Bus Report #308 - This one is special, it's from my mom!

My poor mom, M., had to deal with some morons on the T today.
This is her story.

The "blondes" were 2 separate people.
"Blonde 1"- It started raining and Coolidge Corner T stop was very crowded. B1 got on and then was mad that anyone else got on. When I got on behind her, she said "what is this. India?"
so I said "no, Japan".
She said under her breath, "smart mouth" and made a face at me. At each stop she sucked her teeth and got annoyed when someone got on or off. I'm thinking "hasn't this woman ever taken the T before?" A guy and I kept looking at each other and rolling our eyes at her. I looked at he bag as she was leaving at Kenmore and a stethoscope was hanging out. I feel so sorry
for any patients she might have.

"Blonde 2"-was the same woman who complained last week when someone's arm was near her face (he was holding onto the pole). She was moving back near me and said really loudly, "What is this Twister?" It really was no worse than it sometimes gets.
I felt like saying, "have a nice day" when I got out but she was so annoyed that I had to get by her.
They both had dyed blonde hair and took themselves way too seriously.
Oy. What a way to start the day. I just laughed at them.

Bus Report #307

This week has been good for MUNI so far, because it's spring break for the kids.
Nice, quiet bus rides, with plenty of open seats.
Smiley driver two mornings in a row, complete with bus flagger. Smiley just shakes her head and rolls her eyes. I laugh. The bus flagger remains oblivious.

This morning there was a huge moth on my 22 Fillmore, a big, hairy thing with big, brown wings. I opened a window to let it out but since no one else seemed interested in getting any air, my window was the only one open.
No big deal.
Huge brown moths are people too, and it's not like it was taking up a seat or anything.

Enter my seat mate, a girl with too many tote bags.
The moth came whizzing over (if bugs that big can whiz) and my seat mate freaked out!
She gasped, she shrieked, she cringed, she tried to burrow her way into my left arm.
I looked over at her.
"I hate those things," she said, breathlessly.
There was nothing i could do about it, so I just shrugged my shoulder and shifted over so I was plastered against the window.
The moth came back twice, and each time she freaked out again. Each time she told me she hated moths.
Yeah.
Sorry, girl. I am not a moth murderer, unless I find them in my house.

Bus Report #306

This morning I must have caught an early bus, because there were tons of open seats. I sat towards the front, across from a woman in bad shoes who was working on homework or a report of some kind.

On the 22, I sat behind the catfish face man and across from the faux-suede dirty lavender hat guy.
It was a quiet bus, too, with only one woman talking loudly on her cell phone.

At Shotwell, a man got on who looked pretty normal, at first: he wore a suit with a copper-colored waistcoat and matching tie, a tan trench coat and had a briefcase and newspaper in his left hand.
Then I noticed: his right hand was shrouded in a huge, filthy bandage/cast. It was stained with all sorts of weird spots and streaks, and looked as though it was loose, or coming off.
It looked like a mummy hand.
Very odd.

Bus Report #305

Quiet commute this morning, with just a few minor observations.

Big truck parked outside the Fillmore... Must be a big show tonight or tomorrow.

The Hotel Casa Loma is still for sale if anyone wants it.

The girl with the bad dye job has a tattoo on her lower back that says JIM in big block letters (I changed the name for anonymity's sake, but it was a similar name). I only saw it because her purse fell open and everything fell out, and she bent over to pick her stuff up. We should all chip in and get her a belt, or a longer T-shirt or something.

The smelly seat mate from yesterday turned out to be the wearer of the faux-suede dirty lavender hat who I see almost every day. I did not recognize him when I sat next to him. Oops.

I had the same morning routine today as one of the Cor-O-Van guys. It was funny to see him every step of my routine, from the bus, to the store, to the coffee shop, to the corner of the street.

Thiesen Glass was closed due to family emergency. Hope everyone is okay now.

Bus Report #304

At 6:50 AM, do you want to get picked up by a random dude waiting for the 22 Fillmore?
If you were me today, the answer would be, no, not really, but thanks.
It was still dark and the only people in my bus stop were the homeless guy who camps out there and a twitchy man in a baseball hat with a sheaf of papers tucked under his arm.
He kept stepping into the street, looking for the bus, then he would check his watch and step back up onto the sidewalk. After a couple minutes, he would do it again.
I had my headphones on so when he came over and looked like he had a question, I took off the headphones.
"Let me ask you something," he said. "Are you single? Cause you're pretty cute and I'm wondering if I have a chance."
Not the question I was expecting.
I invoked my fake boyfriend Josh, but thanked him for the compliment.

When we got on the bus, I had the misfortune to sit next to a man who smelled bad. It wasn't an overpowering bad smell, but anytime he shifted in his seat I caught a wave of it: unwashed clothes and maybe something else. I wished the windows were open.
At Mission my smelly seat mate got out, and I immediately opened the windows. Ahhh... Much better.

The city finally turned on the traffic lights they installed at Vermont and 16th.
They weren't cycling a walk cycle last week which was a little weird, especially for a walker like me... I had to dodge traffic that days earlier would have just deferred to me.
Looks like they fixed the problem, though.

The sign for the Metronome Ballroom was taken down yesterday. I hope it means they're getting a new sign and not that they are closed.

Bus Report #303

Mama of the year post...

Should go to: My friend M. (and her husband) who just expanded their family from one adorable little boy to four adorable little boys.

Sadly goes to: The heavily pregnant 14 year old (15, tops) on my 22 Fillmore yesterday, who was yelling into her cell phone, "Where you at? Are you at the fight yet? Who are you all fighting? I don't want to miss it. Is it gonna be dogs, or what?"
Yikes.
I wish her kid the best of luck.

Bus Report #302

Well, I guess if you have to see/smell someone spraying something all over the bus at 6:50 AM, it may as well be cologne, right? Right?
This guy got on the bus. He was breathing hard, as though he had just run a marathon, or maybe he was just really out of shape.
Anyway, he sat down, heavily, in a seat a couple rows ahead of me and took a sweater and a large bottle of men's cologne out of his bag. He spread the sweater (white v-neck, blue stripes) out over his lap and then sprayed it liberally with the cologne. Not once. Not twice. Not even three times. He sprayed it four times, then flipped the sweater over and gave it another couple of sprays, then sprayed himself for good measure.
Then he put the sweater on.
Glad I wasn't sitting with him!

Too bad the dude I was sitting next to was taking up so much room on our seat. I really had to fight for space today, and I wasn't happy about it.

I saw the alien donut man on Sunday afternoon. He had staked out his usual spot in the donut shop, but then he got up and went over to the refrigerator case, to get milk, maybe? I always forget how tall he is. He is a very tall, very alien, very sweet-seeming man.

Nothing else to report. Other Rachel, I have not forgotten about your prize. I just haven't figured out what it is yet.

Bus Report #301

I am back home after a lovely, refreshing visit to LA to see the Professor and the rest of our family.
It was great, involved lots of eating and sightseeing and taking the LA Metro.

The 300th post contest entries were both great so I flipped a coin to see who won, The Other Rachel or Kathleen.
Well, the coin must have been double sided, because they both won.
Rachel, I have your email but Kathleen if you want to claim your prize please send me yours (leave in comments or email to me, my address is in the sidebar)

Great job, ladies!

The latest MUNI news is that they are considering lines to cut, among them are:
7 Haight - which I already thought had been folded into the 71 line.
3 Jackson - does anyone ride this? I never have.
4 Sutter - at least according to one article I read. I like this line, hope they save it.
66 Quintara - another line I thought they'd already gotten rid of.
56 - never taken this one.
2 Clement - seems they would shorten this line and encourage people to take the 38 or the 1 instead. I could live with that, even though I take this line from downtown a lot.

Anyone know of any other routes that are on the endangered list?