Day 44: And the Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round

Today was sort of... disheartening, I guess.

Work was fine and perfectly uneventful; I did some more clean-up work for the website, finished reading that one manuscript, and started reading another manuscript (I'd planned to vacuum, but, as it turns out, I don't really want to. Vacuuming has been postponed until... I dunno... Wednesday?).

A wanna-be author came by to drop off some supplemental material. It won't help his case any, but I didn't tell him that. If he pushes hard enough he might get a faster answer - but the answer isn't going to change (note: I don't know what my boss thinks of this guy's work, nor have I seen it. For all I know my boss will read it and think that it is the best thing since sliced bread. My point is simply that, for better or for worse, a person's work has to speak for itself).

After work I went to the Service Canada Centre to see about some documentation stuff. It turns out that I don't have the right forms with me, but it doesn't really matter - I can do it by mail when I'm home again.

On the way there, though, there was this mildly annoying woman on the bus. She was talking to the guy behind her, and also the woman across the aisle from her, and was nice enough but seemed to lack... tact, or something. While the bus was still moving she got up and moved forward, presumably to ask the driver something. The driver, having his eyes on the road rather than the passengers (sensible man), stopped for a yellow light. The woman careened forward, just barely caught herself on a pole, and slammed her face into the same pole. When she'd caught her breath, she moved forward again to ask the driver why he'd stopped so suddenly (because of a changing light) and couldn't he have gone through it (he'd had to make a judgement call) and to tell him that she might have broken something. She turned down his offer to call an ambulance, though, returning to her seat to mutter about "the way they drive the busses these days".

I hope she wasn't seriously hurt. I do have to give her credit for staying more or less calm (and regaining her balance without falling flat on her face). On the other hand, the bus was moving when she got up, she wasn't even trying to hold on to anything, and the bus didn't actually stop all that suddenly (well - the bus didn't exactly roll to a smooth stop, but believe me, the busses here almost never do that).

Plus I kind of like it when bus drivers, you know, stop for red/yellow lights and keep their eyes on the road.

Ai yi yi.