28 days of mini-ranting!
My rant: They’re cutting back on bus service here in Montreal. Bummer.
Febyooary. ARRRRRRRGGGHH!!!
Don’t even get me going on Sacramento’s pathetic excuse for public transit. OK, the trains are all right aside from dire need of better cleaning (not at all unusual to board a train car that smells like a wet dog). At least they stay somewhere near the published schedule, barring mechanical problems.
The buses are quite another matter. Aside from cleanliness problems, noise, etc., one line I depend on was apparently scheduled by a drugged-out sociopath. The connection to the train borders on the impossible on a good day, and the street this bus spends a large chunk of its run on is routinely clogged up with traffic, making said connection fantasy.
Here’s my weekday routine to illustrate the results: out the apartment door between 6:50 and 6:55. Arrive at bus stop within five minutes of walking. Some days, the bus is a few minutes early. Most days, it manages to show up somewhere in the vicinity of its scheduled 7:01 (except for the day it didn’t show up at ALL!). There is a 7:31 run on this line, but of the three times I’ve used it to get to work on my current schedule, it’s missed the train two of those times, resulting in a domino effect that leaves me 15 minutes late for work.
On a good day, the bus arrives at the light rail station in time for me to get on the train that leaves at 7:14. Otherwise, I have to wait for the 7:29. Approximately 50-minute train ride that tends to feature a lot of noise and rowdiness by other passengers who have apparently never heard of indoor voices or of not blasting their “music” selections throughout the car. If I got the 7:14, I can catch the 8:09 bus that takes me to right in front of the building I work in, arrival about 8:15. If I got the 7:29, wait around at the light rail station for the 8:39 bus to finish my trip, arrival about 8:45.
Please note that I start work at 9:00. Good thing there’s a breakroom I can hang out in when I’m routinely arriving 45 minutes early.
I get off work at 3:00. The bus does not show up to get me back to the light rail before 3:25, usually closer to 3:30. If I’m lucky, I get the train that leaves at 3:36, which puts me back at the other end of the line in time for the bus that theoretically leaves at 4:25. Between bus and walk time, this would get me through my front door by 4:50. If I’m not so lucky, I wind up on the 3:51 train, arriving at the other end to wait for the 4:55 bus, which gets me home somewhere in the 5:20-5:30 range.
In either case, the bus that gets me home (same line as the morning trip) is ALWAYS at least five minutes behind the alleged schedule and in the afternoon is usually VERY full of VERY noisy rowdy types.
If I could afford a second car (DH needs ours to get to his classes), I’d very seriously consider it. On Fridays, I normally get our car. I have 30 minutes or less drive time in either direction, even with each direction having one area that’s pretty consistently clogged up. My car is also cleaner, quieter, more comfortable, and more dependable about getting me where I need to go when I need to be there.
The toddler jumped off a chair in the Chinese food restaurant where we were eating lunch. She bit her tongue so hard it was still bleeding twenty minutes later. So it’s off to the ER for my husband and her while I sit here at home cleaning the house. I think the poor two year old is going to need stitches. In her tongue. OUCH!
Today is making me sad. The weather is gloomy, the Boy is being a jerk, the Fellow is being a bigger jerk, the Stupid Dog has hurt her leg jumping from a 5-foot height and she’s following me everywhere with Big Sad Eyes, whining, because I’m supposed to be the one who makes it all better. The little girls are trying to help me unpack, and I’m being impatient with their hindrances, even though I’m trying not to be - they’re too little to understand. Andevery job I try to do is cocomplicated by three other things that need to be done first. Sigh.
OUCH indeed, poor lil thing. Eating isn’t going to be a lot of fun for her for a while.
I hates, hates, HATES it when that happens. It feels like you have spent your whole day working and nothing has gotten done.
I lost one of my favorite earrings last night. Well, I didn’t lose it, I left it out on the dresser and one of the cats made off with it. It was a handmade, dangly, feather and bead creation that has probably been mangled beyond recognition. Dang it, I KNOW better than that.
Of course, I blamed Bill because he distracted me.
Game of Thrones fans need to shut the fuck up about George R. R. Martin not writing fast enough.
I blame Robert Jordan.
If David Weber dies before finishing the Safehold saga, I will curse him forever.
As long as we are talking books here, I had a happy surprise last week. I was having a book emergency and downloaded a book by a writer that I’d never heard of. Mostly, I got it because it was available from the library.
Infection, read by the author, Scott Sigler. As usual, he started with a disclaimer, but his was slightly different: “This book contains mature language, mature situations and lots and LOTS of violence.” I knew right then that I’d found something good and I was right.
The entire thing was nothing but junk food for the mind and had no absolutely no social redeeming values at all. It was great and totally lived up to his promise.
Happily for me, I waited so long to find the first part of the trilogy that I was able to order the other 2 from Amazon and I won’t have to wait to read the whole thing 
All the complaining about other city’s buses makes me so happy for what we have.
Yeah, it took an hour and a half to get to work in the snow the other day. But the bus is quiet, and people are polite. Maybe it’s the suburb I live in and the fact that it is an express route, but I haven’t heard bad stories from other people.
Wednesday (I think) it took close to an hour to get home. When we stop, the doors open, and everyone politely waits their turn to get off. Except this Indian guy, and I think it was his first time. Comes charging up the aisle from the back of the bus. Gets next to me (or rather, next to the woman next to me, since I was in the window seat) and I loudly say “Can’t you wait your turn like everyone else?”. Man stops dead. :eek: Looks around, mutters apologies and starts slowly backing toward his seat. 
Something like that only happens once every 3-4 months, it’s usually a new person, and they don’t do it again.
flatlined: My husband’s a fan of Sigler’s books, and I think Sigler has a podcast where he basically serializes some of his audiobooks. (IIRC the actual audiobook is expanded/better quality/something like that.) Check iTunes if you’re interested!
Sweet!!! Thank you, off I go to look.
And I hope nobody was offended by my description of the story. It was entertaining and full of action. I read/listen like most people watch TV or movies. Sometimes I want to be educated and sometimes I just want someone to tell me an entertaining story.
Oh no, my husband (Shoujin) loves cheesy entertainment; I think he’d agree with your description.
Seriously. They’ve been complaining about this for years. 
Sacramento has a public transit system? Only partially kidding. I live in Citrus Heights, not a bus to be seen anywhere near us, none come down our street, none come down any nearby streets. The closest bus stop is a good two mile walk from here, and it’s for Roseville Transit.
{Makes a note for another series to go find.}
I love it when that happens - I get to read the whole series at once, instead of waiting for the next one (and forgetting that I was in the middle of a series!).
Damn damn dammitall. A friend of my husband began to experience major mental health problems a few years ago - something like paranoid schizophrenia. (Late onset - in his forties - so perhaps something else.) Tonight, he has gone around the bend. My husband is on his way, after being called by the wife. But there are deputies involved. Apparently, gunshots. This can’t end well.
And the piss poor excuse for “news” on the only local station to air a 10 pm broadcast is busy covering rumors of a Justin Bieber sighting, so naturally, they haven’t mentioned some unimportant armed standoff between police and a former detective.
Didn’t you know? The entire universe revolves around entertainers and athletes and similar celebrities. People who are actually DOING something that has some effect on those around them just aren’t of interest.
No stitches for baby. They don’t do them on the tongue unless it’s really bad. But the poor bugga-wugga has to take antibiotics and she can’t eat any acidic foods. She was not happy this afternoon and clearly in pain. This sucks.
Ditto for his New Multiverse series. Two books in 2006 and 2007, then left hanging in the middle of the story. He’s announced it will resume this year with a new collaborator, so here’s hoping.