Nighttime Adventures, Al'la Metro
It is Sunday, & I'm feeling pretty ok, dispite the delays getting home last night.
I was out w/ Tony & alyxmj downtown. For various reasons, I wanted to come home last night instead of going home w/ them after the show. They weren't really thrilled w/ the idea of driving me to Auburn & then going back to Everett, but they were willing to. I was really unthrilled w/ the idea of them playing cabbie for me - & wasn't willing to get down w/ the moochyness there - so I took door number two; I bummed a dollar off them for the fare & had them drop me at a stop where I could catch my bus to get myself home.
It was all going fine & dandy. The driver was announcing the stops reliably & clearly enough that I felt comfortable keeling over sidewise & immiating dead while the bus was busy getting us to the end of the line.
And then...
We were stopped for a few min when I finally cracked an eye & lifted my head enough to see around. And the bus was stopped. We were just on a street, stopped cars all around us. It was maybe 12am or so at this point.
I eventually managed to scrape together enough comprehension to learn that we were stopped at a train crossing. Waiting, if you'll believe it, for the train to *cross*. The reason that we had been waiting for so long already was because the train wasn't moving at all.
The kicker was that we were apparently a few blocks from the last stop where I was needing to get out to catch my second bus. Said bus was waiting for us on the other side of the tracks so a bunch of us could make the connection. Unfortunatly, we had no clue how long we'd be sitting around for, so they eventually had to go on w/out us.
Durring all this I got a stunning demonstration of how natural selection can apply itself. One dude on the bus was so worried about catching the next bus that he eventually got out to walk. He walked up to the crossing barriers and went around them. He walked right up to the train. He looked up towards the front of it, & then back to the rear. Then, (he who was standing right at the junction of two cars) starts ducking down to look under the train. with at least 3 full grocery bags in hand, this guy finally finds a spot apparently to his liking right between the wheels and procedes to crouch down, & crawl under.
I couldn't at the time even comprehend how many different flavors of stupid that was - All I could do was keep saying to myself "All to catch a bus - he went through that just to catch a bus".
He went on his way on the other side of the train, & eventually our driver caught up w/ a rail worker walking the length of the train. the problem was something wrong with the air brakes or somesuch. Anyway, they eventually fixed it. We were sitting around for maybe half an hour or so, all told. We did get on our way, tho, & then reached the last stop. The the next connecting bus rolled up while people were still getting off my bus, so we transfered over & the bus was off.
Oh, the topper on the incomprehension of the dodo-man? When he left our bus, he already knew that the first bus waiting for us had to give up & go. So he didn't even look all that surprised to see most of the same people when he climbed onto the next bus a few stops from the station.
Go Figure.
But hey. I got home, & got sleep, & even woke up at a decent hour. The best thing is that I woke up in a rather good mood & it's stuck with me, even tho it's starting to get rather dim in here as it gets later.