incredibly invisible blogger

Yes, she is still alive and taking the bus in Tempe. We unexpectedly went "live" with our new site and it has been unbelievably busy - I thought the worst was over, but the decision to launch was a wee bit premature - not fatal, just traumatic. Sounds like the diagnosis room at hospital. Anyway, the site is down right now and I decided to enjoy the moment and check in with the blog.

Been pretty steadily taking the 7:57AM 81N - an occasional stray away, but probably 3 out of 5 days for sure. This morning, a bit slow out of the house, the bus passed me while crossing Guadalupe. I effected a semi-jog and waved, hoping to be seen in the mirror. A semi-regular rider stood outside the bus, told the driver of my approach and it ended up no large deal.

As we sat at the intersection of Apache and McClintock, a young man risked life and limb to cut through traffic, cross McClintock and get on the bus. He wore his pants in the fashion that uses a belt to hold the pants under the stomach and below the buttocks - looks hideously uncomfortable and gawd-knows-how he could run in them. Like a gazelle, he leapt and bounded around and between cars, as he come across 7 lanes of traffic. Made my semi-jog look pathetic. Anyway, he got on and then asked the driver where the bus was going! He faced near-death to board a bus whose destination was unknown to him! Hello????? The driver gave him stop and riding advice and the young man took a seat near the back of the bus. He whipped out his cell phone, made a call and proceeded to use f---ing this and f---ing that as every other word in the conversation. Suddenly, the lady voice came on the bus and said, "Please be courteous to other passengers and refrain from using [foul][vulgar][profane] language and from placing your feet on the seats." The other semi-regular guy and I started laughing and the driver said he has a bad ear, but thought he heard something - we assured him his ear was in tune and thanked him for the interlude. It waa an interesting ride.