Bus Report #388

I will never understand why MUNI can't handle rainy days.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: It rains every year, like clock work, so what's the problem?
The weather and traffic guy on the radio advised commuters to start out early today, so I did.
They finally put a Next Bus console in my stop. I glanced at it. It said the next buses were in 23 and 43 minutes.
Awesome.
I didn't believe it but walked up to the next regular and Limited stop, just in case. the bus shelter was crowded with people who HAD THEIR UMBRELLAS UP!
Um.... if you have your umbrella up, you should NOT be in the bus shelter. I gave the umbrella woman next to me a look. She caught it and closed her umbrella, so there was enough room for another person to crowd in.
My usual bus came, and I got on.
At Fillmore, there were a lot of people waiting, never a good sign.
Said 'hey' to Rudy, who was fiddling with his igadget.
Ten minutes later, the bus came, with a substitute driver.
Rudy motioned for me to get on first, very gracious of him, but of course the obnoxious and rude construction worker decided he needed to push me and get on first.
I managed to sit next to Whitney, sort of near the front.
Rudy sat a few rows ahead. The woman who always wears sunglasses even when its dark sat behind us.
The bus got more and more crowded as we inched our way down the street.
There was another bus behind us, but it didn't make much difference.
Whitney got out and a man sat next to me. He kept leaning on me, and breathing in my direction, which was too bad because he had awful breath.
A pair of homeless guys got on, wearing trash bags.
At Mission, the bus emptied out and filled up again, and there were still people waiting for the next bus. At my stop, the people by the door were nice enough to actually get out of the way instead of ignoring those of us who needed to get out.
Outside, it wasn't raining anymore, which instantly improved my mood.
I dropped off some mail at the post office (busy at 7:30 AM!) and went to Safeway for some milk. I stopped for coffee after I got the milk and the paper. A twitchy, suspicious-looking couple stood behind me in the line, but right up against me. I made sure they couldn't get a hold of my bag. When I went to the counter, the woman from the sketchy couple came up with me and once again was right up against me. I made sure she didn't see where I had my wallet. I got my coffee and hightailed it out of there.
I am a fast walker and today was no different. I walked past Shoe Pavilion (closed for good, very depressing to see the empty store) and down to 16th. My walk the rest of the way to work was quick and the air was fresh.
But still, none of it made up for such an annoying morning. It should never take me an hour to get to work.