BUS STORY # 242 (Shorts 19)

Stockholm Marathon 2008, originally uploaded by Hannes R.

Seth* tells me how Lilly* looked out the window yesterday morning and asked aloud, “Why is it only skinny people are out there running?”

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It’s 13 degrees out this morning. So my seat mate and I are amused when we spot a sagger at the farebox. He’s showing navy blue flannel. “Long johns,” we say to each other, and laugh.

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I watch six people board at San Mateo. The first rider swipes his bus pass through the reader. Nothing. He tries again. Nothing. The driver takes the card from him, examines it, then runs it through the slot himself. It works. This happens three more times.

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Young guy boards, flashes his wallet, moves on. Driver calls him back. Rider keeps walking to the back of the bus. Driver calls him back again, tells him he needs to see that pass. Rider says he already showed it to him. Driver says sorry, bro, he needs to see that pass. Rider doesn’t move. Driver and bus don’t move. Rider gets up, stomps up to the driver, flashes his wallet, and starts back. Driver says he needs to see it. Rider stops, pauses, returns to front, opens wallet, holds it out. Driver looks at it, says OK. Rider returns to back of bus. Driver and bus move forward.

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Four weeks ago, I posted a story about how a driver handled an impossibly tight turn in a road construction area. (You can read it here.) Later that week, one of my co-riders pointed out a fence at the corner of Avenida Cesar Chavez and Buena Vista where the 50 is having to make a very tight turn to accommodate a road construction detour. He told me a friend of his was on the bus that didn’t quite finesse the turn. See photo below.

Don't Fence Me Out, originally uploaded by busboy4.

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*Real name changed. 

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 The photo at the top of this story is titled "Stockholm Marathon 2008" and is posted with the kind permission of Hannes R. You can see this and all Hannah R’s photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malter/2539520250