#4136 repeats

Good old 4136 - the bus of discriminating riders. It actually has been the best of the lot, including the ride home buses, which I have not yet begun to describe.

Bus was alive with idle chat and deep conversation today. At 6 AM, sun barely on the horizon, and it was just short of electric. The back of the bus was seriously discussing the airline industry - I believe at least one of the regulars works for America West.

The driver was very talkative today - wonder if he sets the tone? I'm the 4th stop from the beginning of the route, so there's enough time to get things going, but the full complement hasn't boarded yet. I was carrying a canvas for a new painting assignment and the driver was quite interested in it. He's the regular guy, former LA printing pirate, and we have discussed screen printing at length. He mentioned ceramics and I thought he was going to say he'd always wanted to try it. He then asked if I'd thought about all the money I could make by creating and selling ceramic figures and I realized that creating money is his main creative interest in the arts. Why would I have thought a cloak-and-dagger, knock-off screen printer from LA would do artwork for anything but money? Silly me. Told him I liked fiber better than ceramics and since he couldn't think of an immediate money-making scheme for fiber, he asked me how my weekend had been. I said we'd had an outstanding weekend, football resultswise and we had a brief discussion about asu and the cardinals and the bengals. It was a pleasant beginning to the day.

A man soon got on that the driver apparently knew and I was left to finish the ride in studied silence. The man, the driver and another man got into a very involved discussion about parades in Tempe, the resulting bus detours and traffic management - I didn't know Tempe was awash in parades and wouldn't have thought it could be such an in-depth conversational topic, much less an adrenaline pumper, but by the time I got off, the three were having quite an animated discussion - the driver was almost forgetting to drive or stop. Who knew Monday morning on the bus could be so full of energy?