#4153

Bingo! Remembered to look at the number and, gloriosky Bert, what a bus day this turned out to be ... Newspaper guy wasn't there so Dave and I were first on the bus. Regular driver's day off, but the usual lady sub was at the helm. At Rural and Guadalupe two guys got on who actually made me nervous. Not sure what it was, but something seemed odd. They went to the back and when bicycle guy got on, he didn't go up in the back with them. Guess I wasn't the only one who thought there was something amiss. One of the semi-regular guys got on and sat next to me, also avoiding the back. Then, engineering guy arrived!!! He sat across from me, next to Dave. Dave and I were enjoying a bloody discussion of razor wire and its application; however, once engineering guy entered, he had to talk to bicycle guy and that precluded other conversation. He spoke of an impending mid-term exam and mentioned continuum mechanics and vector calculus - music to my ears!

There was a small spell of silence when the only other woman on the bus, sitting in the front, got on her cell phone and had a conversation with her bank in tones loud enough to be heard by everyone. She said she wanted to get the balance of her chacking account and then gave the account number. She gave her name and then some other info that was undoubtedly vetting words/numbers. She must have gotten bad news as she then said she had a line of credit and needed to access it. Didn't hear any amount of money mentioned, so assume she was saying to cover any incoming checks with the line of credit. She said thank you, and hung up. It was way too personal a conversation to have on the bus. It's not like there was lots of chatter and she figured no one would hear. It really was the opposite, especially at the time she placed the call. Just can't imagine conversing about such a personal matter in such a public place. Maybe I'm too cautious? I think not.

We got off the bus, Dave, engineering guy, ASU guy and me and nothing had happened with the two dark strangers who kept the back to themselves. Must have been my imagination. It just gets better, though. Dave, engineering guy and I walked east on Gammange Parkway and had a three-way conversation about the perils of pedestrianism on campus. Cart driver Dave was giving rules and engineering guy waxed on about tax dollars. Dave asked engineering guy why he hadn't been at the Jack-in-the-Box lately and I nearly fell over. Engineering guy had a lengthy explanation which I really didn't hear as I was sucking oxygen to think that Dave and engineering guy saw each other outside the bus arena. We turned on Forest Mall and engineering guy went straight and I immediately asked Dave how he knew engineering guy. Dave said he has two hours between classes on Tuesday evenings and goes to JIB for the dollar burger. He said EG is often there. I told him it was great for the blog and, in honor of this newly discovered relationship, I photographed Moss Man in front of the radio circuit board (very EG, I think). As you can tell from the length of this blog post, this was a great bus day!