Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

I was driving a route out on Corridor G last week. It kinda does a figure eight through several of the shopping centers that line either side of the highway. There is one particular stretch of road that up until recently I hadn't had the pleasure of traversing. It had been closed for nearly a year while a bridge was replaced. I didn't realize until running a similar route the week before just how many people I'd be dropping off and picking up at the mouth of the road that had been closed. But I also didn't realize how many bums hung out there either, panhandling or loitering. This past week when I was making my rounds on the route I saw two bums chilling out on a grassy knoll alongside the road while I was sitting across the highway waiting for a red light to change to green. I watched them as they waved at every car coming and going. Big smiles on their faces, probably a little tipsy. When my light flicked to green I hit the gas and shot across the highway. As I approa...

I picked up a passenger the other day who seemed very nice, yet a little on the overly friendly side. As I made my way along the route picking up more and more passengers, I realized that overly friendly wasn't really her mojo. No, she was a know-it-all. At one point during the trip I had about 25 people on the bus and faintly heard music coming from close by. I glanced up into my passenger mirror to see if I could see anyone with an iPod or something similar that might be the source of the noise. Mind you, it's against the rules to have food/drink, radios, or smoke on our city buses. The know-it-all apparently saw me check the mirror because she then said: "It's this guy ma'am. He's got headphones on but his music is way too loud. Do you want me to ask him to turn it down?" As she said the words she wagged her finger in his direction on a fully extended arm like the little tattle-tale that she obviously was. I noticed in the mirror that the guy gave her a...

I had a bus load, nearly every seat was taken and as I made my way down the road I noticed a gentleman with a motorized wheelchair waiting at the next bus stop. As I approached the stop I noticed that it was a rather large motorized wheelchair. After I came to a stop, set the parking brake and deployed the lift, I noticed the distinct Rascal logo on the wheelchair. The man in the "drivers' seat" of the Rascal smiled at me nicely as he made his way up the ramp and handed me his fare. Then the trouble started. Being that his Rascal was so large, it was difficult to maneuver into the bus. He got himself into a bit of a predicament when trying to make the corner turn from the ramp into the aisle. As the other passengers began to rumble and grumble at the man and his big ol' Rascal in a jam, the man himself began to grumble at his situation. Time ticked on as he made a few more failed attempts to break free of the corner he was stuck in. Finally with a huff he stands up, c...

I was driving a lone passenger today, he was engrossed in his cell phone, sitting in a seat that was nearly dead center on my passenger mirror. The passenger mirror is mounted in such a way as to allow me to see nearly all of my passengers with a quick glace up and to my right. As I rolled along towards the final destination, I made occasional glances in my passenger mirror to check on my solitary rider. Occasionally he'd look up and smile back at me then bow his head once more to do whatever it was he was doing on his phone. The two of us had quite a long ride together. I'd gotten quite used to seeing his reflection as I scanned my mirrors. Then suddenly... I looked up to check on him once more, and poof! He was gone?!?! I craned my neck to see if he'd perhaps fallen into the floor. My mind instantly went into overdrive thinking of the possible scenarios; he's having a seizure; he's having a heart attack; he's had a stroke or aneurysm.... I chanced a glance ove...

Well things are getting better at work. I'm finding my groove, dealing with the idiots and non-idiots alike. Trying to be as fair as I can. As firm as I can. And still managing to have fun while doing it. Just yesterday I had a high and a low point that are both, a day later, laughable. Low point was a dude I picked up who paid to get through to a zone 1, but when he rang the bell to get off the bus, he'd entered a zone 2. He walked to the door but I didn't open it. "Dude you owe me another quarter." "Uh, I don't have one, lemme out." "No, you owe me another quarter." "C'mon let me out I don't have it." "Nope, surely you've got a dollar you can put in and let me take a quarter of." "Fine." Now, that was really frustrating yesterday. Just pay the dang quarter. But today I just laughed about it. Kinda pathetic that he wanted to argue over a quarter. High point was when I picked up this guy who was rid...

On Wednesday I ran a route I felt quite confident about. I had had a good trainer on that particular route and truly felt I had it grasped quite well. So I got in my bus, headed to the transit mall downtown to pick up passengers and begin my route. Things went well until I arrived at the place were I was supposed to make my first turn and... well... kept going past it. Having been distracted by a bus stop another 50 yards or so past the turn which was being occupied by more waiting riders than normal. Of course, they didn't want me because the sign on my bus definitely wasn't indicating that I was going in their direction. So when I pulled over to load them up, they all looked at me like I was crazy. Now, of course at this point I had still not realized that I had missed my turn. And contrary to what I've been told time and time again by other drivers... none of my passengers panicked and shouted "you're going the wrong way". No no. The seven people on my bus ...

Today I was privy to a conversation between two mid-to-late twenty something males. A conversation no one really wants or needs to hear. It was as if they were discussing the high schools and colleges they attended in years' past. At one point it seemed like a pretty normal conversation about roommates and the social lives they lead. Reminding me of my days in college... Only they weren't talking about college. No. No. They were talking about jail and prison. "I was sent to (insert random jail here) for 3 years right out of high school." "Oh man that is niiiiice, that place has great food and the cells aren't too shabby." "Yeah, when I got out of there I kicked around for a bit but then I ended up in (insert other random jail here) for a few months, my buddy was there too and they let us share a cell together. That made it much better." "Oh man, no way? They let you bunk with someone you knew? When I was at (insert another completely rando...

I've pretty much decided I am not gonna blog about the last couple of weeks of my bus driver training, primarily because it's all a blur at this point. I've also decided not to really do a big sob story blog about the nearly 5 days I spent in a hospital bed because of some random bacterial infection that wreaked havoc on my body. That's pretty much all there was to it, I got sick, was in pain, got severely dehydrated, and subsequently got better again. Of course, I've already shared wedding stuff with you, so that's outta the way. So really, its time for getting out of the past and living in the moment.... During the entire 4 weeks of on the road training with the other drivers I never once experienced what we call a "heavy load". Sure I had a few runs where we picked up a lot of passengers, but never where we had every seat full. And most definitely not anywhere close to having standing room only. No No. Why would I get to experience something like th...