Today I worked on campus again, mostly hiding in my office and wearing my mask whenever I had to step out. Then as I was leaving the building, I ran into a couple of bus buddies.
"Are you heading out to catch the 28 bus?" I asked.
"No, I'm driving, and I'm giving her a ride to the North Transfer Point. Do you want one too?"
Did I? That was an easy question. The 28 bus is so crowded that time of day that you can't get a seat until it's well past the Capitol Building. This is because there used to be a 28X during rush hour, and there used to be other routes (the 10, the 27) that the students who live close to campus could also take, but during the pandemic they really cut down the number of routes, and all the bus drivers who were laid off either retired or got other jobs, so they aren't coming back. Sitting in the back seat of a car sounded way better than standing squished in the aisle of the bus, desperately grabbing the straps hanging from the ceiling so that I wouldn't land on someone's lap every time the bus turned a corner. I did have some seatbelt fastening issues, but that's nothing compared to dealing with the bus.
We got on the main road and saw the 28 bus just ahead of us, so we were sort of racing against it. It kept just making lights that we missed, so we thought it might actually get to the North Transfer Point before we did, but of course it had to keep stopping and disgorging enormous amounts of undergrads, so we soon passed it. We turned a different way than it did, then we were driving along and saw... the 28 in front of us?? How had it passed us? Just when I was thinking mass transit really is more efficient, we realized it was actually the 2 bus that had left 15 minutes earlier than the 28 bus. So we easily beat the bus to the North Transfer Point. We won the race!!
Famous Hat
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