Tonight’s Bus Story: Stopping to Help Others

On the bus ride home tonight, we were slowed more than expected by a Sig-Alert (10-East, right 2 lanes at Holt), but I was Chill, with no home obligations and S1:E1 of “Mindhunter” on my  Netflix because Sam Jackson recommended it to me on Twitter this morning and now this evening the DirecTV app on my iPhone wouldn’t play either the NFL TNF or the Democratic Presidential Debate. Right when “MindHunter” was getting good, I noticed the coach operator (“Driver of the Year,” he had informed us yesterday) had left the HOV lane and migrated all the way to the right lane, and then he exited the interstate (aka “got off the freeway!”*).

We took frontage roads for a half a mile towards “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” locations and then pulled over behind a disabled 499.

We were not a full bus; as soon as we pulled over, all the single seat riders began gathering our belongings from the seats next to us, making room for the stranded passengers we were about to take on. I kept praying for one of the small ladies to sit next to me, but they all passed by. Finally, a young man in an orange construction vest sat in the seat next to me.

“What happened?” I asked.

He took his right AirBud out of his ear. “Pardon me?” he asked.

“How long have you been waiting?”

“About 20 minutes.”

He reinserted his AirBud.

We each worked hard the rest of the way to keep our thighs and wings from touching, and every recently stranded passenger sat.

“Mindhunter” is rated TV-MA. Not wanting to share sex or violence scenes with my new bus-seat-mate, I put my phone and headphones in my Wegner Swiss Army backpack and watched the south side of 10-East in Covina go by.  Three observations:

1.     CalTrans is getting close to finishing the I-10 improvements in the SGV.
2.    California live oaks can grow sideways on hillsides. Eucalyptus do not fare as well. Acacias do passably well.
3.    Forest Lawn is advertising via freeway billboard for an event Oct 27 called Dia de los Muertes, and I was wondering:

a.     Irony?
b.     Dark humor?
c.     Cluelessness?

1. 1. 1. Mine?
      2. Theirs?

2 hours, door-to-door. WFR tomorrow.

82 degrees indoors when I got home. You’d be surprised at the financial savings to be had with a 3 degree increase in your home A/C setting. I have a spreadsheet.

 

*Got off the F#$%&ng Freeway!