Bus Choices - 2/23/12

Thursday 2/23/12

I had a sleepover last night with my Granddaughter, Christina, so I could watch both her and Logan today.

Logan, Christina and I are walking to Christina's school to drop her off.  It's such a lovely day!  The walk is wonderful!  I wish we had left their home a little earlier, so we could stop and look everything both kids want to point out.  We do that sometimes though, so having one time when we don't isn't too bad.

Christina's school is collecting new toys for the kids at Choc hospital.  I hadn't known that, or I would have brought something.  I know it has to be very scary to be a child and be going through that.  The school desk person told us that each child at Choc gets to pick a toy when they go through a procedure.  That's so great!  I'm sure it helps take their mind off what they're going through.  The frustrating part is that the 99 cent store near my home has hot wheels cars on sale for 99 cents each.  Those would have been perfect presents!

Logan and I are walking slowly home.  We stop to look at pill-bugs and how easily a stick can fit into the crack in the sidewalk, and many other things.  He's told me several times now that his legs are tired of walking.  Each time, a few minutes later he starts running.  He loves when I run after him.  I guess his legs are only tired of walking, not running!

I need to deposit my paycheck in the bank today and I can't get that Choc donation box out of my head.  I tell Logan not to take off his shoes, we are going to get into the car and go.  First stop is the bank.  Deposit made!  Now, I'm looking for a 99 cent store.  All the stores I are closed.  I must be trying this too early!  I see a sign for Michaels.  It isn't the store I was hoping for, but sometimes they have some good things and I know they're open.  If they don't have anything I want, we can go to a 99 cent store afterward.

In their clearance section, Michaels has some cool puzzle books that you use with white board markers.  They're on sale for $1.49 each, but don't have markers.  I decide to buy two anyway, hoping to find markers for them later.  Now, we're back looking for a 99 cent store.  We found some white board markers!  Ninety nine cents each for two sets of white board markers with eraser, and one set of plastic lizards.

I have all three presents here in a bag.  While picking up Christina, She and Logan and I all take a turn picking one of the gifts and putting it into the box for the Choc kids.

The day with the kids has been great!  I really enjoy spending time with them!
One question has been coming up in my brain this afternoon.  That is "How will I get home?"  I know I'll get home.  I know I'll go by bus.  Last week, when I looked there were several different options (bus combinations) on how to get home.  The option I picked used the 42, which according to it's passengers is always late.  That caused me to miss the connection for my last bus.  I don't want to take a route including the 42 again.  It's nice to know that I can do 4 miles on my scooter if I need / want to, but I don't want to.  However, a part of me really wants to go back to the bus stop that had the mice and see if the baby mice are still there and how much bigger they are now that they are a week older.  The only way to do that would be to take the same bus combination and the 42 again.

The practical side of my brain won out.  I wrote down both bus options that don't include the 42.  Fortunately, they both leave from the same bus stop.  I just have to leave in time to make it to the bus stop for one or the other and that will decide which route I take!

Christian is home.  I could leave now and make it to the first bus series.  I have a horrible time leaving the kids.  Christina asks if I can build a fort around her with the blocks and I decide to wait for the 2nd option.

I thought I left their home with plenty of time, though I wasn't watching the clock.  When I got to the road where the bus stop is, I debated crossing and thought about walking all the way down to the main corner to cross.  Now, I'm glad I crossed where I did!  The bus came while I was heading to the stop!  Fortunately, there were several people waiting for it, and one bike too.  It can't take off right away.  It has to wait for everyone to get on.  I start running!  Funny that even with my scooter, generally I'll forget and start running if I need to get somewhere, even though my scooter can get me there faster.

I caught the bus!  I ask the bus driver to let me know when we are at the exit I need.  The bus is driving up Chapman now, and I need the Chapman / Lewis exit.  When the bus turns off of Chapman, I figure the driver forgot about me.  I ask her about Chapman and Lewis.  She says I haven't missed it, but it's coming soon.  It turns out that the bus makes a little detour off of Chapman to visit the Block in Orange and then gets back on Chapman.

I'm really grateful that Google maps gives you the stop id number.  With that number you can be sure you are at the right stop.  I verify this is the right stop to catch the next bus at.  The stop has one of those buttons you can press to signal the bus.  I press it, the light starts blinking and I sit to wait.  After a few minutes I look over, notice that the light isn't blinking any more and go press it again.  I have to do that one more time before the bus arrives.  I wonder if I should call anyone to let them know their call light is broken.

Talk about being grateful for the bus stop id number!  I hadn't written down good directions on how to find the stop for the next connecting bus.  I ended up visiting all four corners of the two cross streets!  Finally I found the right stop (thanks to checking the stop id numbers) and settled to wait.  The bus call light at this stop is totally broken.  I turn the red blinky lights on my backpack on, hoping that will add to the stop's visibility.  I suddenly realized that this bus series has four buses in it.  I often do series of 3 buses, but not normally four.  It only takes one bus in the four to be late to throw off your whole schedule!  Fortunately, this isn't that day!  The bus comes on time and picks us up.  I ask the driver to help me find the next bus stop.  He says he won't be the driver by that time.  That's weird!

Soon, the bus pulls over, our driver gets out and another driver gets in.  I've never seen a driver switch done like that before.  It's interesting.  After the driver seems like he has gotten settled, and a few stops have gone by, I go up and ask him about my stop.  He must be new to this route, because he doesn't seem to know the stop.  A tall, pale, thin, black haired man in his late 20s had just gotten on and was paying his fare.  He said he gets off around that exit and will make sure I get off at the right exit.  How wonderful!

Waiting at any bus stop the first time, I'm never totally sure I have the right place.  This stop doesn't have the stop id where I can see it, but it does say the 62 stops here and that's the bus I need.  Starbucks is right here too.  I wish I could chance going in for some hot tea and a bathroom break, but that would make me miss the bus and I really don't want to wait for another one.  Heck, I don't even know if this is the last bus of the day or not.  So, definitely no side trips tonight!

I wore my blinkly light shoes to babysit my Grandkids in.  I still have them on.  I love the effect of riding on the scooter with the red lights on my backpack doing their regular blinking and my shoes blinking with pink and blue lights every time I hit a bump or put a foot down to push the scooter.  It definitely adds fun to the trip!  Smiles to the faces of people watching me too!