The Chronicles of Rich
The adventures of the everyday man

My name is Rich and these are my Chronicles. The adventures of the everyday man are my attempt to chronicle issues and events that occur in the lives of ordinary people.

Chronicle: Bus Ride: Inbound Morning Trip: Like many people across the country I utilize a Park N Ride where I drive my car to a parking lot, park my car, and take the bus that arrives at the lot. Taking the bus is a good thing for me because it helps save money, and allows me to catch an extra 20 to 30 minutes of sleep on the way to work. That sleep is very much needed and it makes me feel better not to drive to work half a sleep, probably a lot safer for myself and other people on the road that early.

High gas prices across the nation has resulted in my park and ride becoming completely filled, in contrast a little over a year ago this lot would typically only be 50% to 75% filled for the day .

I don’t work till 8:00 am but have to be at the park in ride at the latest by 6:30 am usually 6:00 am whereas in the past I could park in the lot at 7:10 with no problems.

The morning trip is mostly a blur but here are some things that I have noticed.

1. People do not make eye contact in the morning
2. Sleeping sitting up for 30 minutes causes your neck to hurt for the day
3. Light is your enemy
4. People who fall asleep then try to lean on you should be forced to stand
5. You will notice that you don’t have exact change at the last possible moment
6. Missing your stop because you over slept sucks.
7. People snoring and drooling on themselves is funny to witness, and reinforces the notion don’t fall asleep and be the one laughed at.

Outbound Afternoon Trip: The outbound afternoon trip is different than the morning trip

Things I notice at the line home: People will elbow you in the gut as folk’s line up to get in front of the line closest to the actual bus stop sign. I have noticed where people will actually lower themselves to the lowest commondenominator of society all for a front seat on the bus.

I often find that a bus seat is not worth it for me to be rude and inconsiderate. There are a group of ladies on my bus, who will give you the dirtiest looks if you sit in there “assigned” seats. I do believe that the one lady whom I nicknamed Francine Front Seat and I would have to estimate her age at around 60 years old is going to pull out a set of num chuck’s from her oversized Louie Vuitton hand bag and do some serious Bruce Lee damage to the first person who has the audacity to sit in her preferred seat with the extra leg room. It is this fear that has made to decided to sit further back in the less coveted area of the bus where the competition is non existent.

I do find it extremely funny though when the bus pulls up 10 feet further down than the bus stop as this puts those at the front of the line or closest to the bus stop to the back of the line now. Folks will grumble to themselves, and will also argue and yell at the bus driver for his error in judgment. I guess I find this Fnny as it a subtle reminder to myself you can prepare for things in life but sometimes even your best plans can be disrupted and it how you deal with it that says more about you than anything.

Things I notice on the the ride home:

1. Cell Phone Users - People using cell phones on the bus tend to annoy me, well at least the folks who have to speak with an elevated voice about things that transpired in there everyday life that I don’t find particularly interesting. Maybe if the people would speak about things I was interested in it wouldn’t be quite as annoying,Hmm this has me thinking since they are making their private lives public should I be allowed to comment on conversations they are having? I may try this the next time somebody decides to get too loud. It would be funny for them to tell me to mind my own business when they decided to place me square in the middle of it by holding such loud conversations.

2. Seat Hogs – The seat next to you is not paid for by your bag, laptop case or purse. This is just another lack of courtesy that is highly annoying.

3. No matter how quickly you get home its not quick enough Well that is my Bus Ride in a nutshell. A lot of it has me laugh and Just serves to remind me of the following principal “DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF”