Bus Boy

So I get on the bus this morning and put the usual $1 in kitty, asking for a transfer and saying hi as I do it. But then the driver (a new one, mind you) says, “Oh, it’s $2 now, by the way.”

Needless to say, I was shocked. I knew inflation of the currency had disastrous results upon the prices of goods and services, but this was unacceptable. After finagling with the driver for 10 seconds about the zones of pay in the Gold Country Stage system, I got him to waver. Then a GCS supervisor who had been sitting nearby the whole time interjected that I was right, and my fare was still only a dollar. My confidence in the sanity of the GCS system was restored, but not necessarily in the intelligence of particular drivers.

I wonder how many newbies he ripped off before and after I got off. Knowledge is power.

I thought I was through with the imperious bus driver, but when I boarded the bus again in the afternoon, he was driving. This time he held up the bus for 12 minutes (enough to make everyone who had to transfer at Grass Valley late) just so a woman named “Pat” could come on. Now, mind you, I do believe that buses should wait for transfers, but anything over 5 minutes is pushing the bar, especially when there are several people who need to transfer at the next station.

In her frustration, one of the transfer riders said, “Why do all of us have to be late so that just one person can catch this ride?” She has a point.

There was an annoying kid in the back of the GCS 5 from Auburn today who was playing his radio really loud. The bus driver told him to turn it off or put headphones on. The kid decided to fabricate a third option and turned the volume slightly down. The bus driver repeated his previous request. The kid turned it down a little lower. The bus driver finally got frustrated and said with profound conviction, “Turn that thing off now or I’ll make sure you get off at the next stop! From there it’s ‘Feet don’t fail me now!'”

P.S. As you probably noticed, the last two posts were catch-ups from stuff that I meant to post a while ago. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Last Wednesday, the the GCS 5 bus was extremely crowded to the point that two of us had to stand at one point. But the situation also typifies some of the best of bus experience.

The bus started out being 10 minutes late getting to Auburn Station, so there were a bunch of us standing there at the shelter, waiting. There were the usual questions by newbies, like “Are buses ever late?” and “Are we going to be stranded here?” Ya, those types of inquiries make me laugh, but I didn’t really get a chance to chuckle, because in response to the first of those questions, one older man to my left intervened.

I thought I might have seen him before, but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, he said, “Ya, I don’t know, but man, if you have any questions about buses, ask that kid over there, he rides all the way down to Sacramento from Grass Valley everyday.” This statement was subsequently followed by everyone within a ten-foot radius turning their heads and staring at me. I responded with a shrug and, “More or less.”

The man introduced himself again as Kito, and we talked for a while about jobs and then got to the topic of church. As soon as the word “church” was mentioned, this old lady to my right mumbled something about God being a creation of man to my friend Bob who was sitting next to me. This sparked three simultaneous conversations as one guy wanted to get a ride with Kito to a prayer meeting that night, Kito’s wife started explaining something about gas prices to an older man on my left, my friend Bob talked with the old atheist lady about history, and others kept up the anxiety over the late bus.

Thus was the beginning of a continuous series of conversations that lasted till I got off the bus at Lime Kiln, if not long after. We covered almost every area of thought in our discussions, from Obama vs. McCain to Gnostic gospels to the proper way of raising kids to chivalry and Western Civilization to the theme song that Al-Qaeda would have if they had one. And that was just half an hour’s worth. Ya, we go fast.

Since I’ve been on the public transit system pretty much constantly for almost 11 months now, I’ve noticed a few things. Now, I’m thinking of writing an all-encompassing, eloquent, and clever exposé of all the deep thoughts and observations I’ve collected about bus riding, but I’ll put that off until later. [[crowd breathes sigh of relief]]

One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that a lot more people are riding the bus. Seats are becoming scarcer, and new riders looking for guidance are becoming more plentiful.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that the high gas prices are fast becoming the prevailing topic of conversation whenever you talk to anyone, or hear others talking.

Using my mad logical skills, I’ve deduced that more people are becoming fed up with high gas prices and are seeking monetary refuge in the public transit system (i.e. people don’t like to pay a lot, so they’re riding the bus).

That’s what I go to school for.