hat. That will change. I don't know when, but soon.

Jackson and Main (?) at 5 p.m.

The buses this time of year keep on their interior lights only on the drivers side. The seats on the other side of the bus do not have the overhead lighting on. I find this interesting. I lot more people are getting on the buses and shutting their eyes, either relaxing before the day begins (for the morning crowd) or decompressing at the end of the day (for the evening crowd). Yesterday I was on the decompress side of the bus. Today I sat on the luminated side and got some reading done.

Alleyway from Howell and 8th

I'm so glad to have someone else do the driving. I leave the house at 6:30 a.m. and don't get home until 6:22 p.m. and that is fine with me. I start my car at 6:15 in the morning - two reasons. One is to make sure it will start, I'm having battery issues. If it doesn't start I still have time to walk to a bus stop and, with a couple adjustments, still get to work on time. Two is the car is reasonably warm to drive after 15 minutes of chugging away in my driveway to get me to the Park & Ride for the easiest bus to work.

This contract is only until the end of January or so, the coldest months of the year probably. I may be investing in warmer socks, or boots, or parka. Update will follow, I'm sure.

Friday Night Downtown

It's tourist season in Seattle AND it's Friday night as the "ducks" roll through downtown.  These folks DO get to sit up really high.  They get a great view up there.  I wouldn't have even noticed this particular duck rolls up to my stop light except for the blaring music.  Specifically, "I'm going nowhere.  Somebody help me, yeah."  I look up from the corner where embossed in the cement is the street name (it really is pretty) and I see these captive tourist...going nowhere.  Hey, what can I say...I waved.
Seattle is more full of people at close of business on Fridays than any other day of the week.  The weather has been wonderfully warm lately and sunny for the last two weeks, at least.  People watching has been excellent.  I would have spent some time and found a spot to sit and watch as I have before.  Unfortunately, my new bus schedule is a little more restrictive about when I leave the city.

I love the new buses.  These are commuter buses.  These are comfortable.  I get on the bus in the morning at a Park and Ride.  We make three more stops and get on the freeway.  I really do have a chauffeur.  "To work, James." or sometimes it's "To work, Jane."  Three stops after we get off the freeway and downtown I get off the bus and go find the intercity buses.  This is almost luxury.

My new route has taken me on different streets; past different stores.  I have been taking photos through the bus windows on occasion.  I've about given up on that tact.  On Friday night I walked from the post office (the one on 3rd Street)(and yes, I finally changed my address, yet again) up the street to 4th Street turned the corner heading south to find the first bus stop kiosk that had my numbers. (Do I sound like I have a gambling problem?  Gotta get my numbers, man.)  The store with the windows that make me drool is on that second block.  

I don't know the name.  I never get past looking at the dresses.  This is eye candy.  This is couture that I don't think I'll ever wear, and that's not the point.  The point is, it is really cool.  This dress is my favorite.  It's just like the hat store...this comes from some movie I'd love to see.

Edit:  I found the name of the dress store:  Luly Yang - This woman is incredible - worth a visit to her site - www.lulyyang.com.

Two things to leave you with:

I promise to take down the BeeGee's tune at end of day here Saturday.

And if this Duck thing is interesting - here's the linkwww.ridetheducksofseattle.com

From the bus...

This beautiful beast hangs out at one of my favorite corners coming into downtown after work, this is the last corner of the International District (Chinatown, to those of us who don't know any better).  

I had hoped to take the bus downtown on Saturday night and not have to deal with my truck and parking and all that.  But, I see that bus service up this far north is extremely few and far between after 6:30 at night.  I'll be driving into downtown after all.  I know I like the bus a lot, but I know when to put gas in the truck too.  I'm thinking I should just go all out and really treat myself - a double mocha latte from a "real" coffee shop while I'm down there.  That might just be too much for me, though.  I'd hate to become a spoiled brat.

I'm ready for the weekend. I know I've got one more day, but first thing Saturday morning...I'm sleeping in.