Driver2165

Soviet bus stops

Roadside Soviet bus stops

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Pssh, Moby.

So what's with brightly dyed hair coming back? It's starting to look like 1995 in a big way.

The idiots with the walkie-talkie toy phones are starting to drive me nuts. Every trip has got some clown who thinks she's got an inalienable right have one of these things blasting away at full volume. Another thing that's getting to me: Nicollet Mall. I'm looking forward two weeks when I'll only have one day on the mall instead of five. Plus, it's Saturday, when hardly anybody is there, because after all, Nicollet Mall is a complete failure as both a transit mall and a pedestrian mall [nobody bothered to tell them you can't make it both] and the only reason they haven't moved buses off permanently is because nobody would be there if it wasn't for thousands of commuters and teenagers waiting for their bus -- my proposal: put the buses and taxis back on Marquette and make it truly pedestrian-only. ]. During the week people are in such a rush. It's not a New York or Chicago style rush where people are focused. The Minneapolis rush seems to be based on a fear that there's going to be a sudden blizzard at any time and people don't want to be stuck downtown so they careen about while their mind wanders. The other day a hippopotamus-shaped woman walked right in front of me while I was driving down the mall [she didn't look, oblivious to the fact that there are actually large vehicles on the mall during rush hour -- blame the 10 mph speed limit. 15 mph would actually be safer for this reason], giving me about four feet which i used all of to slam on the brakes and honk. If i steered away, I'd hit an oncoming bus. She couldn't get through, so she yelled at me. "I hope this gives you a reason to get up." Yeah, exactly -- narrowly not killing people just brightens my day. She was forced to use a crosswalk, and walked into the Walgreen's across the street where she presumably bought a box of Hot Pockets and two liter bottle of Diet Coke. Later, somebody said I looked like Moby.

I'm enclosing a picture of Minneapolis transit circa 1950. Have a look at how many of the streetcars used Nicollet Mall.

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Football season already?

The other night a guy got on my 11 bus at 44th St. & Nicollet, looked at my ears (stretched to a 0 gauge), and asked me if I was getting back to my african roots. Normally people just ask me if it hurt (it feels just like any piercing). I'm just going to start telling people they're speed holes. Anyway, he told me that he drank so much that he's sober. I asked him if he was at Westrum's Tavern (oh give me a break, he could have had too much wine at Corner Table, you never know). He told me he was and asked if i'd ever been there. Yeah, they have decent food (although the beer always taste like soap). He's a painter and said he's used to keeping rooms extremely clean, but he went in the ktichen and won't eat there anymore. Interesting.

I can't believe football season's already here. The Twins are still entrenched in the race, and now all people are going to talk about for six months is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of the NFL, the Vikings. So what should you do? Join my fantasy football league by clicking here (league name and password are both omgzilla). It's free to join and the only prize is the satisfaction of knowing that you beat some guy from the internet who has played for 4 years without ever winning league.

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The Fall Operators' Choice

I picked last week, the same day The Librarian picked, but I just got around to posting my work because there was a little hiccup regarding what I picked. That is, I didn't get at all what I picked and it had to be handled. So I got about 60% of what I should have gotten, but c'est la vie and it's a schedule I can live with anyway. It's very similar to what I'm doing now, just with more uptown relief. I'm hoping that by the end of the pick (four months from now), we'll have sold our damn wiener house and moved in to an apartment in uptown (for half the price of an entry-level mortgage) and relief in uptown will be a five minute walk instead of a 20 minute bike ride. I'm hoping that it happens before the snow, at least.

Sunday, Monday: Off
Tuesday, Wednesday: 4pm to midnight, 24 line
Thursday, Friday: 3:30pm to midnight, 6 line
Saturday: 11am to 6:30pm, 17 line

I'm hoping that 17 on Saturday doesn't hurt as much as the same line did for CJ. Even if it does, it'll be more fun to drive. My least favorite part of town to drive is suburbs. I'd much rather do 12 very short trips that stay in the city than 6 trips that go to places like Richfield and Bloomington. As much as I like the 6, it'd rather just end at 50th & France, or even better, in Linden Hills. That might be why I like the 2 so much. Anyway, there's a small part of the 17 line that I love. It's roughly between downtown and Lake Calhoun. I never pick it, however, because it's only about 20 minutes of the whole 1 hour route. I can't stand driving in NE. And the teenagers and old people on Minnetonka Blvd drive me crazy. This 7 run I'll be doing is 12 trips between downtown and Lake & France. Beautiful.

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And stuff

I'm totally in love with my bike now. The plan is to learn wheelbuilding so I can fix the geard and build Bethany some new wheels, but it's great fun as a singlespeed for now anyway. 48/18 gear ratio for 72 gear inches. It might be a little bit slow for me in flat Minneapolis, so I might change the chainring to a 50 or 52, but it's good enough for now.

I had a long conversation with a guy who recently moved to Minneapolis from L.A. We agreed on one thing -- that Minneapolis is a better city than Los Angeles -- but disagreed on his notion that either city is halfway decent. He did note the general lack of an ability to drive by most of Minneapolis' drivers, but said he takes the bus so it doesn't bother him. He lives in a quiet part of uptown, so that might be where he got the idea that there's no crime in this city. Dude on Arabs: "They may be terrorists, but boy, can they cook." I had falafel on Independence Day.

Another guy looked at my bag (a generic military replica with a red star on it [and a space invader that I added]) and told me I was a traitor and that I'm going to prison. I need a new bag anyway, that one digs into my collarbone when I ride.

I'm not going to work this week, Bethany's having a minor surgery and I need to take care of the Eligator while she recovers.

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I'd have to say that the nectarine is my favorite all time fruit.

That rain the other night was awesome. Did anybody else see the manhole covers flying off? I have no idea what caused all the pressure, but water was shooting out of the manholes downtown. One was five stories high. Another tore the siding off a skyway. We got an all-call on the radio to pull over. Five years of driving and I've never heard that. The rain was so intense that one of the stoplights in Northeast decided to flash red and display solid green at the same time.

I saw a Smart car downtown. I'd been getting a bit grumpy at the weatherman for predicting rain for two days before it actually did start raining. I was really itching to ride my bike this week, but it's not quite weatherproofed yet. Plus [as I realized midway through my shift on Tuesday, when I did bike to work], I didn't put any reflectors on it, much less buy a light yet.

On friday, my wife worked one of her three-hour shifts, and we had a showing, so I dropped her off in Edina, and ran some errands. This is what angers me most about Minneapolis. I went to the co-op, the liquor store, and the bookstore for a magazine, and there is not a single area of Minneapolis where one has those options within walking distance. And even if I was willing to take the four buses and two hours it would require if I was to go downtown for one of the big boxes, and then down Lyndale, [my beer selection would be severely limited (Hum's blows)] it's not even a real possibility for me to bring Eliot, with Metro's anti-customer stroller policy that is the complete opposite of safety (fold up the stroller, leave your bags on the sidewalk, hold your baby in one arm, your diaperbag with your other arm, and your stroller with your leg, and watch your shopping bags roll up and down the aisle) [please complain here].

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Never mind the crab thing

Now I know I'm not one to talk, but at 46th and Nicollet, there's a sign that states, "Route 11 only stops here." Must be a pretty short route, then.

Anybody know what the deal with those walkie-talkie phones all the damn kids are using. The only reason I can figure that somebody would use them is to be even more obnoxious than somebody using a normal cellphone would be on a crowded bus, while flaunting the fact that the user is a complete moron.

I'm glad to see what's-his-name at third base gone and even happier to see Bartlett up. Now we've just got to shed $8 million more in dead weight (Castro, RonDL, Ruben "Hasn't hit 30 homers in a season since the Twins last did it" Sierra, and Kyle "Batting Practice" Lohse) and call up the guys we have in the minors that are cheaper and more talented anyway.

Speaking of sports, what's with the media gushing over the World Cup? I don't have a problem with soccer, I just don't understand it. And I'm never going to understand it if everytime anybody mentions it, all they talk about is which American poets are writing sonnets about it and how it's going to be more popular than baseball someday. [By the way, why do American intellectuals feel like they have to relate to the NASCAR Dads and Wal-Mart Moms of Europe? If our intellectuals are at the same level as the Czech version of a WWF fan, we might be in trouble, but I digress]. Somebody explain the nuances. I want to know what happens between goals, because all I can figure out is that they randomly kick the ball to somebody on the other team, who politely kicks it back. If you watch baseball, you'll get nuances. I'm not even sure soccer announcers even talk about the game (not that I've gotten that far; everytime I turn on the TV it's during the 40 minutes of commercials between periods or whatever they're called).

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There are way too many ridiculously obese people in Minneapolis

Talk about great news, this is the best news I've heard since they said beer makes you smarter.

Rough day today. I got yelled at for not stopping in not-a-bus-stop, I got yelled at for running late ["yes, sir, I arrived late on purpose just so you would miss your transfer"], and America's Worst Drivers were turning in front of me like gas was going to go up a penny and it would cost an extra forty bucks to fill their damn SUVs.

On the bright side, a guy started complaining about all the detours due to the Minnesota summer road construction season and told me "There are two seasons in Minnesota: Winter and Lose." [To be fair, he rode my 11 line for twenty minutes before he realized it wasn't a 10 line on a ferocious detour.]

I didn't ride my bike today because I haven't quite finished the weather-proofing, and it was supposed to rain. There were about three clouds today. I've got it in a semi-finished state, though, and I rode it to work on Saturday. It was great, but I'm embarrassingly out of biking shape [in spite of six months of regular exercise at the YW]. It's a singlespeed right now, but I'd like to get a new wheel at some point to make it fixed. I should take an awesome picture of it.

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Breakdown!

When I hopped on the first bus assigned to me today, I noticed there was no bill reader. The second bus I drove didn't start for my last trip. I got to go home half an hour early. As a result, dinner (quiche, YUM!) was not ready.

I had something else but I didn't write it down.

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Dumb bus vingettes

On tuesday I saw newly-engaged Kassie and CJ at a stoplight as I whipped around a corner. Kassie's one of the few people I ever picked up with any regularity, I saw her a lot on the train and when I drove the 2. I also remembered that I picked up Michelle a few times when I didn't really know her too well.

Yesterday, driving down France, I saw a woman in her 40's (and I wish I hadn't) who was riding a recumbant bicycle, wearing a flowing dress, and struggling to keep modest without crashing.

I was driving the 6 last night. I stopped at 24th St. and the young lady at the corner asked "Is this the bus six route?" I made her repeat it just to make sure. She was on the wrong side of the street, trying to go downtown. She knew she was going downtown. You can see the skyline from 24th. Later, a similarly chubby white teenager boarded downtown and complained to me that somebody asked her for money. She said that doesn't happen in Richfield. She said "I bet you have black people begging for free rides all day long." I was driving a 300-series bus, one of the oldest in the fleet, and the sun shade fell on me. Made me jump etc.

I doubt this will make a difference, but a bus stop is the sign and the shelter, not the bench. The benches are placed randomly by an advertising company. They have nothing to do with transit. This is an issue at 16th and southbound Hennepin. If that's your hood, though, we're going to be expanding the Downtown Zone 50¢ fare to Oak Grove on Hennepin and 16th on Nicollet, albeit during non-peak hours only. That's great news if you live in Loring Park or Lowry Hill. It's a test, so make sure you call or email the company if you want them to keep it up. While you're at it, complain about the ridiculous anti-passenger (not to mention unsafe) stroller policy.

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C'mon, three dollars!

We took the kid in for her four-month checkup. Her 10% head has grown in and now stands at 50%. The rest of her kept growing, though, so her weight and length are both 90%. She's enormous. 26 inches and 16.5 lbs. Last time, she didn't mind the shots so much. Yesterday, she hated them. Such is life. She's been so much more verbal lately, like the other day, she rolled over for the first time, and would not shut up about it. She was so stoked and proud of her self, she was almost hyperventilating. Adorable. Also big new, I'm headed to the Wedge to get her some baby cereal. That's right, solid food. Time passes quickly.

Last night a guy put a five dollar bill in to pay for his buck-fifty fare. I told him I could give him a few passes for the next few days, but he just rolled his eyes at me and asked for a transfer. I thought it was interesting that low-grade gas was listed at $2.95 at the beginning of my shift at all three Hennepin stations at the start of my work at about 3. At about 6:30, the price was $2.85, and on my way back at 7:30, it was back to $2.95. It pisses me off when talking heads start talking about how that's still cheap for Europeans, because they get taxes out of the deal instead fat old men lighting cigars with our commutes, and their goverments don't limit the number of small cars to the extent that ours does. It's no wonder Americans have so sense of geography or world context.

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Good ol' Nicollet

I picked up our friend Heidi today. I suppose, since I have weekends off and was out sick on Monday and Tuesday, that makes two straight days that I picked up somebody I know. Pretty hot.

I picked new work for the summer operator's choice. I lost the weekend. Oh well, one more summer of missing the Game of the Week. I'll be spending a lot more time on the 18 line, which is fine with me. All the cool kids ride 18 anyway. I thought about picking what CJ got, but i decided I'd rather do one-piece shifts and spend more time with Eliot and the wife. I can wait for morning work.

Tuesday - Friday: 18 line 2pm to 7pm, 11 line 7pm to 10:30pm.
Saturdays : 18 line 10am to 6pm.

Has anybody ever actually compared stats for Torii Hunter and Kirby Puckett? I've always had a feeling that Kirby never deserved to belong in the same hemisphere as the Hall of Fame, but when you lay it out, it's pretty shocking. Torii's got no chance at joining the hall, but he has homered more often and stolen bases more frequently than Kirby did, and they walked the exact same amount. The only difference is Kirby averaged 8 more hits per month than Torii and struck out about twice per month less often. That Kirby's in and Blyleven isn't is more a mockery of baseball than Barry Bonds and his taking over Babe Ruth. Of course, so is Bartolo Colon's Cy Young.

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I've got my money on the gas

What will be higher at the end of the summer, Kyle Lohse's ERA, or the price of gas?

Today I picked up my hairdresser. When I say 'my hairdresser,' what I mean is the guy who has done 100% of my non-self-buzzed haircuts since i was in elementary school, which is to say he cut my hair once about a month and a half ago. (He did a great job, by the way - Jeff over at Olive) I always think it's nice to pick up someone I know. Of the few people I know, only nobody rides the bus with any regularity. I picked up Michelle a few times in, like, 2002. Sometimes I see people I know walking to their cars that they parked in surface parking lots in uptown. Losers. They don't know what they're missing.

There this drunk guy who spoke exactly like Tommy Chong (except with short hair and mutton-chop sideburns) on my bus tonight. He pointed at my bag, draped over the farebox, and started talking about the Soviet Union, or the "CCCCP", as he put it. "Hey, man, do you remember Rocky III? How about Rocky one?"

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Fallback mode!

Our buses are in fallback mode all weekend. I kept waiting for something to happen that would make me laugh, but it never did. That was the best thing about the light rail. People saying things like "I averted my eyes at the key moment" when reporting drunks urinating on Franklin station on the airwaves is always great. My farebox kept breaking and then fixing it self thirty minutes later tonight. I've never understood it when you tell somebody the ride is free because the machine's broken, and they say "well, can I have a transfer?" "If the machine could give out transfers, you'd be getting charged, son."

There's a building on the northeast corner of 33rd & Nicollet that I've never really noticed much. It's just a two-story, single-lot building with a painted vinyl siding that is so common in Minneapolis. Last week, on my way to work, I noticed some workers tearing off the siding, and it turns out there's beautiful red brick underneath it. I cheered; it looked phenomenal. Today I drove by, and they're putting new siding up.

Today's Planetizen was stupid. The last four were all interesting, though. That's not a bad ratio for a podcast. Also, I added Norwegianity to my blogroll.

If anybody knows how I could get solid, lightweight, 22" men's and 19" women's frames/bikes for less than $100, email me.

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A post that includes stereotypes based on one's choice of automobiles, the nationalities of various gangs, and how many wandering armed men it takes to scare people

Franklin & Hennepin: Hummer with anti-Bush bumper sticker. Yeah, right.

Tonight, I picked up a woman who decided to stand in the way of the door rubbing her eye for way longer than is appropriate or polite. Finally, she told me that her transfer had just expired and that she was wondering if she could still use it. I looked at the printed time, noted that it was exactly an hour and forty eight minutes expired, and told her, "No, this is two hours old." She said "It's only an hour and a half!" I started to drive off when she found her seat, and she yelled at me for moving while she was still standing.

Later a guy asked me "Is this Southdale?" I replied, "No, not yet." He had asked earlier if the bus went to Southdale Mall. He said "That's what I needed, thanks," and ran down the stairs.

So what's with the loud opera they pipe outside Block E now? Is it supposed to make the shootings more Italian-American in feel? It appears that the response of the local governments' to last month's random shooting of a white guy was to add the number of officers patrolling the area. Except instead of having two or three man posses walking the beat and keeping an eye on the entire area at once, they walk around clustered in one very large fourteen-man gang. I don't know about anybody else, but a gang of armed hoods is a gang of armed hoods, badges or not.

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Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day to everybody. Were there good showings by the immigrants today? The only grouping I passed on my 6 today was the rather light grouping at the Basilica.

Today I had a conversation with a guy who expressed his opposition to immigrants' rights. His views were typical of a liberal-voting union member that gets all of his news and information from conservative media like Fox News, CNN, and/or the Star Tribune [you'd think people would at least use sources that at least pretend to be vaguely populist like NPR and NYT, but I digress]. He went on to tell me about his plans to move to a Caribbean island when he retires, and made sure he told me all the loopholes on how to live there without having to actually apply for residency.

I ran empty just after rush hour between 54th and 29th Streets (Uptown Station). It felt like I was driving a 46.

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I <3 rain

Last night was vaguely more interesting than the night before. Sure, a cantaloup surprised me by rolling down the aisle at 37th and Bryant, but that was just about all the excitement the evening could muster.

I've noticed this before but never remembered long enough to make it home, but the new neighborhood signs for East Harriet Farmstead are badass. Like most things in the city, they look even better in the rain. I love the rain. Especially when I'm working. I've never understood umbrella people. I have enough to carry, and it's not like an umbrella will keep you more than a little bit dry. I guess I'm a baseball cap person. The only bad part about the rain is that I was going to take my dad golfing for his birthday. There's always next weekend. Now, this is the kind of post that usually induces yawning than attracts awards [I can't get enough of that -- I haven't been written about in an arts weekly since the pulse made fun on the (essentially adult contemporary) band I was in when I was 19].

What's up with those crazy super aggressive drivers with Kerry or Visualize World Peace stickers? It pisses me off as much as the Bushies, but aggressive driving at least fits with the "me first and the gimme gimmes" ideology of the neo-cons. But the dems that drive that that just look stupid.

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"Do you like obscure cinema?"

So now that people are actually visiting, I've felt a little bit of pressure to actually post something. At least while the buzz lasts. But nothing happened today! Well, there was a trip today on the 6 that was packed solid with passengers and I had to slam the brakes when a car cut me off at the same time the car in front of it slammed its brakes. Sorry if you were on that trip (doubtful). The most interesting thing that happened to me tonight was the guy with the afro with bald spots that told me to check out the Betty Page movie.

Today I noticed we're getting some pretty little stickers on the backs of our buses. File this one under "what took so long". The stickers look like yield signs and are placed just above eye level; that way when a bus pulls out of a bus stop and pushes out into traffic ahead of some jerk in a GMC Envoy, he's got a face full of MN statute 169.20.

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Cool, new readership

I hope this means I get a little sticker I can put on my windshield (great idea, Sheraton). Welcome, new readers. I must apologize upfront for the website, which can be extremely slow at times.

So since my readership has shot up this week from the four or five people that it used to be, I suppose I should roll out some basics. Your Friend, Kid Tiger is a pseudonym I used for my music. I haven't made any new music in about a year. I plan to make more at some point. MTC has been renamed Metro Transit for something like twelve years. [Has anybody seen the new SW Metro buses? They look like what people in the 1960s thought buses would look like in 2006!] I've been driving bus since I gradated from Edina in 2000, and you can find me on the 6 line from three to midnight, monday through thursday, and on 4 line fridays. Something funny happened recently, but I forgot to write it down. Somebody who forgets to write stuff down far less frequently than I do is another dude who drives, Transit Librarian. And now that I read his site, the BMW and secret restroom things makes since, because those stories are from his blog. So I guess me and Ceej are really sharing the sticker [when you check out his blog, make sure you ask him for RSS]. We're a team! He's the funny one, I'm the angry one with the kid [cutest kid ever, by the way]. Right now, by the way, she's staring at three wooden bears and cracking up.

Does anybody have any tips or good resources on refurbishing an old bicycle frame and converting a ten speed into a single speed? I need a new bike. The one I've got is a mountain bike I've had since middle school that must be made out of solid lead.

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Man oh man

I haven't posted in a while I guess.

The other day, on the 6, a guy got on the bus and said, "Turn off the air, I'm cold!" It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, about 72°, and the A/C wasn't on. He rode 3 blocks, and at his stop, while walking from the first row of seats to the front of the bus, yelled "back door" at me while smirking. I didn't react, he started to call me an asshole, and before the 'l' fell backwards down the stairs.

Another day, on the 4, I took a pimply guy from Bloomington to Lake and Lyndale. He spotted a bar and wanted to be let off at the last second. After my trip up to Columbia Heights and back, I picked him up going the other way. From Lake to 66th, from the front of the bus, sitting by himself, he tried to strike up a conversation with each of the other 5 riders by telling each of them, in turn, "I got the hottest girl tonight. I got so many girls tonight." Finally, after nothing but that, he asked a guy where he lived. The guy just said Bloomington. "I got so many girls tonight." Great.

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More like St. Stupid's Day

Friday was ridiculous. I'm not at all a fan of the Valentine's Day of the beer industry, but I hate it when it falls on a weekend. Downtown was crawling with 952's and the once-a-year Irish (who apparently, from the numbers going into the Scottish pub on 9th and Hennepin, couldn't tell Irish from Iraqi if it slapped em on the ass) and we had free rides, so we had one-a-year bus riders too. Which is a good thing, if only we could manage a rough approximation of good service. Half the buses out there were packed to the gills, and the other half, such as was my case, were running the style of late that, to the bus driver, means he won't be going to the bathroom or eating dinner for a while, and, to the passenger, appears that the bus just didn't show up. My reason was some lady was assaulted by northeast Minneapolis drunk. She was just reading her paper and dude just punched her in the back of the head, threatened everybody on the bus (standing next to me while I called the cops, I might add), and ran into Wal-Mart, where I'd imagine he blended in with all the other wifebeaters that regularly shop there. He was caught by the way.

The only bathroom on the 4 line is a nasty old outhouse that has no lock and never gets cleaned. Our official bathroom's been "under construction" (say that with the same about of sarcasm as the 'protection' part of the EPA gets) for at least 6 months (possibly longer). The other end has one that's a 15 minute walk. Nice. I'll just be stopping at the Urban Bean a lot, I guess.

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Last saturday for a while

Today a guy on my bus yelled "Hey bus driver! She's got some booty, eh? F'shizzle!"

I like driving the 6 line. I don't mind working nights, i don't mind working weekends, i just don't like working weekend nights ['course on the other hand, i refuse to wake up before 10 on weekends, so mornings are out too.] The main problem are the idiot 952's that hang out downtown and jaywalk en masse all night long. I mean, I don't drive the bus on the friggin sidewalk, do I? I guess if you really boil it down, the problem is that a long ass time ago some idiotic city planner thought it would be great if we had blocks that are 3 miles long, and was followed by 150 years of local goverments that have never heard of crosswalks. Anyway, it sometimes makes for some interesting trips.

Tonight, I stopped at 8th and Hennepin and picked up a bachelorette party of about 30 women somewhere betwen the ages of 25 and 35. One of them put $3 in the bill slot and said "This is for me and my bitch." The woman standing next to her leaned in and said "I'm her bitch." They spent most of their trip to Uptown Station singing songs about how the bride-to-be "likes it better from the back." An elderly woman boarded at 10th, paid her fare. She took one look at the party, and looked at me and said "Maybe I'll just wait for the 4," and alighted.

One of the ladies in the party topped all, however. She showed me $3 and asked me "What do I do with this?" I patted the bill slot and told her to "just slide it on in there." In no kind of indoor voice, "Like a penis?" and held up a penis figurine.

Seawhores is the Minneapolis band that actually deserves the hype they get. Also, that new hotel on 9th & Hennepin is looking very cool. The new condos are a nice touch for the city; I do, however, think we need more row houses.

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The solution

I've been under a ton of stress lately. There are multiple reasons -- there's the general urban disaster that they call Minneapolis, I haven't had a full night's sleep in a month and a half, and my employer is "forgetting" to pay me in full in two cases so far [that's in addition to the far more sinister way they're found to screw with me that I'd rather not get into at this point in time] -- and it's been really taking a toll on my psyche. Today I found the solution. After weeks of non-stop sunshine, we had a few hours of an overcast sky before the sun went down. That is apparently all I needed. I need to skip town.

I added a links section for podcasts that I listen to. 75 Minutes is the only music one. Left, Right and Center is an interesting one that even my conservative friends may enjoy.

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I finally made it

After five years and three months driving bus, as they say [why they don't include the 'the', i do not know], I've finally arrived. Not only am I no longer making less than the full wage, but today, for the first time ever, I was able to actually pick weekends off. I've had them before, but it was on the extra board, which changed weekly, or it was filling for senior drivers while they were on vacation. No, this is something completely different. So here's what I'll be driving for twelve weeks starting in March:

Mon: 3pm to 12am, on the 6
Tue: 3pm to 12am, on the 6
Wed: 3:30pm to 12am, on the 6
Thu: 3pm to 12am, on the 6
Fri: 3pm to 12am, on the 11 and the 4

I wonder if it's possible to tire of the 6 bus. I guess I'll see. I could have taken my desert island days off, friday and saturday, but i didn't like any of the work on sunday, and the friday shift that i ended up with involves making relief two blocks from my house. Two blocks!.

So Bethany's going to go back to work 8 hours per week starting in March, so I'll have a little regular daddy/baby time on Saturday mornings. I wonder what we'll do. What's a good age to take your kid to the Walker on a free day?

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Hardest part of quitting so far

It's now been 83 days since I quit smoking. On monday night on the 6 line, somebody left a brand-new full pack of yellows on a seat. That was my brand when I smoked. I thought about smoking one, but i decided to just leave it on a seat, as sort of a six-dollar donation to whoever found it first. Outta sight, outta mind. First guy that gets on the bus brings it up to me. Yikes. I say "you can have it, man" but he doesn't smoke. So there I am with my brand on the dashboard from Southdale to Franklin. It's hard. I was seriously sweating more than I do at the gym. Finally a girl who saw the whole thing asked if she could have them. What took so long?

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Totally lame

It looks like we accepted the second contract offer with 67% in favor. I voted no. The only change I saw from the previous contract offer, which was terrible in my opinion [and was voted down] was that they added a $400 "signing bonus" [which will end up being about $250 after taxes, or did everybody forget the $1100 bribe to end the strike ended up being about $600?] and to make up for it turned the 30¢ raise into a 20¢ one. So what's different about it? We get $250 up front instead of slowly over the next 6 months. I don't know what we're so afraid of.

The bit I find personally insulting is that they could have given us a two-year offer instead of the three-year offer we got, which would have cost the state the massive sum of zero dollars. Instead, the next administration will be have an anti-transit policy towards the state's transit employees for the first half of the next term, whether they want it or not.

In better transit news, Peter McLaughlin's wife took the train downtown when she went into labor the other day. I like Rybak enough, but this is part of why I voted for McLaughlin. Sidenote: Whenever I hear Minneapolis heralded for electing a liberal mayor I always wonder if anybody remembers that he was the most conservative of the three main candidates.

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Buses are free New Years Eve

I just wanted to mention, because people need to know these things. 12am Saturday to 3am Sunday.

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New Buses?

Well, it looks like we're going to see some new buses rolling around the Twin Cities soon. According to the article, Metro has an order with New Flyer of Winnipeg (with two of the company's three plants in Minnesota) for 51 buses. 15 of them are high floor articulated buses (just like the double/accordian ones we've already got) and the other 36 are low floor forty-foot, which are not the high-floor forty-foot buses made by Gillig that we've been using for the last twenty years. It's not a completely new bus - we've got something like ten of this style that are the big blue hybrid buses (7100 series), and ten more that they tested in 1994 (I haven't seen one of these in a few years - they were cool but sloooooooooow) but we've never ordered anything like 36 of a tester bus. Maybe we're going a similar direction with agencies in Seattle and Portland, who seem to have low-floor on most of their new buses.. The benefit of low vs high floor (we've had twenty years of Gillig high-floor) is that low floor makes travel faster and is more accessible to the elderly and disabled. The tradeoff is that there are less seats, so on busy routes (which we have here like nothing in Seattle or Portland) more people have to stand. That's not a bad thing in my book, though. Could this be the end of Gillig in Minneapolis? I hope so.

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Bus stories, pt. 5

Yesterday on the 46, I was driving along and I was paying close attention to a blind intersection on a curve. In fact, my attention was too close and I nearly passed up an elderly gentleman who was on the opposite side of the street. I had to brake hard, and made him walk about 80 feet, but he made it. I felt real bad, actually. Nine times out of ten when that happens, it's not the driver's fault (if you act like somebody who's just walking down the street guess what happens) but this was completely my fault. It turned out to be a very animated French guy who held out that morning's paper and said "For you." What a sweetie! He only rode for about a mile, but he was awesome. I was all set to give him the special 6 hour transfer that I reserve for special people (OK I've never given one out), but he declined.

Tonight we had free rides from 4pm to 9pm on account of the Holidazzle parade. First of all, you'd think that if your bus driver is saying something, you might pay attention, especially when what he is saying is "Free Rides Tonight!" In the time it takes an average person to put money in the farebox, I can say "Free Rides Tonight! Excuse me, the ride is free! Have a seat, there's no fare!" How many people put a dollar in before looking at me with an expression that looked too similar to one that goes with "Look! The monkey is trying to say something! OMG Bus drivers talk! What's he saying? I wasted a dollar?" Seriously, it's like pulling teeth to get people to not pay on no fare night. I shit you not, I had to sit there and argue about it with a few people. I actually ran late all night because people would not sit down. All of this brings me to the second point. When I started driving five years ago, we used to have these black vinyl farebox hoods. They were brand new. We used them for one day. They were awesome. We ran on time that day. Seattle has little cardboard dealies that you block the coin and bill slots with.

It was a good night anyway.

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52 Minnesotans can't be wrong

Hey, thanks City Pages Blotter for the Minnesota Blog of the Day mention there. Since I'm hosting this site on my own, I hope nobody had any problems loading anything. If you're new here, welcome. I'm really not as crabby as I pretend to be online. Although I have to admit, if i had known before my food post that there would be new people here numbering in the double digits, I might have complained about lots more stuff. Like the people who run in front of 40 mph traffic without looking, just to get on a bus that comes by every five minutes. Or something. Anyway it's my day off, so I don't have anything work-related to say. Other than the elderly white lady on Sunday who got on the bus, and when she noticed that there was nobody else on there she said "Good! Now I won't have to listen to some drunk cracker!"

By the way, CP had it backwards, I drive at night, and blog the next morning. Transit Librarian tells even better stories, but he'll not be driving the bus for a few months. So stay tuned over there for some new driver training stories! He also doesn't have RSS. Overtime tomorrow night, 146 and 115. I love the 115.

On the subject of people showing up to this site out of the blue, here's some of the better Google searches that resulted in people finding my blog lately:

• awesome new brewers uniforms
• hahahaha
• someones death in harvard, il
• mature nudists couples (wha? stupid comment spam)
• bus driver bathroom breaks (heh good luck with that one, you might as well search for pictures of unicorns)

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Bus stories, pt. 4

I'm pretty sure there was a holiday yesterday called Eat On Ryan's Bus Day. Every single trip I had somebody eating some horrible food (McDonalds, Taco Bell) that tastes horrible and smells worse. They were also all sitting in the same seat. Now not only is eating on the bus prohibited, it's just plain rude. Nobody wants to smell that cheesesteak. Or watch you chew with your mouth open. Or sit down on your used ketchup packets and put their feet in your trash. By the end of the night my demeanor had gradually shifted from "Attention passengers: Eating is prohibited on Metro Transit Vehicles" to "Hey! You in the back! Put cho food away, son."

Quote of the night: "Do you interfere with a 16?"

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Yippee! Snow

We got about an inch of snow this morning, with a touch of ice beneath it. People overreacted. It was 50 and raining yesterday which is sort of odd I guess. I understand we'll get bombarded tomorrow.

The Star Tribune said bus service was 10-15 minutes late this morning on account of the snow. I was 20 minutes late, and was the last of five 6 buses going down Hennepin at the same time. That's 25 minutes worth of number 6's.

The drivers got 725 buses out with 5 late according to Bob Gibbons (Metro Spokesman), who gets the stupid quote of the morning award: "That means the drivers got to work OK. They motored themselves in before they motored themselves out." Good thing nobody reads that far into stories about the previous day's weather. It's better than my response would have been if I had his job: "What? Shut up there's an inch of snow! Who cares!"

Even beating the lady who, while paying her fare, blankly said to nobody in particular "My pants are very wet."

Strib: New winter storm marches toward Twin Cities

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Bus stories, pt. 3

I had a rough day on the 18 yesterday. I've had much rougher, but I had a splitting headache all day and everything seemed to just rub that spot on my head the wrong way. I very nearly (within less than an inch, both cases are miraculous) had two accidents. One guy ran the red light at Lake and 1st Ave. about five seconds late, catching me in the middle of calling the street ("Lake St! Big K in the sheeeeeeeei--"). The other guy made a right turn in front of my while I was pulling out of the stop. He was going very fast, and very nearly hit the bike on the rack. That could have made things interesting. Later on that evening somebody was having issues with my going 20 mph down Nicollet. Well at the same time I was having minor issues with the two cars ahead of me going 20 mph. The guy in the SUV behind me couldn't see them though, so he just assumed it was me. He decided to swerve violently and flash his brights right into my mirror. I showed him what it was like to sit behind a bus that was stopped in the middle of the street for about 45 seconds.

The highlight of the night, however, was when I showed up at 8th and Nicollet at roughly 5pm and a lady boarded and told me that her transfer is expired, but she's been waiting a long time for the bus. I get this all the time, it's a computer that reads the transfer so there's no leeway, but I usually just look at the time and give the person a ride if it's within 30 minutes or so, depending on the time of day. Keep in mind (for those not "in the know") that 5pm is, in fact, the heart of rush hour, and on the 18 line, a bus comes through downtown at least every five minutes during rush hour. I looked at this lady's transfer and it was expired by two hours. I figured maybe she had a more recent one so I said "This is expired by two hours." She became belligerent and exclaimed "Yeah! I told you I was waiting a long time!"

"Huh?"

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Public Transit

In Ottawa the ATU local has an interesting idea. Negotiations have been dropped by the company (OCTranspo), so the bus drivers are going to try different ways to "send a message" to the public, starting with the drivers showing up to work in street clothes instead of their uniforms. They're going to try a new idea every three days or so until they run out.

By the way, is it just me or does the OCTranspo logo on the bus in that picture look like the company ran out of those white 'rtation' stickers?

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"I'm holding up a 10"

I stopped on the mall today and Transit Librarian was in the bus going the other way. He was waiting for his time at 8th. After I leaned out and said hey, he told me to apologize to the 10 bus behind him for making him wait (unlike on an actual transit mall, we're not allowed to pass on our mall). This is just my way of letting him know that I happened to stop by the 10 bus's window and I did apologize for him. The driver just shrugged and said "what are ya gonna do?"

I'm trying something I picked up from the drivers in Portland. It's really helping my mood, the mood of my passengers, and it makes the day go much more quickly. When I call out a street, I've been calling out points of interest. This has actually made me like Minneapolis a bit more. There's actually something worth calling at almost every stoplight. I'm not calling out chainstores, because they don't need any help. 28th street seems to be a wasteland though. I can't think of anything for Nicollet or Lyndale on 28th. (Help would be appreciated. The best part of doing this: "Nicollet and Lake! Big K in the Way!" The best routes for interesting points of interest, in order: 2 (all those co-ops and it never leaves the city), the 6 (yeah no kidding), the 4 (lyndale, obviously, but johnson is turning very cool), the 18 (Nicollet is the new uptown) When there's a transfer point, I'll call out the route number and the current time. I think it's been helpful, although in the last two days, three people have asked me "what time itizzz" within 3 seconds of me saying it. Oh well.

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Fourteen weeks at a time

I could have gotten Sunday, Monday, and Christmas off like the Ceejster, but I decided I should stick with the straight runs instead of those short splits I would have had to take, to spend more time at home. So I picked nine hour work and took Tuesday and Wednesday off. The good part of this is I'm 14th in line for overtime on Wednesdays, and I'm about 100th in line on Saturdays.

So I'll be spending fourteen weeks on the 6 and the 46, which isn't bad at all. Half the time I'll be driving around yuppies and college kids, and during the other half I won't be driving anybody around (heh heh I kid - the 46 can take it).

Sat: 2:45p to 11:24p on the 6
Sun: 10:16a to 6:54p on the 46
Mon: 3:12p to 11:59p on the 6
Tue: off
Wed: off
Thu: Short day 3:41p to 6:11p on the 156
Fri: 12:06p to 8:56p on the 46

That Friday run should be nice, instead of going to work I'll just have to walk 3 blocks and pick up by bus en route. Unless our house sells and we move to uptown or Loring Park or something. Then my 6 line will be nicer.

On Christmas and New Years I'll be working the 4 bus from 6p to 2a. That's gonna be a long day.

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I drive bus

Eugene, OR drivers complaining about lack of bathroom breaks. Good luck with that, the company will always say they don't pressure you to run on time, even when they'll suddenly write you up for running late.

Philadelphia transit workers are back to work after a week, but...

Pittsburgh could strike within two weeks. Go Pennsylvania!

By the way, you can look at aerial pictures of houses in Hennepin County now.

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Stroller and Nicollet Mall Complaints, etc.

So we have this "new" stroller policy, even though it's the exact same policy we've always had (the reason I've been enforcing it as much as I was last year), which is strollers have to be folded up before you get on the bus. That's right, you need to hold your baby with one arm, fold the stroller with the other arm, carry both up the stairs, and hope your other kids follow you. You also have you leave your shopping bags on the sidewalk, apparently. Anyway from the company's bulletins about it, all they say is (one) it came from a security committee meeting and (two) it kinda sorta helps out with Homeland Security (heh Homeland Security, a punchline in itself) by keeping the aisles clear (no it doesn't). Anyway the driver of the 18 bus ahead of me got mad at me for picking up a mother and not forcing her to fold her stroller. What? That was the third time I've heard from a driver that's it's federal law. I haven't seen that on any of the company's bulletins. Something about a train in Europe was blown up by a stroller with explosives in it. Actually this driver told me that the baby was "holding the dynamite." Anyway, I think it's stupid. So now I sorta halfass a "I'm required to ask that you fold that," as long as the aisle is kept clear.

Nicollet Mall. Old subject, I know, but does anybody care that the slow speed of the mall is probably a safety hazard? People run in front of my bus all day long. Usually without even looking in front of them. People don't run out into the middle of Hennepin without looking at quite the same frequency. Anyway, the mall blows. It's possible to make it work for both transit and pedestrians, but it doesn't work for either right now. Here's a reason I recently noticed: what's with the flower pots and various garbage cans and signpoles right up against the curb? They sure help with unloading passengers. What, am I supposed to unload a wheelchair into a large flowerbed during rush hour? Reason two: Why are the shelters in the middle of the block? To make it so you can only fit two buses at a time on a block? Is that why it's takes 30 minutes to get through downtown during rush hour? We have a new policy that I'm sure people will hate because Minnesotans are needy (definitely not nice, by the way) where we stop an extra 20 feet beyond the shelter. That could be improved to 'all the way to the crosswalk' but it's a start. I'm already getting complaints "wah wah you made me walk an extra 20 feet" while I'm rolling past them at 5 mph. People here are idiots.

A very old guy with a strong east African accents sat down in the peanut seats and looked at me for 10 minutes, then finally asked me where I'm from. He's from Indiana. That was the entire conversation.

I picked up a guy wearing a sweatshirt that read, "Gravity: It's not just a good idea, it's the LAW!" What?

Buy my baby something from this list.

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Day eight

Tonight on the bus a guy got up from his seat and his pants were halfway down his butt, giving all of us a great view. Seeing smelly old guys' butts on the bus is nothing new to me, but this had the whole bus in stitches. Three stops later, the guy who was laughing the hardest at it stood up. Guess who's pants were halfway down his butt. The next bus we took a dude and a girl were chatting. I overheard this sentence from the guy: "I was thinking about taking this history course next term. It's about women… and globalization… and all that."

We ate at the Doug Fir again, the restaurant in the hotel. It's good enough, and just too convenient to pass up. By the way, did I mention they have live music there? The Posies are playing in our hotel tonight. In the next month, Metric, Calla, Rachel's, Tristeza, Okkervil River, American Analog Set, Subtle, Broadcast, Laura Viers, and The Long Winters are playing. In the hotel. We just missed Mono. That sounds an awful lot like my iTunes library. Anyway, we ate potatoes. I got grumpy about the lack of real Tabasco. We went to a baby boutique that was nothing to write in a blog about… or something. We went downtown to take pictures and look at stores with stuff we can't afford. Spiewak is making some really damn cool jackets lately. It's a uniform company that recently started what they call a "street" line. It's all foreign made, which makes me wonder if their uniform line is union-made. I would have to believe it would be hard for a uniform company to last without union labels. But some really cool designs anyway. Gsus has got some cool stuff. And some hot pictures in their catalog featuring models in bikinis wearing soviet inspired hats that get socialists like myself going. We found some other cool designers too, Modern Amusement and Industry Clothing. Earlier in the week we found some stuff we liked I haven't mentioned, also. Queen Bee makes really cool purses. Puckish too, although they don't have a website at this point. I've liked Nikki McClure's art a lot, but we got to see her calendar and some cards in person. They look better in person than online. Jansdotter's calendar has been around and I think is even more awesome.

We took the train up to Mississippi and had to walk a lot further than we thought we did to get to the interesting part. It's a neighborhood that's just starting to get nicer with some art galleries, boutiques, restaurants and coffeeshops. The lady who works at Grasshopper on Alberta recommended Mississippi to us. She told us it's similar to Alberta. We hopped the bus over to Alberta, about a five minute ride, and had vegan lunch at Vita Cafe. Tempeh yum yum. We went down to 23rd Ave which was out of our league economically and stylistically, and just kind of lame. We ate dinner at Pizzicato, which was some above average pizza. Then we dropped a couple more dollars on Frogger at the arcade. Can't get enough of that place. If you happen to stop by in the next few days, look at the 3 and 4 scores on the Frogger high scores and think of me. That's right. We decided against going to see the Headphones at the Hawthorne Theatre because we're squares and it was too late. So we went on a little walk thought a cute little neighborhood and stopped at a wierd coffeeshop on Belmont. The Pied Cow, I think. They rent water bongs there with fancy fruity tobacco. It was in this creepy looking haunted mansion style house that was super remodeled inside to look like Pandora's Cup as an opium den. We're taking the Amtrak back to Seattle tomorrow.

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Day six

Today we woke up and went over to the Pearl District and had lunch at the Byways Cafe, a nice little diner type place with cheap breakfast. It kinda remined me of my grandmother's house. We spent the next five or six hours just basically meandering around the neighborhood. They've done a great job building it up. There are a lot of old buildings, but there are also a lot of new condos, most of which appeared to be less than 7 or 8 years old. Seriously, Minneapolis gets four new condo projects and all the sudden everybody starts complaining about "too many condos" and "the city is too vertical". To those people I say grow up. There was a real cool little home store called Relish that drove me crazy. It had all the things I've been drooling about online actually in the store! I saw Amenity sheets and Lotta Jansdotter designs in the flesh! We got sandwiches from the Whole Foods and ate them in a little park nearby. The streetcar was kinda cool. It's a Czech tram, I forgot who built it.

We went back to the hotel for a little for our little midday "pregnant lady needs to lie down for a bit while her husband frantically makes notes of addresses of stores and restaurants and bus lines" rest. We decided on more downtown stuff. We still haven't really gotten out into the neighborhoods yet but there's still time. There's more to do near downtown Portland than Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco combined. We made a quick detour by the world's smallest park, which was a severe dissappointment. The bush and the sign was gone and it was just a pile of dirt with half a dead cactus sitting in it. Imagine a sad face on Ryan. We weren't quite hungry yet so we went over to this place called Ground Kontrol. It's a 25¢ video arcade almost completely filled with pre-1988 video consoles. And they have a bar. And it's 21+. We really suck at video games so we went though four bucks pretty quickly, but still. We'll probably go back and waste more money there. Basically every single person I can think of would go apeshit in there. And it wasn't all lonely wierd dudes, there were lonely wierd ladies there too. After that we walked a few blocks down to Old Town Pizza. We sat in a little sofa in a little nook and had what is billed as Portland's best pizza. It was super cool looking in there, with couches, tables, little nooks all over the place, brick walls. After scoffing at "only 30 toppings" we got a pretty damn good Artichoke and Olive (big surprise there) pizza. We were walking down Burnside to the Bus Mall to try to find a late night coffeeshop to kill time in when somebody pointed at us and yelled "Hey I know you" which scared the shit out of me because I don't know anybody from anywhere near Portland. It was the front desk lady from the hotel. We talked for a little and told her we were looking for a late night cafe and she said her and her friend were going to a bar right next to one. We followed her down there and it was open, but it was small and had some synth emo band with indie girls bouncing all over the place. We decided to skip it and go down to this place called Tiny's on Hawthorne. The hotel lady told us there's a newer Tiny's on MLK Blvd. (which would make it much easier to get back to the hotel on the bus) so we went up to that one even though I didn't know the cross street. We finally found it, and it closed at 9. I asked some people in Seattle and Portland if there are any late night coffeshops. 10pm is the latest we've seen. In Minneapolis 10pm is the time the old lady coffeeshops like Anodyne close. I thought the pacific northwest was all up in that coffee shit, but I guess it's nothing like Minneapolis. We named 10 places in Mpls that are open past midnight. We really take that for granted. Add that to the list of reasons Mpls is actually pretty cool (next to the smallest city with 5 minute bus service, better artichoke dip, more tall bikes, and more pizza toppings than countries in Europe.

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Days three and four

Yesterday, we finally slept in after waking up way too early the first couple days. We hit up the Seattle Aquarium for fish and little kid watching. Went over to Capitol Hill (not the capitol of anything) and walked around. Cool neighborhood. We ate at the Globe where we had an hour wait after we ordered our food. It wasn't so bad, it was incredible. It was all vegan food, cooked on a wood stove. We walked around the corner and found a kids consignment/vintage store. Found some sweet vintage threads for the little lady there.

We went to an enormous REI, the flagship store, and didn't buy anything. It's cool though -- there's a hiking path and a mountain biking trail on the property. Went up to the University District to get a cord for the camera and found nothing we wanted to do out there. Less cool than Dinkytown even. We got hungry so we went over to Wallingford to get some food, found a place that was recommended but apparently you need reservations. We went over to Ballard and ate at this expensive italian place, but it was good.

Today we ate at the Cyclops, which was an awesome joint in Belltown. Sort of a Chatterbox meets Spyhouse sort of thingWe were going to take the train just after lunch, so we went downtown and looked at Flora + Henri for kids clothes, which was outrageously cute and ridiculously expensive (hint to Seattle, NYC, and LA residents that want to send us outrageously cute and ridiculously expensive kids clothes).

The scenery on the Amtrak was beautiful, and it was pretty fun to take the train instead of driving. When we arrived in Portland, we took the bus to the hotel and started to notice that people here are extraordinarily friendly. It's almost insane. In the first few hours we were here, at least 3 different people on the bus, the checkout at Whole Foods, two employees at American Apparel, and the hotel front-desk lady all struck up long conversations with us. I guess when the weather is the same every day people learn to find new subjects. We just saw the weatherman on TV take 5 minutes to say it's going to be between 54 and 64 and cloudy for the next 7 days. At the hotel our reservation was missing when we arrived, so they gave us a sort of spare room they have. It's really a 60's motel with a lounge/club/venue in the part where the parking lot used to be called the Doug Fir. They're open until 4 am. The room they gave us is right above the club, so it was amazingly loud. At first it wasn't so bad; there was Spoon, old Death Cab, the Walkmen, but then the house DJ's went on. We called for a cab around midnight and went to the Walgreen's to buy some earplugs. Our cabbie was a young lady who recognized my work stocking cap I was wearing and told us she was from Minneapolis. Anyway, the cab fare plus the plugs were the best 30 bucks we ever spent. We slept like babies. I did wake up about 3:30 and the party was still happening, but went right back to sleep. Amazing. We got a new room.

Public Transit here kicks the Saddam Hussein's ass to Russia with a belt. Portland is amazing actually.

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Day two

Yesterday we had another blast. We need to buy a cable so we can plug our camera in to the computer before we put any pictures up. We hung out a bit in Ballard and Fremont, both of which are super cool neighborhoods, and a little bit in Queen Anne, which is all right. Basically just walked around and took it easy. Got our pictures taken with a giant Lenin statue and a VW-eating troll. We stopped by a pretty sweet record store (Sonic Boom in Fremont) and their used selection was incredible. I had another brilliant beer at McMenamins. We woke up at 6:45 so we decided to stay up late so we could sleep in longer today. I mean, it really sucks to have to wait around for 3 hours before anything even opens. So we went and saw Everything is Illuminated, the movie based on Jonathan Safran Foer's first book. It was quite good. We made it to 7:45 today.

Another note about King County Metro: partly because of paper transfers and free ride zone, and partly because they only stop every three or four blocks (compared to one or two in Minneapolis) the service is very quick. It's not extremely frequent (I haven't seen anything more frequent than 15 minute service, I think Minneapolis has five or six 5-10 minute routes) but they have trolley buses. We need trolley buses.

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Day one

After spending the morning cleaning the house and fixing it up nice and pretty (no RR's on the Truth in Housing! Score!) we hopped a plane to Seattle. We were super tired and went to bed early, early enough to sleep in and still wake up at 6:45, but we had a little time to walk around and get a feel for the downtown area and Belltown. We ate at Six Arms, which was awesome. Real good beer and food.

Seattle's Metro is by far the most confusing transit service I've ever used. The downtown routings are one thing, (it's like they're all on detour all the time) but the fare structure is wierd. Good parts: paper transfers, no blue footballs, downtown zone is usually free. Confusing parts: the usually part of the fare free and all the times and boarding policies. Seriously here's the scoop. It's $1.25 during non rush hours. During rush hours it's $1.50 unless you go too far, then it's $2. You need a transfer to get off if you go past downtown. You board the front door going into town and the back door going away unless it's after 7pm then apparently they don't open the back door at all and it's not free downtown anymore. Oh and the rush hour doesn't change at 3pm, it changes when the schedule says 3pm (and the pocket schedule says it might not even be at that time). Anyway, it's wierd. It works.

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Gasp! An accident!

Had another collision today. I guess I'm getting pretty good at handling them (Supervisor on scene: "Sounds like you handled it real well."). This is the third time I've nailed a car who turned in front of me, however the other two I was just starting to move the bus when it happened. This time, though, the other driver made a right turn in front of me when I was rolling down the road at 20 mph and all I could do was slam the hell out of the brakes and nail her. Everybody was A-OK though so we're all right. Plus I got my last trip filled and got to pull in early. So that was sweet.

Tomorrow the family (the wife and I, and my special little lady) board a non-NWA plane and high-tail it to Seattle. We'll spend three days there, Amtrak it to Portland for 5 days, back up to Seattle for 3 days, including one daytrip to Vancouver to visit Ben and have a look at the Quinny strollers (which are available in North America only at Canadian Sears which is wierd) and back to the cities. There will be updates.

I'd also like to mention that I whole-heartedly support Scott Tollin in his ATU 1005 election campaign (for Secretary-Treasurer I believe, although I could be wrong). I had the chance to know him during my time operating the Electric Rollerskates and had many interesting conversations with him. The man is brilliant, both regarding and outside of union issues and politics, and has twenty-odd years of experience, both as shop steward and union organizer (maybe even more, that's just what I know from conversations with him). Basically I'd support him even if he was running against Gandhi.

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Feeling left out

I was wondering yesterday while I was driving if any other cities named a street after Minneapolis. After all, we have streets named for Chicago, Portland, Oakland, Ontario, Columbus (possibly not related to Ohio, but it's next to two other city-named streets, and Minneapolis usually has a theme to the street names in an area)

The best I could find was a Minneapolis Ave. in Amery, WI.

(Hey, we made out better than St. Paul. They had to name one after themselves.)

UPDATE: Kassie notes that we did have to name one after ourselves. When we're looking for a new pad I'm definately hoping my address will be 2121 Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota

This 6 route I had yesterday and today is super sweet. I felt like I worked for 3 hours. It's 12:52p to about 8p. And the schedule is possible. I actually had to wait a few times for my time.

On friday I drove the 17. Northbound, there are two 17s. The 17 Downtown and the 17W Washington. Going through downtown it's very common for somebody to ask if the bus goes to Washington, even when you're a 17 Downtown. The W bus goes down the Washington that is over northeast. There is also a Washington near the north end of downtown. Anyway after answering so many questions that have the same answer ("No, I just end downtown") I just sorta answer and sorta not answer. I mean people should be able to tell the difference between 17 and 17W, most of them are the same people multiple times. I usually just say "I only go downtown" and leave it at that. Well after four and a half years with the company somebody finally wanted to go to Washington downtown. Breaking news.

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They'll even have beer!

The Bad Waitress sounds real cool. Same owner as Spyhouse, except with more food. Good stuff.

Today I was driving the 2 line. It's probably the line I have the second hardest time keeping on time, behind the 17. I've gotten as high as 18 minutes late just with normal operating a few times this week, I've had maybe 3 out of the 44 trips I've done end up on time (two of which were during that huge rainstorm on Wednesday). The driver who picked it has been off work for a while now, so a different extra board driver has had the work for the week for the last couple months. I had it this week. Today a supervisor called me on the radio and asked me if it's my regular run. He was trying to figure out why he gets so many complaints about how late it is. I told him I just had it this week and it's been a different person each week. Hopefully something gets fixed, because as bad as it is for the drivers, it's ten times worse for the passengers. Anyway, at one point today I was 4 minutes late driving west on Franklin when I stopped at Tenth Ave. Amazingly, nobody wanted off and nobody was waiting at any stop until First Ave. That's nine blocks, just over half a mile. Even more shocking: I hit every green light on the way. I was driving a hair over the speed limit without having to slow down once. At First Avenue, I was still four minutes late. If the only way to keep on time is to not pickup passengers or stop at stoplights, there's definitely a problem.

We're putting our house on the market soon. Our next door neighbors have moved out. They were a bunch of deaf old guys, who we though might possibly have been selling pot on the side (hand-made small crafts was my other theory). We used to complain about how they used to wake us up at night raiding the neighborhood's recycling bins for soda cans that they would fill with rocks and then hammer so they could get more cash for the weight. One time they had a visitor who kept us up all night because she was running around in the street screaming at the top of her lungs. Zakcq and Jessica probably remember that night. We now have new neighbors. They've been accused of dealing drugs and also of prostitution. A car parked behind the apartment building exploded a few weeks ago. Arson is suspected. There are fist fights in their yard in the daytime. I've heard gunshots. They're up screaming at each other in the alley almost every night.

I miss our old drug-dealer neighbors.

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Quotes from the last two days on the bus

Old black guy to native american woman:

"Your hair is beautiful. Any black woman would love to have your hair. Are you Navajo? Are you from Chicago?"

Some lady said this, and I can't remember why, but it was very loud:

"Shit! [Now covering her mouth] I mean... uh... 'sheesh'. [Uncovering her mouth, even louder] No, haha I really mean 'shit.' Who am I foolin'?"

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Bus stories, pt. 2

I had a pretty hard week. All I drove was 17 and 2, which at least go through some scenic areas, but are almost impossible to keep on time. I had Control fill a trip for me 3 of the 5 days. And that 2 line is getting insane. I really love it, but the time is impossible. I have a theory about the 2 now that you mention it (shop talk alert, first 3 paragraphs):

Background story - It goes from uptown to the University in the shape of a giant W. It goes down Franklin, then Riverside through the west bank, hits up the east bank on Washington, then it barrels through Dinktown along University Ave or 4th. It actually ends up a mile and a half down the same road it starts, but takes an hour to drive around all over the city. Two years ago it was a very infrequent route. Because it's a crosstown route that serves the New Electric Rollerskates they made it a frequent service route. So basically, they doubled service. On to the theory:

Gas prices: The first place you'll notice it is with the students. OK. Two years ago you'd drive the 2 through the University and you'd pick up 15 kids on the 2. Every day I've driven it since this semester started I've packed out the bus and told a few kids they're gonna have to take the next bus. It's insane.

I picked up fish face a few days ago. This time she was giving some guy directions when I stopped and opened the door. I let her finish, I was in a much better mood and not quite so late (or so late it didn't matter anymore I forget which) and when she turned around and saw me, she hung her head, scuffled quickly up the stairs, and apologized. Mission Accomplished.

Also on the 17, near Minnetonka Blvd. and Hwy 100 I heard some loud music coming from the car next to me. It was System of a Down, cranked. I looked down and saw a late-model Saab being driven by a mid-40s button-up khaki wearing office type rocking the fuck out. Incredible.

I saw they're opening an American Eagle in uptown where Pier 1 used to be. That's ridiculous.

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Bus stories

Yesterday there were a handful of war protestors on the corner of 98th and Lyndale in Bloomington. They had signs that read Honk for Peace, Healthcare not Warfare, that sort of stuff. Naturally I honked and gave em a big ole smile and thumbs up. Thirty minutes later I'm coming back the other direction and there's a few more. As I crane my neck to see what the new signs say, I notice one of them has a sort of "typo" and it reads HONK FOR MERCEDES-BENZ! Well, the logo anyway.

Later on, i'm running 3 minutes late on Nicollet Mall (where there's nothing I can do about it because we're only allowed 10mph as a result of the first cave to retarded suburbanites that make up 80% of downtown's daytime and nightlife population), I stop at 10th and Nicollet to let people up and down. Now keep in mind I'm late, and I'm sitting at the red light with my doors open. As I start to pull away somebody starts banging the side of the bus and the people in the back start yelling "WAIT WAIT!" (oh when will they learn?) so I stop. It's some fat broad and her boyfriend. She's boarding, her boy isn't. When I open the door and she wobbles (nay, rolls) up to the door she starts to walk up, stops, yells "I want a hug" and waits for her boyfriend who's already walking away. So yeah fuck this shit, I try to close the front door. She notices, and tries to get back on, cutting her hug short. She's not quick enough tho and the door shuts on her face, making her look like a fish. That was so worth the whole thing. I let her on.

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12 more weeks

I pulled a choke pick this morning at 8am when the clerk called for my choices for our new twelve week pick. It appears that I'll be keeping my weekends off, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn how to be a morning person for a while.

Another quiet night on the 46 tonight. I had load-groaning-noises-guy again. The most interesting thing that happened

was this CP railroad crossing that I got to wait at for a while. A long while. 30 minutes after I showed up these guys showed up:

Another 10 minutes one of the St. Paulice helped me back up about 150 yards so i could go around the block, and just then the train started rolling. I still had 2 passengers that hadn't given up and tried the long walk down to W. 7th St. (probably half a mile), across the tracks, and back again as far as their apartments are, so I waited until the crossing was clear instead of trying to find my way around the side streets of St. Paul. Another 7 minutes and I'm on my way. 49 minutes late. After a scheduled 20 minute layover that consisted of me driving around a block without any laying of the over, the I waited for the still-rolling-at-ten-mph train for another 5 minutes. I read a lot tonight.

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Number Nine

Well it didn't take me long (about 4 weeks) to have another accident on the bus. This one was the fourth time that somebody drove into the back of my bus while i was stopped at a stop. I never received my 3-year safe driver pin when i was on the Electric Rollerskates even if I still didn't cause any accidents. That could be because of management who really doesn't like to do anything, though. When I left they had 6 outstanding driver award periods to dish out. Those are given quarterly. Anyway, I'm up to 7 people running into my stopped vehicle and 2 people running into my slowly rolling vehicle, which don't count against being a safe driver. If there was a lucky driver pin i probably wouldn't get it. I was talking to a 27 year veteran the other day who said he's had 4 people drive their cars into his bus at a stop in his career and i've matched that in 4 years. I must be highly magnetic.

So suddenly the Twins can win 6 of 7 games against the red hot Athletics and the division-leading White Sox. I still say the we have enough games against the White Sox and the Sox are bad overachieving enough to make September interesting.

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The lovely 21

The other day I picked up a fella who asked me if i knew of a scooter store near the U of M campus while I was driving the 6 line. I told him, yeah, Scooterville is up here and I get a few blocks away. We started talking a little bit about scooters, but i only had him on the bus for about 5 minutes and went on with my day. Well today I'm driving the 21 line and down on Lake and Snelling he's standing around asking people the same question, and he sees me and basically goes "PHEW this guy'll know" and I told him how to get to Motoprimo.

Later, I picked up a guy I totally forgot about. He's got a very strong southern accent, sounds Texan to me, and he's a real laid back, slow-talker kind of Texan. Anyway, he swears he's the road manager for U2, and possibly thinks he's Irish, which I noticed when he told me back home in Dublin you're not allowed to smoke in bars, and actually it's quite different from here because back home they're actually called "pubs." He also told me the women are fine and the men look like farmers.

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Mmm... coffee

Man, Transit Librarian is right about the 2 line. I have 10 hour shifts this week (which is made up for by having not only the weekend off, but Friday as well), two of which are on the 2. I ran late all day, and lemme tell ya, I don't usually have problems keeping my time up. Let's just say that I… don't drag my feet. I have to say, though, when you're hitting every green light, there's no traffic, there's nobody to pick up between time points, you're in the general vicinity of the speed limit, and you're becoming later and later, something is royally screwed up. Luckily the nice people at Betty's are at the end of the line to serve me coffee and allow the use of their clean facilities (two luxuries that definitely did not exist on the train).

Speaking of the train, apparently there was some sort of loss of power tonight, or at least that's what I was told by transferring passengers. Good news: the train operators actually got breaks. Bad news: the passengers had to wait for buses that were (cross your fingers) coming eventually in the light rain that consisted of blimp-sized raindrops.

Anyway, the coffee I got from Betty's was one of those well-placed perfect coffees that ultimately has nothing to do with how good the coffee is and everything to do with how the stars aligned with the flavor needs of my tongue. Or something. (What? did I just type that? 10 hour days and a similarly magical Sierra Nevada Pale Ale are a fantastic combination).

I realized today I don't much like Morning Sedition on Air America because the main Mark kinda sucks. I like the crazy lesbian that's on before them though.

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Freedom!

My one-year sentence operating the trains is over. I start driving the bus again on Monday at 7am. I couldn't be more relieved. It was super cool driving the trains, but there were just too many issues there. I most look forward to being able to eat lunch at work. That and the occasional restroom break more than makes up for all the negatives. The five minute commute should be nice too.

I just saw a Midas commerical advertising something for 39.99 with the disclaimer "Substantial extra cost may apply" Substantial?

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It wasn't me

I should have posted something earlier; the story is so three days ago now; even the Star Tribune has their annual story about how much these damn wiener kids are spending to go to the prom instead of anything of substance. Anyway, about our recent accident on the train that killed some moron that couldn't be arsed to wait seven seconds for a ninety-foot train to go through an intersection: I wasn't operating. It's really too bad for the guys involved, because it really has nothing to do with them, some asshole just sucked at a life, and proved it on Monday evening, but they still have to deal with it, which would be hard.

Also, this new stadium plan sounds 99% perfect. Now we just gotta keep these idiots from even thinking about a retractable roof. Whatever chilly night games they will be in April will be easily made up for in May with nice days. Maybe they'll just have to schedule day game in April and October. Actually get people to want to go to a game, after 25 years of trying their best to make a Twins game the most uncomfortable and obnoxious baseball experience around.

That's basically it. I gotta get started on getting this bathroom fixed!

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The next 12 weeks

S: 9:49a - 6:23p
S: 10:41a - 6:13p
M: 3:23p - 10:57p
T: 2:49p - 10:42p
W: 2:49p - 10:42p
T: off
F: off

Which brings me to my next point: Baseball? Kingfield Park? Thursday or Friday afternoons? Yes? No? The more the merrier.

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On camera, too

Tonight a drunk fella in his early twenties hopped off my train at V.A. station and peed right in the middle of the station, not even with the decency to at least go over the edge or anything. Right in the middle. Meanwhile his friend was holding the door open so i couldn’t go anywhere. It turns out the guy didn’t get his pants undone quickly enough and be basically pissed his pants in front of 30 people.

An hour later we got an all-call on the radio to the effect of “duck when you pull in, Minneapolis police report gun shots in the area of the car barn.”

Today was my first day at full-time hours since my accident. Ibuprofin was necessary.

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Number Three

At 4:19 pm yesterday, we had our third accident with the light rail trains. So on the 22th day of 2005, we’ve now doubled our entire 2004 total. The interesting thing about this one was I was the operator. The only injury is me, so we ended up pretty good. Plus i was only going about 7 mph. My injury is barely anything anyway. I just tensed up and strained my back. Doctor says rest for a day or two and take vicodin. So I’ll get to watch the Falcons trounce the Eagles, and the Steelers run over the Patriots today. Anyway, the guy just was basically an idiot and turned in front of a moving train. That happens all the time, however people are usually “wise” enough to do it a second before the train gets there. After the driver got out and checked the damage, and told me nobody was hurt, he just drove off. Five minutes later there was an APB for a luxury SUV with lic plate KASSAB. Word to the wise – if you have a vanity place, don’t do a hit & run. It’s really easy to remember the plate, even at a glance since it’s a WORD instead of random letters and numbers. I wonder if they caught the guy. Hopefully transit police will show up at his house at 3:30 am and put the fear of God into him. Anyway, I’m ok, just a little stiff, and i still get a bit stressed when I think about it, but such is life.

UPDATE:

For those keeping track, 3 accidents involving the train is still fewer than the accidents involving inanimate metal objects, of which there have been five, as far as I know (two vehicles have run into our poles, 3 have gotten stuck on the rail, including two in the last two days).

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Confession

(Boring Shop Talk Alert) I’m sorry I can’t be as interesting as TL has been lately as far as work is concerned. The truth is, the rail just isn’t that interesting. At least—not from the operator’s perspective with the door closed. We have our fun, but it’s not something that would be even vaguely interesting the second time around (ie – “Ken cuts a break in half and says he’ll buy us Klondike bars”). It’s true that interesting things happen on the train, however, but I usually don’t hear about what happened on my own train until I pull in or if i happen to talk to the Transit Police or the Rail Transit Supervisor the next day. Plus since I don’t actually get to talk to any of these nutjobs, I only get the Cliff’s Notes version, which is quite boring.

We did have our second accident with a train the other day. (Which pulls us even with the number of accidents our poles have had with automobiles, and just one more accident than our track and ballast). I’m told a delivery truck whipped around the corner and nailed an oncoming train going about 15 mph. Don’t know what happened to the truck, but I saw the train at the garage—the glass was shattered and all over the inside of the cab. A 15 mph collision. The truck didn’t even hit the glass. So much for the manufacturers “Cinder Block at 55 mph” theory. I don’t know why we believed them in the first place. This is the same company that delivered 23 of our 24 cars late (we just got the last car yesterday. We were supposed to have them in April 2004, but when they had just one train, that’s when they decided to postpone the grand opening and blame the transit workers strike). The same company that made trains for a city in Minnesota where it gets really really cold with no heat whatsoever. Not to mention the trains (which break down fairly frequently to begin with) break down at a fever pitch when the temperature gets below zero.

There is quite a lot going on behind the scenes too, but doesn’t really call for more than a passing mention. One would be the tightest running time on the planet where on a good day you’re 2-3 minutes late each trip, and if somebody blinks wrong the whole system gets tied up. I’ve been in the 20-60 minutes late range probably 10-15 days since these schedules were dropped on us Dec 4. We’re also frusterated at the break time, which technically follows our union contract (by one minute) but fails to take into account that it takes 3 minutes (if you run and give the worst customer relations you possibly can) to close down one cab, walk to the other end, and get the other end ready. By the Mall of America there’s a kneejerk reaction by management that makes every other train sit just across the street from the mall for 1-3 minutes. So with a five and a thirteen minute layover (at most) you’re lucky to get zero and 9 minutes to yourself. Which obviously stresses us out. Now with the company pushing some crap about how bad you drive when you eat or talk on the phone while you drive, and we don’t have enough time to eat anymore at work, they’re wondering why it is we have had so many operator errors as far as following signals. Which has made (at last count) 21 times (we’ve had 43 operators) an operator has been suspended for 3 days. They say the reason they’re liberal with suspensions (management’s position) is because we’re more important than bus drivers and we’re operating equipment 30 times as expensive and more dangerous. But we get paid the same to be such Supermen (and two Superwomen). A bus driver can drive a bus underneath the mall at 7.5 mph (it’s a 5 mph zone) and probably hear nothing about it. If a train gets a radar reading at 7.5, it’s a three day suspension, starting as soon as they can get a call driver down there. And to top things off there’s a grievence going on involving the 11 drivers that started after the other 30 of us that, if it goes through, will give most of them more seniority than most of us. To be fair only 7 of those 11 new guys actually think this is fair.

So I apolgize for the long boring post there, but that’s basically why I don’t post many interesting stories. 1) I don’t got any 2) i’m so burnt out when i get home I’m not in the mood to do anything except drink beer and listen to music on the couch.

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The next 18 weeks

Saturday 10:33a – 7:09p (9212)
Sunday 9:53a – 6:28p (9210)
Monday 10:13a – 11:18a, 2:28p – 9:58p (9213)
Tuesday 3:02p – 7:39p, 10:57p – 1:57x (9220)
Wednesday 3:32p – 7:04p, 10:36 – 2:17x (9224)
Thursday off
Friday off

Splits suck, I know, but they’re the only way to get a break of more than 6 minutes. And I get to finish my week with a stub on the airport shuttle, which consists of a 2 minute trip, 4 minutes to turn around, and a 2 minute break. For four hours. Ugh. My other option would be to start before 5am. Yuk.

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The Fall!

Yay! I love this weather. Makes me wanna drive the 2. Specifically the 005 run Saturdays. Do they still have that one? The one with the 30 minute layover? That was awesome. I went to the record store all the time. I bought my wife the Cocorosie album the last time i did it. Speaking of my wife, we’re married now! It’s been about 4 weeks I guess, we’ve been real busy. It’s been great though. No time to update the ol’ weblog. In any case, I finished my book and today I went to HPB for a quick browse-through and ended up buying a biography on Stockhausen. Should make for a good read. Too bad they didn’t have this, this, or this.

So I’m just gonna get myself geared up for BOS/STL World Series number three. Peace.

Albums of the Month:
Woelv (Geneviève Castrée) – Pamplemoussi
Midlake – Bamnan and Slivercork

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Picture tour of the hiawatha line

Thanks to clamperpod, check out some nifty photos taken in the rain. Sorry about the rain spots, the wiper leaves about 33% of the windshield unwiped. I’ll just have to do more sometime when it’s not raining!

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Exciting!

Whoa. 35 days without a post! Almost pulled a Textism there. Anyway, got some big news here.

For those of you who don’t know yet, me and Bethany are engaged! Yay! We set a date today. 25 Sept 2004, and we’ll have the ceremony at the Lyndale Peace Garden near Lake Harriet. So we’ve got a lot of planning to do, but it should be fun.

Noteworthy item number two: I just got the call that I’m going to be a train operator here. So i’ll drive the bus all summer (which is the fun time to drive it anyway) then in September, I’ll start training, and start operating sometime in December. Fun stuff! Look for me to be less crabby and have fewer stories about people, since i get to lock the door now.

Album of the Month for May: The Advantage – Self Titled. Buy it.

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It's about time!

Yay! My exile is over! Now how the hell do you operate this thing?

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Well

I'm temporarily unemployed for the reasons outlined in my previous post. Hopefully i can make good use of this malfortune and not spend all my time watching Simpsons and lying on the couch. Boo.

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