Bus Bike Blocks

The weather has been good for life without a car. The choice to walk, bike or use public transit brings a sense of abundance. It also brings the sad reality of time constraints and leg power.

The walk to the Salsa fest was punctuated with visions of ‘not from the neighbourhood’ folks trying to find parking. I observed the distressed attempts to squeeze cars into too small spots, the craning of the necks to read the fine print on the “residential parking only” signs and the more risky wondering if stashing the car in an ally was an option.

After walking to and around the Salsa fest I planned to go downtown to return some, ahem, XL underwear purchased the day before. Men’s underwear, otherwise I would not be allowed to return it. This and other injustices are plentiful in the man’s world. How odd/sad is a Sunday afternoon that includes these matters?

I thought I’d take the train downtown. I was feeling the previous two hour stroll in the blistering sun a bit and did not want to be a limping old woman for the evening events ( whatever they may be). Train was down due to ‘maintenance’. Poor city planning considering there were an extra 50,000 people in the neighbourhood visiting the Salsa fest.

The city arranged for busses to transport people over the bridge and to the downtown train. And the return trip as well. This made for a very long commute with no shortage of assorted road hogs and motorist trying to assert their self importance.

A guy who chose to tangle with the bus, he lost. So now they were inspecting the ‘damage’ he and the bus driver. One woman in a pick-up insisting to turn around on a side street that had visitors parked on both sides and two lanes of snarled traffic when there was usually one lone car puttering along. A foot cop arrived on the scene to help her turn around. Silly she, traffic was no better going the other way.

My vantage point was from a bus. It was a big bus, there were only two of us on it plus the driver who kept apologising and offering us some of his Jamaican patty. There we sat on the bus not moving. It was nice out, summer had only really started this week, I wanted to be with the sun in my eyes I hated being on this bus, it was stealing my life away. I thought about getting off and walking but only momentarily. I had paid 2.50 for this ride and I was not on a time table, anyway it might start raining and while walking in the rain home can be an event I was forced to remember I had already walked to my little bodies fill. I practiced being in the now and failed, mostly due to my feelings of superiority towards those around me, the less fortunate in cars.

ahem