Making It Up As I Go Along #265

MONDAY...
— The last day of my five day weekend. It went by too fast too. Shannon comes over for a bit to help set up the Playstation 2 that he gave me... his getting an X-Box does good all the way around. We go for supper after that and then it’s some baseball on TV as I try to get back into day shift mind.

TUESDAY...
— It feels like the office is getting smaller and that they’re cramming more people into it. There’s a point where I’m working with six people all standing or sitting within ten feet of me... and probably five of them all talking (about work issues, but it’s still not a great layout for productivity).
— I sleep part of the night away. From around 8:15 to 9:00 I have no real memory. It’s the cost of not sleeping well last night.

WEDNESDAY...
— Work is okay. In AFIS today and that’s much better than the closet that is now QC.
— The hockey playoffs are here again. Pittsburgh vs. Ottawa tonight. I’m torn... not a fan of the Senators but I want a Canadian team with the cup... and there are some friends I have that I’d like to see made happy with this team doing well. But there are so many stupid Senator fans who are too petty and silly... and I love seeing them whine. Good to see Vancouver back in the playoffs... much better than watching Ottawa.

THURSDAY...
— Get up only a couple of hours after the Vancouver game ends (thanks to four overtime periods). I guess it’s good I didn’t stay up to watch. In fact, it’s my first good night sleep this week.
— Work is half half. Lunch with Megan and Sonya is good... stats are not bad... rest of it I can do without.

FRIDAY...
— Better day at work. I’m in QC checking and doing some set ups... and we get to go to lunch because it’s the office curling day and, for those of us not curling, we get an extension for lunch. So Janice, Mark Gray, Laura, Megan, Sheila and me go to Grace O’Malley’s for some good food.
— After work it’s the hockey pool playoff draft. I get the first pick overall and fill out my team with all Buffalo Sabres and San Jose Sharks. The draft is a bit of fun too with hockey talk being a fine thing over office gossip.

SATURDAY...
— Some cleaning and work around the house. I move the old computer up from the living room to the spare bedroom... watch a ball game and some hockey... and then go get mom and dad at the airport.
— Dad helps me put together the computer again and move the table up to the bedroom. The living room looks more civilized without it taking up so much room.
— We get Chinese food and then watch some hockey and CSI to end the night.

SUNDAY...
— Busy day shopping and going out to supper with the parents. We have some hockey on in between times... a pretty relaxing day with them here in town.


Always Get Your Transfer
Public transit. Every town that has even a few thousand people in it has public transit of some sort. Buses are everywhere and bigger cities have light rail or subway systems as well.

One day last week, a bunch of us talked about public transit. One mentioned how they “don’t do buses”... claiming to have only been on a city bus once in her life. And I claimed that, if Ottawa had a subway system and I could live near a stop, I’d actually be willing to give up my car... but I agreed with the anti-bus point of view. When it comes to buses, I’ll keep my car.

So that left me wondering... what is it that makes subways appealing and buses a pain? In Ottawa, there are Transitways. These are separate systems of roadways where only buses run. There are even subway style stops along the way... it’s as close to the subway as you can get without getting on a subway. So what makes this unappealing?

I guess there’s the fact that the Transitway is only part of the bus system. They do leave this road network and enter the city roads as well. And here’s where buses become a pain. Slowed by traffic, taking winding routes to get from point “A” to point “B”. And often packed full of people.

Before I got my car, I took the bus from my aunt and uncle’s house to my friend’s place at the other end of town. It’s a trip that, by car, takes around fifteen to twenty minutes. That day, on the bus, I was in transit for an hour and a half.

Subways simply zip through the city. Under the city... beneath the buildings, streets, traffic, and buses... the subway shoots you along as a family theme park ride. Sometimes it’s running along in darkness and other times it bursts out into the light, showing parts of the city at a different angle, unseen any other way.

The Vancouver Sky Train is almost a tourist attraction. You’re glued to the window, watching the rest of the city interact while you fly by care free... minutes from your destination.

Of course, today I saw another reason why the subway is a much better system than the bus. Weather.

Driving the parents to the airport is usually an easy thing. When they spoke of this trip to Ottawa, I assumed that I’d drop them off and be about a half hour late for work. But last night, the weather sounded like it would be nasty and I decided to take the day off work today. So I got up without dressing in shirt and tie or grabbing breakfast before leaving. I’d just take them to the airport and go home again.

It took an hour to get to the airport (it’s normally closer to a half hour). And when we got there, ready to turn off of the busy thoroughfare and take the ramp to the airport road, trouble. Up the ramp, on a peculiar angle, sat a bus. Yes the wonderful bus, there to make the commute easier for us all, was stuck in the snow.

We got lucky. We turned back, took a couple of side roads that connect us to another route to the airport, and were back on schedule in less than ten minutes. And as we passed the bus, driving by the ramp we had tried to access, we look over to see the empty vehicle, jackknifed in the snow. And I imagined how much of a pain the trip to the airport was for those people who had to be rescued.

And then it was clear to me why the subway is so much better than the bus. It never snows underground.