Bus boy

Thursday, May 26, 2022

It's nice to have a car, if you accidentally slice a finger and need to hurry to the emergency room. Or when you're doing a week's worth of grocery shopping. Or if you decide on a lark to move from Wisconsin to Washington. Definitely, sometimes it's nice to have a car.

A car is not a necessity, though, not in a big city. Studies have shown that cars are a leading cause of traffic jams in America, and also death, pollution, climate change, etc. 

For me it's a phobia. Cars are dangerous, worrisome machines. If you have a moment's inattention while driving, you're dead. Maybe your passengers are dead. Or some complete stranger is dead. Or (best case scenario!) nobody's hurt and your insurance pays, but your next few days are wasted with estimates, renting a car, and getting new insurance cuz you're canceled.

If you have a moment's inattention on the bus, you know what happens? You have to walk two blocks farther to get where you're going.

Riding a bus is easier and safer, cheaper and better than driving — and slower, yeah, but that's a plus, not a minus. Life doesn't need to be lived at 60 MPH, especially in Seattle, where there's pretty good transit. It's like science fiction, or the secret passages in a game of Clue — if I step onto the right bus here in Burien, it'll teleport me to Beacon Hill, or Bellevue. On the way I can nap, or read, or daydream.

It's awesome and excellent, but I'm not trying to talk you into riding the bus. I'm trying to talk you into letting me ride the bus.

Family and friends keep offering me a ride, but it's not necessary. Riding the bus is not a suffering, and not something Doug needs to be rescued from, honest.

Wherever we're meeting, I'll get there by transit if it's feasible, and it's usually feasible. I'll also get myself home on transit.


Breakfast update: Whispers told me Burien is a long drive, so on some Saturdays I'll be at Tommy's Café, in Renton. Snores told me folks like sleeping in on Saturdays, so breakfast will now be a little later in the morning. I'm flexible like a rubber band, man so check the breakfast page for the latest updates.

 

Lunch update: Did you know that a frozen cheeseburger from Dollar Store, microwaved for 80 seconds per the directions, tastes every bit as good as the cheapest burger at McDonald's or Burger King? Not good, certainly, but as good. Add peanut butter and mayo, and it's better than a Big Mac.