Thursday - 4/26/12

Thursday - 4/26/12

I had a sleepover last night with Christina and have spent the day watching them.

Earlier, when the kids had laid down for naps, I'd researched bus routes home. For some reason google kept telling me to take the train part of the way. I think that would be fun to do sometime. So, I researched the price. It would be $5 just to take the first train they were sending me on! And there were two trains in that route! I won't be taking the train anytime soon!

 I figured out how to tell google that I only want buses and tried again. This time it's giving me a route that it hasn't given me before! It says I can take the 54 to the 43 and then take the 460 home. The 43 and 460 are my normal buses home from Avalon. I figure that route is worth a shot. I write down the times I could catch that bus series. There is one I could catch if I left the house at 5:29. That's about the time Christian comes home. I don't expect to catch that one. I like to stay and talk a bit and say goodbye to the kids. You never know though, sometimes he comes home early.

Oops! I just heard the sound of Christina's door opening. Apparently naps aren't going to happen today!

I just received a call from one of my tenants saying that his carpet is soaked in one area. He doesn't seem that concerned about it, but I am. We did just have a lot of rain, but the area he is saying is wet doesn't seem like it would be from rain. The wall he is describing doesn't normally have pipes near it either, but his apartment is next to the laundry room so there might be pipes there and it could be a leak in a pipe. I call our emergency maintenance number. He is working on a different emergency and won't be able to get there until later. Now, the ball is back in my court. If I can get there earlier and check it out, I should. I tell him I'll be there sometime between 7:30 and 8:30 and if I get there earlier than he does, I'll assess the situation and call him back. Now, I'm hoping Christian comes home early. I Tell the kids I'm going to have to leave soon after their dad gets home. They do better if they know those things ahead of time.

Christian is home! I might catch that first bus series! I only have a few minutes to get out of the house though. He goes to change. I gather my stuff. Logan doesn't want to hug me goodbye, he's too involved with daddy. I won't leave without my hug. I finally get a half hug, give my apologies to Christian for leaving to early and rush out. There is still a possibility I'll catch the bus. I'm leaving after 5:29, but using my scooter I can sometimes get there faster than google had expected. The bus stop is on Chapman ave.

I've just reached Chapman. They heart sinks a little. There is the bus, at the bus stop, which is on the other side of the street and down a bit. I don't think there is anyway for me to make it. It's teasing me though, sitting there for longer than it needed to. The bus drives off before I make it across the street. The next series I'd written down isn't due for 44 minutes. This is one of the nastiest bus stops. There is graffiti all over the sidewalk and some of the enclosure, and someone's recently spit on the concrete in front of the bench. I'm not relishing waiting here. I text octa with the bus stop number. They say there is a 54 bus coming in less than 15 minutes. Google must not be giving me that one because it could't make the connecting buses. Google won't show a connection if there isn't approximately 10 minutes to make it. I plan to get on the first 54 bus that comes and take it to the transfer point anyway (it's always better to be further along the route). But I also realize there might be other, tighter time connections google isn't showing. On the bus, I try telling google that I'm currently at the stop I'll get off on. There is a 43 bus that comes within a few minutes of when I get dropped off! If I can get across the street and to the bus stop in time and if it's on time, I might still make the first 460 bus! ???was thinking about scootering the way - trying to calculate the distance using my gps???

I'm here and at the bus stop!  I text OCTA and the bus is due in less than 5 minutes!  I might make the 460!

The bus is late.  I'm internally pacing.

Having a conversation with a guy sitting here, early 20s, who started the conversation by asking how my day was and when I asked him how his day was he told me that he puts out good karma stuff and gets good karma stuff back.  He's on his way to Disneyland.  He loves that no matter what differences people have, they all are happy at Disneyland.

The bus comes, it's 5 minutes late.  I'm sure I've missed the 460, but I'm still hoping.  It would be great to be able to catch the end connector bus!

We're at the stoplight before the bus stop.  The 460 is parked over on the other side, taking on passengers.  I'll never make it.  I ask the bus driver if he'll let me off here.  He either doesn't hear me or ignores me.  Finally the light changes and we pull up and get off.  I wish the kid a fun time at Disneyland and head quickly over to the light.  Fortunately the signal has just changed so I rush across the street too.  I'm on the sidewalk heading for the 460 when it's doors close.  I frantically wave at it.  I'm in front of it.  So, the bus driver will see me.  They don't have to wait though.  The doors open back up.  I'm going to make it!  How awesome is that?!

It turns out there was a older lady standing there putting her money in, having a hard time feeding dollar bills into the machine.  That is why the bus had stayed while I crossed the street.  The driver didn't want to drive off with this lady standing because she looked frail.  She said some of her passengers were upset because she hadn't left yet.

On our way home!  This bus driver is especially nice.  She's making sure people get seated before she takes off and she made sure one gentleman got off on the right exit.  She was worried he was missing his exit.  She made sure to ask him.  It turns out this is her last route of the day.  That would be why I haven't seen her before.  I'm riding earlier than I normally do.  Too bad!  I really like her!  When I left I shook her hand and thanked her for the ride.

The next bus is the 128.  It pulls up right after I get to the bus stop.  How nice to be able to ride most of the way home!  I feel a bit silly paying $1.50 to ride only a mile, but it's nice to have the luxury of the ride!

I check out the water leak.
It seems to be a rain issue, that comes from a pipe in the work room.
I call our emergency maintenance and tell them it's not an emergency that they can come tomorrow and fix it.
I tell the tenant there will be carpet cleaners here tomorrow to help clean the water from the carpet.