Bus Report #270

I walked out to the bus stop this morning, half asleep. It felt earlier than usual even though my watch assured me I was right on time.
Nikolas walked up and smiled. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you in a month," he said.
I said, "You know, either I've been late or I've been early, but I just can't tell."
"I think early," he said.
The Smiley bus driver stopped on a dime so that Nikolas and I could be the first people on the bus.
She said good morning.
I told her, "long time no see, good to see you."
And we were off.
We flew down Geary. Oddly, there weren't any people waiting at most of the stops.

I got mean at my least favorite stop, Scott Street.
If I ran MUNI, I would discontinue this stop first thing. I've had a weird hatred for this stop the entire time I've ridden the 38. There are never more than 1 or 2 people waiting there and the stop is very close to the Divisadero stop.
So we were about to bypass Scott Street (which had me cheering inside!) when one of the regulars (who could have just as easily gotten our bus at Divisadero) came tearing down the street towards the stop.
Smiley driver slowed down. The regular was running as fast as her short legs could carry her, until she dropped her water bottle. She turned around and went back for it. I wanted to tell Smiley driver to go, just go, let this late person wait for the next bus.
But Smiley driver is too nice. She waited.
The regular finally caught the bus, gasping for air, panting, barely able to get her MUNI fast pass out of her bag.
She collapsed into the seat next to mine.
I ignored her.

On the 22 Fillmore, someone was wearing bad cologne so I opened a few windows.
People on the bus seemed to be in a reading mood.
The guy sitting next to me was reading: A hardcover book from the Eureka branch of the library, written by someone named Kim but I never got the name of it.
Across from me, one woman was reading a bodice ripper novel, in Russian.
Next to her, someone was reading a Harry Potter book, also in Russian.