Saturday, September 3, 2011

Wheels On The Bus


               My dog takes me for a walk every morning.  He waits for me to finish my shower outside the bathroom door.  When it hasn’t rained too much, he leads me through the woods full of Scotch Broom and blackberry stickers.  Each day, he knows how to deliver me to the sidewalk across the street from the grade school my kids went to twenty years ago.  We pass the bus stop, sometimes someone is standing there waiting for one.  I have lived in this neighborhood for twenty-five years and never taken the bus out of it.
               The suburbs dictate you have to have an automobile, even if you’re a hermit.  Just look at all the driveways with one or two cars.  And then there are even more parked on the street.  It’s like it’s mandatory to own a vehicle in case you want to escape the solitude.  My dog doesn’t really notice as he poops in someone’s yard.  I am a two bag scooper pooper, picker upper. 
Without much of an income for way too long, I have failed to give my transportation much love.  One came lunging and coughing, begging for help.  I limped it down to my trusted mechanic and discovered the shop is an ownership transition.  Good old Frank is retiring, hopefully the new guys will be just as good.  A few days after taking my car to the hospital, she was purring like a kitten again.  I had to bail her out with $1300.  Barack, I could use a personal bank account stimulus, hint, hint. 
Today the wife went out to do whatever she does with her sister most every weekend.  Stop and go traffic on the freeway, she was rear-ended by somebody who was rear-ended.  Her first traffic accident after twenty years of driving.  The rear bumper was branded with the license plate of the car that hit her.  We are not exactly the litigation kind.  When our former neighbor accidently broke both her ankles sledding, there were no lawsuits.  So far, she seems to be without whiplash symptoms and the car is relatively unscathed.
I am thinking I don’t need an auto to expand my horizons.  Maybe I’ll grab a pile of quarters out of the coin jar and catch a bus to who knows where.  That will be special date with my artist child.  Take a nap my sweet pooch, I’ll take you to the mailbox when I get back this afternoon.          

6 comments:

  1. Oh so sorry to hear about your wife's accident. Hope she remains without symptom. Yep that artist date sounds like good medicine. Round trip runaway. Does the bus get to IL by chance?

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  2. Glad no one was hurt in the accident, other than the bumper. so did you take the bus somewhere?

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  3. Buses don't run again here until Tuesday. Since I've never ridden this route, I am unsure exactly where it goes. To play it safe, you may want to lock your doors!

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  4. I vote for a bus ride. Living in the boondocks, there are no buses and I miss that sense of freedom of GOING but not DRIVING. (can you check the web for the route?)
    Glad your wife is okay~~have her watch close for headaches, etc~~we're avid hockey fans and mild concussions can often appear later. Not to frighten, just to keep an eye open.

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  5. Awesome...love the days tallies.

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  6. I could figure out where the two bus routes go, but this will be like going on a date to a restaurant neither of us have been to before. I'll just hop on the first one that comes by enjoy the ride.

    Thanks Anne and Laura for stopping by!

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