Murphy, Grumbling, Strikers, Gelato

I see by the hit counter on my blog that I have had 948 hits. That's amazing considering I've only been writing it since the middle of April and it's basically being read by family and friends. This week I will probably top 1000! Yahoo! Mountain Dew!

On Wed. I went to visit my sister in Surrey and returned in the early evening. It was raining pretty steadily, but I was nice and dry on the Sky Train. The calm before the proverbial tempest. I got off at Burrard Station and walked a block to Robson. Normally that bus runs about every 5-10 minutes. I stood sheltering from the rain under a store overhang and waited for a Robson bus...and waited...and waited...and waited. I started to worry about the bag I was carrying. Murphy was on the pitcher's mound that day, because I was carrying a foil bag with two containers of gelato in it. I really like the chocolate gelato at the Great Canadian Superstore ( or as my friend, C., calls it the "Stupidstore") so I had taken advantage of my trip to Surrey to replenish my supply of gelato.

My arms were getting tired and my feet ached. Several of my fingers were white from the cold and I was shivering like someone fighting off a fever. I considered walking home. After all, I had walked that far before. But it was raining and I didn't want to ruin my leather shoes. After about 40 minutes I spotted a bus in the distance. Great, I thought, my gelato will still be edible. But Murphy stepped up to the plate once again. And hit a grand slam. The bus sailed on by. It was so full, the driver didn't stop. I said a bad word, a very bad word, a word my daughter would be shocked to hear coming from my mouth. Then, I startled the people on the sidewalk by loudly declaring that if the next bus looked like not stopping, I would throw myself out in front of it! I don't know why some of them moved away from the overhang.

After another 20 minutes of shivering and worrying about the gelato, another bus came along. I was going to complain loudly to the bus driver, but the look on his face said many others had been there before me and I decided discretion was the better part of valour. With the luck I was having that day he probably would have thrown me off the bus. I meekly took a seat and sighed deeply.

In the end, after a half hour on the Sky Train, an hour waiting for the bus and the fifteen minute ride home, by the time I got the gelato home it was like soup and I had to trash it. I could have walked home and back in the time I waited.

People can be such whiners, can't they. (Not me, of course. My complaints are completely justified.) It seems every time I get on a bus, the vitriol starts. Complete strangers assault each other with unsought opinions. The big news this week is the civic strike. The city workers are members of CUPE and they started with work to rule and have now moved to full-blown strike.

I heard some people discussing it on the bus. They all agreed that the $20 an hour being sought by the strikers was way too much. Is $20 an hour too much? Or is it a decent wage? This is a pretty expensive city. I read in the paper that the average person in Vancouver spends 70% of income on shelter. I wondered if someone had offered one of the complainers $20 an hour for a job, would they still think it was too much? People get so incensed when they think someone is getting more than they are, but I venture to guess not one of those people would have turned down such a wage. One man said they should fire all the workers and hire some out-of-work people. He'd be the first one to complain when those untrained people couldn't do the job.

Another man opined that bus rides should be free. What this has to do with the strike issue, I don't know, because the bus drivers are not in the same union. But some people have to take every opportunity to express their opinion. One woman said, if riding the bus were free, taxes would go up. At that point the debate degenerated into stupidity. The free rider said bus rides should be free with no increase in taxes. You're dreaming, buddy. To call him stupid would be an insult to stupid people everywhere.

Hey, bus riders, stop bitching on the bus. Get yourself a blog. Then you can rant to your heart's content. Har dee har.

Last night I went to dinner at my daughter's restaurant. Well, she works there! Some friends were celebrating a birthday. A fine time was had by all. Happy Birthday, Lori!

Bye all. Take care now. I'll keep you posted on the stink from the uncollected garbage!

Oh, wouldn't the world seem dull and flat
With nothing whatever to grumble at? ~W.S. Gilbert