It’s official - I’ve finally gotten around to posting on this blog that I set up almost six months ago.  I’ve actually got two more entries worth of stuff that I’ll be posting shortly, but both contain copious amounts of pictures that I am still getting resized for web use.  And besides, I feel like making my first post about something inconsequential but that I can go into in gory detail about, as a good blogger should.

So I had some errands to do after work today, and I assumed that I would get finished around 5:15 and catch the #32 bus that arrives in front of the Superstore on Quinpool just after 5:20.  I actually finished a bit early (around 5:10) and went out to wait for the bus.  A couple minutes later, I noticed that traffic wasn’t moving.  Now, usually on Quinpool at this time of day the traffic is a little slow - you might move ten car lengths a minute between Robie and Connaught, because everyone’s heading home and people always stop to let people in from the side streets.  But today the traffic was barely moving at all.

I figured I’d walk down towards the bank to see if maybe there was an accident or something that was holding up traffic; I needed cash anyway and there’s another bus stop three buildings down, so it made sense.  I actually passed another #32 bus, presumably the one which normally gets to the Superstore at 4:50, on the way there - it was stopped about thirty seconds (walking) from the bank at the corner of Quinpool and Harvard.  Feeling cocky, I decided that I’d thumb my proverbial nose at the bus, zip into the bank, and still be able to make it to the next bus stop before it got there.

Well, I did make it to the bus stop a couple of minutes later, but the bus itself was still back at Quinpool and Harvard.  Fine, I said, I’ll wait a couple of minutes.  Ten minutes later, the car in front of the bus stop has not moved an inch.  The traffic on nearby Oxford Street is flowing, albeit slowly, but Quinpool is clogged up tight.  Tighter than what, I’m not sure… my analogy-generator fails me.  Anyway, I walked down Oxford street a few minutes to see if I could find the $14 bus, which would take me home albeit by a more circuitous route, but no dice.  Back to whence I came, and the #32 is still at Quinpool and Harvard.  I tried to get on when a couple of women got off, but the driver was adamant that I wait for the next stop.  Fine, I said to myself.  I’ll go get some supper and I’ll see you at the next stop.  Ass.

Actually, it being almost 5:45, my next priority was to get to a payphone and call Kim to let her know I might be getting in a tad later than usual.  But neither of the two payphones I tried would work (apparently my money isn’t good enough for them) and I didn’t want to bum a cell phone off some random stranger.  When the power went out on Quinpool’s north side, including all the traffic lights, that settled it - I was going to make good on my unspoken threat to the snotty bus driver, and actually eat supper before the bus made it to the next stop.  The damn thing was still at Quinpool and Harvard, so I waffled a bit on where to go, and eventually settled on McDonalds.  Apparently a lot of people had the same idea, because it was a long line and by the time my order was in, the bus had actually moved forward about seven or eight car lengths.  The race was on.

I ate quickly, because now the cars were actually starting to move at a visible pace, maybe one car length a minute at first, then two, then three.  And I didn’t actually catch the bus at the stop I intended; I caught it two stops further down, along with an older couple who had also been turned away earlier by the tight-ass bus driver.  And it’s a good thing I left when I did, because after that stop, once the bus got past Connaught, we basically cruised all the way down to the rotary and up Herring Cove.  (I’d assumed the rotary would have been just as backed up as Quinpool, but it was actually almost empty.) But the fact remains that I was able to miss a bus, catch up to it, walk past it, fool around for a while, eat a quick but complete meal, and still catch it before it got away.

Oh, did I mention we got hit with the first big snowstorm of the season today?  In the span of about fifteen minutes the ground went from green to white, and after four hours we’d received six or seven inches of snow.  Think that might have had anything to do with it?