Bus Ride Demolition Derby

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That Was My Stop

I've blogged about my bus ride between the parking lot at work and my office before. Most of the time, the shuttle driver is sane and the trip uneventful.

Sometimes, though, the poor guy just seems to be in a weird mood. Recently, Powerama and I got onto the bus and settled down for the ride to work. The driver slammed hard on the gas and the bus lunged toward the stop sign. Then, he stood on the breaks. We were all thrown forward and then snapped back into our seats. The driver hit the gas again, pinning us down and taking our breath away.

Every time there was a stop light or a stop sign, it was the same adventure. We went over a bridge that crossed some railroad tracks, and as we sailed over the top we could see the traffic light down at the end of the block turn red. The bus driver floored it. The engine literally whined with the effort of acceleration. Several seconds beyond the last possible second, the driver hit the breaks. How we managed to stop in time, I'll never know. Superman must have been involved.

Eventually, we arrived at work. We all disembarked, wobbling slightly at the knees. Once we were out of earshot, Powerama looked at me and said, "I think the driver is concerned that he'll retire before he gets a chance to actually kill someone."

That afternoon as I was leaving work, I saw the bus sitting there waiting. "What the heck," I figured. "I survived the morning trip, how much worse can this one be?" As I approached the bus, the driver hopped off and ran to the back of his bus. He saw me and smiled. He pointed at the recently torn-up panels near the end of the bus.

"Lookit 'dis!" he gleefully shouted. "After you got off the bus 'dis mornin', I ran over that road sign there!"

I looked back. The temporary "Road Work Ahead" sign had one leg that was sticking out at an odd angle. "It tore up my bus! Ain't that somethin'? Well, let's go."

I'm lucky to be alive.