RIDING THE BUS I used to ride the bus all the time when I was young and didn’t have a driver’s license. Now I am old and, after having cataract surgery, I can’t see well enough to drive. This is not a permanent condition - yet. I suspect it will happen eventually sometime in the not too distant future as not only my eyes, but also my reaction time and driving skills deteriorate. I guess I better get used to the fact that I won’t always be able to just hop into my car and go wherever I want to. I look at this bus riding experience as preparation for what lies ahead. A NEW ADVENTURE Like anything new it takes some effort to learn the ropes, starting with where the heck do I get onto a bus. It’s not that easy. The bus doesn’t stop at any old corner. You can’t just wave desperately at an oncoming bus and hope that it will stop and pick you up. I found that I could go on Google maps and drive virtually around my neighborhood looking for the tell tale signs of bus stops: a bench (sometimes with a cover to protect perspective riders from the rain) and/or a pole with a bus stop sign. When I was driving, bus stops were not something I was aware of; now I see the importance of their existence. Next I looked online for a bus schedule. Like the ability to drive around my neighborhood virtually, this is something I didn’t have access to in my younger days before the birth of computers. You would think it would be an improvement but it’s not exactly fool-proof. Using the maps I found online it looked like the nearest usable bus route to get downtown was a good 20 minute walk away. Later, when I got access to a paper version of the bus schedule, I discovered that there was a route I could use with a stop just a couple of blocks away. Yay! There is a God. I have a stop where I can get on the bus and a route to get me where I want to go. Does this mean I can just go and hop on the next bus. Nooooooooooo! I have to have a plan. I need to carefully calculate how long it will take me to get to the bus stop so that I am there at the same time the bus comes by. If I miss the bus it could take as long as an hour to get the next one. They don’t show the time for every stop so I have to guesstimate when I need to be at the stop and give myself plenty of time to account for my speed, the speed of the bus, and any other unforeseen issues. This is a bit like one of those math problems we did in elementary school. If a rider can walk from home “A” at two miles per hour and the bus is going 25 miles per hour on route “C”, how long will it take for both the bus and the rider to meet at bus stop “B”? RAIN AND THE WEATHER I remember waiting for a bus on a blistering winter day in Minnesota when the temperature was -30. I was in college and attempting to get to school on the other side of town. I never made it. No, I didn’t die, frozen into a statue at the bus stop. I gave up waiting and walked back home when the burning pain in the tiny bit of exposed skin on my face became unbearable. Luckily the temperature in California rarely reaches freezing, let alone thirty below. It does rain, however. A few days ago I planned to go to a birthday party using the bus to get there. I carefully checked the routes and schedules and calculated the time I needed to leave in order to make it to the bus stop as well as when and where to get a bus home. Then I checked the weather and discovered that rain was in the forecast. I tried to imagine standing at the bus stop near my house where there is no protective shelter, bundled up in my puffy water-proof winter coat with the hood pulled tightly around my face. It was not a pretty picture. Then I remembered my experience in Minnesota. Nothing could be as bad as that. I got myself ready and decided that unless it was pouring buckets I would give it a try. As it turned out it was barely drizzling and I made it to the party relatively dry. I was so proud of myself for not letting the rain dampen my spirits or my ability to get out in the world. THE PEOPLE ON THE BUS You might think the bus is a great place to meet new people. It’s not, but it is a great place to observe people. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of old people on the bus and a lot of young people, but not very many people in the middle. The middles are all happily driving their own cars. In this town there are a lot of people on bikes too, but that is not an option for me. As I sat in the section reserved for seniors and the disabled I looked around and saw the usual college students glued to their phones. There isn’t a lot of chit chatting now that the cell phone is a constant companion. Not that I’m the chit chatting type, with or without my phone. When I was in college riding the bus I remember looking out of the window a lot. I tend to wander off into my own world. Riding the bus can be a good time for contemplation and meditation. You can’t do that while driving. I did carry on a brief conversation the other day with a man sitting on the same bench waiting for the bus. He was not old or young. He had a back pack with a rolled up sleeping mat attached to the front. We exchanged a brief greeting when I sat down and then settled into waiting. He was rearranging the things in his back pack. I commented on how organized he was and then disappeared into my own mental rearrangement of the things in my brain. When I glanced back at him he had a knife in his hand. For a millisecond a tingle of fear ran through me, but he was busy reattaching his sleeping mat and cutting the cords that held it in place. A few minutes later the bus came and he graciously motioned me to board before him. WHAT I LEARNED FROM RIDING THE BUS It’s OK for me to feel afraid. This experience was a lesson in listening to my fears but not jumping to conclusions. Fear keeps me alert and safe but it’s not a reason to avoid potentially fearful situations. Like the river rafting trip I wrote about recently, my bus riding adventure has been an opportunity to do things differently. When the time comes for me to stop driving altogether, I now have some experiences that will make navigating without a car less traumatic. Of course there are other ways to get around besides the bus. My friends have been amazing about helping me get to doctor appointments but I don’t want to burden them with ordinary things when I have other ways to travel. Uber is $15 - $50 one way and the bus is only a dollar for senior citizens like me. Plus I learn more about life when I take the bus.
1 Comment
5/26/2024 07:30:22 pm
Susan told me you were riding the metro these days. Me, too! I gave up driving three months ago. I am surprised how little I miss it. This post was just excellent, Leslie.
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Leslie Masona woman in search of her post-retirement future Guess what! By subscribing, you get notices about the latest Little Old Lady with Cats posts sent to your mailbox!
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