More Craziness on Public Transit

As much as I can, I try to avoid grocery shopping on the weekends. The stores are always crowded and it takes twice as long to get everything because you have to dodge people. So it might seem rather crazy that I decided to venture out to the Superstore today. What makes it even crazier, is the fact that it was their "save the tax" day to boot. I haven't been to Superstore in a very long time and I needed to stock up on a few things so I decided to brave the place today.

The produce section was a zoo, but it always seems to be that way. The rest of the store wasn't too bad. There was a lady giving our cheese samples who really loved my necklace so I stopped and chatted with her for a bit. I got a cheese sample and 2 coupons so it was worth it. LOL. I found almost everything I was looking for so I was happy.

The checkouts baffled me a bit. They have a lot of cashes, plus some self serve ones. Now for reasons I can't explain, the cashes at the far end of the store all had line ups of 3-4 people at them. The ones closer to the exit, only had 1-2 people at them, and no they weren't express lanes. I guess some people just don't pay attention. So I checked out in record time.

Now, the most entertaining part of my trip occurred on the bus on my way home. It was one of our smaller buses that came. There was already someone at the front with an electric and a man in a wheelchair got on at  the stop I was getting on at. There were 5 of us waiting for the bus and we all let the man in the wheelchair go first. Well, he got on but didn't pull the chair all the way in so he was actually on a diagonal and was blocking the aisle. As a result, the 5 of us all had to do a little dance and get created to get past him and the other guy in the wheelchair in order to get back to the seats on the bus. At this point, the man in the electric chair, who was already on the bus, points out to man #2 that he's not pulled in right and it blocking the aisle. I will point out at this point that if you have a manual wheelchair on the bus (like man #2 did), you're supposed to out the seats up (which he did), pull completely into the area with your back to the driver (he kind of did) and secure yourself with the seat belt provided (which he didn't do). He opted to hold on to the age of the flipped up seat for dear life instead. So, as we leave the stop, man #1 is still telling man #2 to straighten his chair out, especially since man #1 is getting off in 2 stops and can't get his wheel chair off is man #2 doesn't straighten out his chair and stop blocking the exit. Man #2 claims that he can't straighten out. Man #1 is growing more and more agitated. Man #2 is still clinging to the seat for dear life. The bus driver is clearly ignoring all of it. Technically, the bus driver should have made man #2 properly get into position since blocking the aisle is a safety hazard.

Anyhow, we get to man #1's stop and by some miracle, man #2 manages to pull his chair further in, almost creating enough room for man #1 to get out. Almost. Man#1 first drives into the padded post next to him and then hits the wall by the driver before finally being able to manoeuvre enough to get to the ramp to get off the bus. But not before having some final not nice words to share with man #2. Man #2 did seem to have something wrong with him (mentally) but it might also have been alcohol related as he came flying out of the LCBO just before catching the bus (I'd previously seen him in the Superstore too). But it really annoyed me that the bus driver just ignored the whole thing and it was happening right behind him. The man sitting in the seat facing man# 2 ignored the whole thing as well.

I guess helping your fellow man really has gone out the window. Maybe everyone's just afraid involved. No good deed goes unpunished so they say. I can remember when the bus drivers used to help people with strollers, wheelchairs, crutches etc... or make sure that the elderly had found seats before taking off but not so much anymore. Just like the people who ride the bus and don't seem to understand the concept of giving up your seat at the front to someone who's older than you or who has a disability and can't stand on the bus or giving up your seat to a woman who's clearly pregnant. If you're not capable of behaving in a proper, respectful and courteous manner when in public, then perhaps those people shouldn't go out in public. Or maybe it's a matter of parents not teaching good manners and respect to their children anymore.

Good Night.

Sarah

Super Woman and Snow

I don't even know where to start with today. It's been all over the map and despite a rocky ending, I'm kind of laughing about it. But that might just be because I'm really sleepy right now.

So, I took the day off. I had 2 holiday days left at work and they're "use them or lose them" ones so I decided to use one. I arranged a shopping date with one of my very best friends(NB) and her adorable child (Baby F).  I got to sleep in this morning, which was awesome. Sadly, sleep did not come so easily to NB and Baby F, but he went down for a nap early so things were looking up. Mother Nature was cooperating at the time but soon decided that throwing ice pellets at us would be fun. I took the bus out to Kanata to meet up with them, which was quick and painless. Walking through the mall parking lot while being pelted with little ice chunks was the hard part. Once inside, we got our shop on. Baby F got to pick out a new toy and seemed very happy with all the new things to look out. He even helped me pick out a bottle of hair dye (he had some help from his mom). We then ventured onto Chapters which involved a caffeine stop at Starbucks for NB and I. I got a new book and we headed out to find lunch.

By now the ice had stopped but the snow was picking up and the roads were getting messy. We opted for a drive through and eating lunch at home. Apparently shopping tired out Baby F and he passed out about 5 minutes from home. As a result, NB and I had a peaceful lunch. Once the baby was up, it was time for a changing and a feeding. Both were a little rocky as someone was cranky after their nap. NB got through it all in fine form and with minimal swearing. I doubt she'll ever know just how impressed by her I am. After lunch Baby F seemed quite happy and crawled all over the room playing with all the toys, leaving time for the grown ups to chat and catch up - which was my favourite part of the day.

After a couple of hours, I went out to shovel snow out of the way so the garage door would close properly and so that the car would get out and then it was time to go and pick up Mr. NB. The four of us then headed out for dinner. By now, the roads were a mess, traffic was a mess. the buses were all fucked up, broken down, delayed or jack knifed so we figured that waiting until after rush our would see a smoother trek home.

Dinner was nice. Baby F inhaled it. It was incredible to see. LOL. And our server just kept screwing up. The irony was that he was training someone new!! Towards the end though, Baby F started to get cranky and it was time to jet. I got dropped off at the park and ride and they headed home. When I got into the bus shelter, there was a good number of people there so I was taking that as a good sign - I hadn't missed the bus. Turns out I didn't have to worry about missing the bus simply because there hadn't been one yet......and one wouldn't appear for another hour and 26 minutes!!! We kept seeing "out of service buses" coming into the west end and letting people off but nothing was heading back east. I saw 5 local routes too. It was very frustrating. I could have stayed the night out there but I figured I could last a little while longer and it paid off. The ride home was relatively quick and only slightly nerve racking. It did end was my less than graceful exit off the bus and through a snowbank rather than over it, but nothing was bruised other than my ego so I"m fine. I managed to successfully make it over the next 2 snowbanks I had to traverse on my trek home.

Once home, I got out of my wet clothes and checked my email and then went and had a nice, long soak in a hot bath with some Lavender Epsom Salts. I finished reading my book while I was in there and had a chance to reflect on  the day.

With the weather aside, it was a great day. I didn't have to work and I got to spend several hours just relaxing and hanging out with a very dear and awesome friend who I don't see nearly enough. She's such a wonderful and amazing person, even more so now that she's a mom.Just getting to hang out and chat made the day a great one. Despite being very tired thanks to yet another sleepless night, she just kept going, making sure Baby F was taken care of. I couldn't do it. Watching Baby F play and crawl around was great. He's adorable and highly entertaining but I don't know how she does it. She's Wonder Woman. I honestly don't think I'd have the patience and capability to be so selfless that's required when you're a mom. And she certainly has it in spades. I'm in complete awe of her (and her husband). They're amazing people and kick-ass parents :) And I can't wait to see them all again. But next time, the weather had better be much, much better!

Good Night!

Sarah

This is the only place I like seeing snow!

More Bus Stories

After last night's epic bus ride home, I was looking forward to tonight's ride being much better. On the whole, it was. I didn't have to wait too long in the freezing cold, snow and wind (less than 10 minutes) and when my bus did arrive, I was able to get a seat. Yay!.

Two stops later, a man got on the bus. He had an expired transfer. And not a "just" expired one. This one was over 10-15 minutes expired. He had words with the bus driver and it ended with the man saying "I've already paid for a ride, I'm not paying again" and he went and sat down. We made it 2 more stops along the way before the bus stopped. And we waited. And waited. At first I thought it was a time point and he was waiting until the correct time to leave but after 5 minutes, I was guessing this wasn't a time check. That's when a transit security person got on the bus. The bus cop had a few words with the driver and then came and found expired transfer man and escorted him off the bus. They stood outside chatting. While we sat and waited some more. Finally the transit security dude waved us off and we left without expired transfer man.

The rest of the trip was uninteresting until we got to my stop. My stop is about 10 feet from where an off ramp exits onto the main road. Not only does the exit have a yield sign, but there's a city bylaw that says you have to yield to all transit vehicles. My bus put his signal on and started to move over into the exit lane to get to the stop when some jackass came barrelling up the ramp and without even looking, tried to fly into our lane. The bus driver laid on the horn and the jackass can to a very sudden stop. Which was rather impressive given how snow covered the roads are. Seriously. How do you not see an articulated (so extra long) red and white bus? And what makes you think you'd win if you attempted to cut it off? Some people are just plain stupid. Maybe we should make people pass IQ tests at the same time as they take their driver's tests.

I'd actually love it if the cops would sit in the parking lot and wait for all the idiots that don't yield to the bus and then ticket them all. It's not like they're going to get stuck behind the bus. Once the bus has pulled up to the stop the cars can go around it in the other lane (there are 4 lanes at this point in the road, 1 turning into the mall and 3 straight through). Some people I tell ya.

On an unrelated topic, my next French course starts tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it. A 4 hour class where I spend most of it lost and/or confused for 13 weeks. And my partner in crime is already slated to miss classes 2 and 3 so that blows. Sigh. Why can't it be a fun class that I actually want to take???. Wish me luck.

Good Night!

Sarah

If buses came with these, no one would dare cut them off.

Bomb Threats and Backed Up Buses

Ottawa seems to have had a rash of "suspicious" packages lately.

First, on Feb 14th, there was a suspicious package found in the mail room of Public Safety Canada, which is a block away from my work. The next day, a suspicious package was found in the Centre Block area of Parliament Hill. Both were found to be non-hazardous.

That brings us today. It took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home from work. It should only take 30 minutes tops. Why? Not because of the snow (which didn't help) but because there was a bomb threat in an arena near the O-Train and Transit Way:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2013/02/19/ottawa-bomb-squad-called-suspicious-package.html

 

While I do appreciate the fact that the emergency response crews moved quickly and did what they had to do to ensure public safety, this is the 2nd time in the last year that traffic got all snarled up due to that particular section of the transit way being closed. This should raise a major red flag to OC Transpo and city officials that maybe, just maybe, more access roads and better emergency plans should be put in place for our transit system. There are very limited access points to the transit way, which means that when it has to be closed, the buses have to detour quite far before they can get back onto it. Since the detours are onto roads which are already experiencing high traffic volumes due to commuters, the problem compounds itself and the entire bus system gets fucked up as a result. Except for route 86. It seemed perfectly fine.

I got to my bus stop a little after 5pm. After waiting for nearly 45 minutes, I gave up and grabbed the next bus that was going my way. This bus then took 55 minutes to get me home. Mostly because it takes a very scenic route. Thankfully, I had my book with me so I read on my way home. I had to stop at the grocery store so by the time everything was said and done, I got home 2 hours and 15 minutes after I left work. That really sucked.

And adding to the commute home's misery, there's a hockey game in Ottawa tonight so there was even more people on the roads than normal. By the time I got home, the traffic on the main road near me was still bumper to bumper. Even on a game night, it's usually all cleared up by 6pm.

I really hope they catch whoever left the package at the arena and charge them with everything they can, just for the sheer misery that they caused everyone this evening. It's not funny and it's not cool. Emergency services have much better things to be doing with their time, like saving lives and stopping real crimes.

Sigh. One day they'll invent a cure for stupid.

Good Night!

Sarah

Ottawa's Transit Way

Karma and Happy Endings

So I get on the bus this morning. It's on the full side, as per usual and I end up standing next to the rear door. There is a lady sitting on the outside of the last 2-seater before the door. The seat next to her is empty. It pisses me off to no extent when people do this. It's a crowded bus, move your ass over lady! I don't mind standing in the mornings as I know I'll be sitting a lot when I get to work. Anyhow, said lady shoots me a kind of dirty look over her shoulder. I'm like WTF? I may have accidentally brushed her arm when I first got on the bus and we were all re-arranging ourselves for positions, but I don't think I did.

At the next stop, a man gets on and asks her for the window seat. She gets up and lets him in and then sits back down and shoots me another dirty look. Seriously? I'm just standing there, out of the way. As we're chugging along going down the Parkway, I'm looking out the door of the bus, watching the scenery go by when I get a funny feeling and I look over just in time to see her giving me a 3rd dirty look. Now I'm really getting annoyed. I haven't bumped her. I don't have my iPod on so it can't be that my music is too loud (besides she had earphones in) and I wasn't coughing my head off. I ignore her.

A few stops later the man next to her gets off. She doesn't move over, just sits back down in the aisle seat even though the bus is much more crowded now than when I got on. At the next stop after than, a young girl get her to move and sits down. Again the woman gave me a dirty look. Hey lady, it's not my fault people keep getting you to stand up so they can get in and sit down.

We finally get downtown and this is where Karma pays a visit. We're at the stop before mine. We've been there for about a minute. Everyone who was queued up to get off the bus has done so. The driver has closed the door and the exit light has just gone off when bitchy lady looks up, gasps and then bolts from her seat and runs to the door....just as the bus is pulling away from the stop. HA! Serves you right. However, she then proceeds to put her backpack on while standing at the door, and hits both women on either side of her in the process. What a douche bag.

On a happier note, Steph and I went to see Breaking Dawn, part 2 tonight. It's the final film in the Twilight series. It was actually a really good movie. And despite the fact that the ending isn't quite the same as it is in the book, I really, really like it. It's one of the best in the series for sure. I still like I liked the 3rd one better but this one came really close to being #1 for me. And other than 2 girls who kept running up and down the aisles until some guy told them off and the loud mouth dude behind us, the audience was really good too. We also only paid $3 each to see the movie :)

I should wrap this up and head to bed. The wind has picked up here so my apartment is nice and cool and I'm looking forward to burrowing into my soft sheets. The simple pleasures in life.

Good Night!

Sarah

Twilight - get it? LOL!

Bus Wars

I take the bus at least twice a day. Usually it's a pretty mundane and uneventful ride. But tonight's was a little on the interesting side.

I caught the bus a little after 5pm, so right in the height of rush hour. My bus is usually on the full side to begin with but today it was running late so it was even more crowded than usual.

A woman was sitting on the outside of 2 seats. The inside seat was empty. The problem was that she had a rather large frame in a box with her, so she had it between her and the seat in front of her, which effectively blocked the seat beside her. 2 stops after mine, a woman decided that she wanted to sit in this empty, yet blocked seat. Since I had my iPod on, I didn't get the entire jest of the beginning of the conversation but I got the escalation which followed. Lady sitting  with package (Woman A) told standing lady (woman B) that she didn't think there was room because the package was in the way. Woman B told Woman A to move the package. Woman A said that she didn't want to block the aisle and hit people with it. I give a point to Woman A for that. Woman B then tell Woman A that she shouldn't have brought such a large package on the bus then, especially during rush hour. I'm going to award Woman B a point for that. It's kind of true. Plan your trips accordingly people! Woman B then tells Woman A that she paid for a seat on the bus so she's going to take it. Woman A said that she paid for a seat too. This is where Woman A loses a point because she's actually taking up 2 seats. So.... Woman B tries to shimmy past Woman A to get into the seat, which is pretty much impossible. Woman A just moves her legs a bit to the side. WTF? Are you people 3 years old or something?? Fuck.

Now's where it gets really interesting. While Woman B is trying to get passed Woman A (who isn't moving out of the way), her bag/purse swings a bit and hits Woman A on the head, which Woman A seems to take a bit of offence to. Gee, I wonder why? At this point, the two women are now seated side by side and are arguing loudly. To the point where the bus driver was looking at them (he was on the phone to control on a un-related matter - like the fact that we were very late and very crowded). Woman B must of really wanted that seat because I so wouldn't have wanted to sit next to a woman that I'd just had angry words with, had managed to piss off and had smacked in the head with my purse. The purse thing did look accidental from my view point (which was almost directly across the aisle). I get hit several times a week by the bags, purses and backpacks of people going by so I'm used to it and know that it happens.

The two women seemed to calm down. I lost track of how it ended as the bus was now so full of people that the aisle was blocked and I couldn't see them anymore. I think that Woman A got off the bus with her package or somehow moved to another seat. However, I did hear Woman B bitching to someone else about the ordeal (couldn't see her but I could hear her, even with my iPod on). So that made for a rather interesting bus ride home. For a minute there I thought there might be an actual brawl. I'm sure that would have resulted in the bus being detained while the cops were called, so I'm glad it didn't happen.

Oh! And during this whole mess, I got some awesome news via email: I scored tickets to the Hallowe'en Party that I wanted to go to!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of my favourite bands, My Darkest Days, is playing there. I'm so friggin' excited. Two very awesome people worked together to get me the tickets and I'm so very greateful to them for it. I'm very excited now. For a multitude of reasons which I'll explain over the coming weeks :) The news made my day.

Good Night!

Sarah

It's not a city bus, but it's a bus. And it's a funny photo too :)

"Boy Toy"

What a day! I was at work by 7:20am to set things up and get our pancake breakfast underway. After a few hiccups, we were ready to rock and rock we did. We raised $301 and fed nearly 100 people. That's so awesome. I can't believe it went off as well as it did.

The rest of my day is a bit of a blur, half due to being busy and half due to being sleepy. Our techs were in and we got a lot of long anticipated equipment installed, which seemed to make the people happy.

One the way home tonight, someone cut one on my very crowded bus and I thought I was going to die. I understand that everyone needs to fart but come on! If you're on a crowded bus, be respectful of those around you and HOLD IT IN!!!!!!!!!

After dinner, I had to make a Walmart run to pick up a few things. Afterwards, I decided to treat myself to a sundae from the McDonald's that's inside Walmart. After I got my sundae and I was picking up some napkins, I heard the cashier ask the woman who'd been in line behind me "You want a boy toy?". Say what? My first thought was "You can order those at McDonalds" closely followed by " I didn't see that on the extra value menu". Damn. I'm going to have to do that the next time I'm in McDonald's. Walk up to the counter and say "I'd like a boy toy please". LOL. I am fully aware of the fact that the cashier was asking the lady if she wanted a Happy Meal toy for a male child, but the way that the cashier asked it just struck me as incredibly funny. Boy toy. Hee hee hee. So what if my mind is in the gutter. I'm sleepy.

Speaking of sleepy, I was going to try to watch Grimm tonight but my eyes are having a hard time staying open so I'm opting to blog and go to bed instead. I get to sleep in a tiny bit tomorrow as I said I'd be at work for OT at 9am. I'm only planning on working until 1pm, so I can still get in a little fun tomorrow. Not sure what I'll get up to as I'm flying solo, again, but I'm sure I can find something to keep me amused and occupied.

Good Night!

Sarah

Zoom, Zoom, FOG!

Please excuse me right now if there are a lot of typos in this blog. I'm A: Very tired and B. Have been drinking :)

So there was a bunch of work peeps going out for dinner and drinks after work at one of our favourite bars. I said I'd go. That was before I had an insane week. So by 4pm, I didn't want to go anywhere other than home to bed. Didn't happen. I ended up working late to help get some stuff done for Monday morning. While meeting with one of my managers, a couple co-workers kept texting me "Where are you?" "Are you still coming?" "Why are you still at work" and so forth. I ended up missing Mr. Robertson, who I used to work with (really swell guy) so that sucked. But in the end, co-worker Mandy's text messages wore me down and I decided to head to the bar. That was at 6:30. Thankfully some peeps were still there. I got to have a couple of drinks and a nice dinner and some fun conversations. 

I got to the bus stop and just missed my bus. No big deal. It wasn't raining anymore. I got to stand around and look at my favourite fountain (which I did not jump in despite being unchaperoned at the time) and I waited for the next bus. In hind site, I should have run to catch the first one. The driver was insane. He had 3 speeds: Fast, Faster and FULL STOP! Jesus Christ. I can't recall the last time that I made it home that quickly from down town. Or the last time that the bus was going so fast that I nearly flew off the seat every time we hit a bump. I also think I had whip lash from the sudden stops he made. I swear we were doing over 100km/h down the straight stretches on the transit way. Until we hit the Parkway. Suddenly, we were going at an almost normal speed....which is when I looked up from my phone and realized that I couldn't see anything. Yes, it was dark out but you can still see the street lights and lights on in house windows. I could barely make out the tail lights of the bus in front of me. We were in one hell of a fog bank. Downtown had been crystal clear but as soon as we got near the river: BOOM! Fog. I now became rather concerned that we were going crazy fast in such limited visibility conditions. Maybe my driver figured that the bus in front of us would hit anything that popped up and we'd be fine. I dunno. I made it safely to my stop and then got to wander about in the fog for half a block. Watching the fog move past the street lights is very cool.

Upon my safe arrival home, I sat down at my computer for a bit but soon found myself rather chilly (as I am again now). So I made a very lovely hot chocolate with my Kurig...and then amped it up a notch by adding some Caramel Bailey's to it. That shit rocks. And it worked to warm me up. But alas, it is long gone and after playing 12 games of "Song Pop" my eyes appear to be closing on their own. We're in for some pretty shitty weather this weekend so I'm thinking hibernation is a good idea. Sadly, I don't think that will work out. A trip to the market for some supplies might. Or Ikea....a dangerous idea indeed. Guess I'll just have to wait and see :)

Good Night!

Sarah

This is actually a photo I took of fog moving in over Calgary