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.

Let's Go Shopping!

You wake up in the morning, and your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. No one can take it from you. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. - Dr. Thomas Arnold Bennett I just bought the coolest experiences today - all for the price of waking up. - me

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

Freecycle strikes again...

Chair

seats 2, bulky but not heavy, took up the back of my truck.

I love freecycle.org

I also like Resolve Uphostery Cleaner (don't kid yourself - these things come with spots). Resolve stuff works wonders.

And that's how I spent my new year's eve. Adding furniture to my home.

Kaizen

"Kaizen is the Japanese principle that focuses on continuous improvement. It doesn’t matter where you’re at, it’s the improvement that matters." I've lifted this from an oft visited blog. I like this concept. It doesn't matter where you're at.

I'm of the belief anymore that my resolutions and determinations have less to do with a happy New Year, and rather more to do with constant progress (snails and turtles and I are extremely good friends in this one) and an overall attitude of sustainable happiness.

Sustainable happiness. At this point in my life I now firmly believe happiness is sustainable after all.