Riding the Bus

This January Alex and I discovered the bus.  It's awesome.  I don't have to brave icy roads and stupid drivers on my bike anymore.  In addition, I don't have to face the dressing dilemma.  In the winter, I'm always torn between dressing warmly for a bike ride and dressing appropriately.  I always choose wrong and dress warmly and then arrive at school dripping in sweat (and for those of you who are familiar with my sweat, you know what that means).  The bus stop is about a block from our house so it's quite convenient.  Plus, there are so many interesting people that ride the bus.  Just yesterday I met someone who was apparently afraid of water.  Maybe he had rabies.  I was waiting at the bus stop when I saw him approaching from down the street.  Much to his dismay, there had been a tremendous rainstorm overnight leaving behind tremendous puddles with tremendous amounts of water in them.  He was wearing sturdy hiking boots, but didn't want them to get wet so he carefully navigated his way around each and every puddle, no matter how small.  When he go to the bus stop he noticed a puddle in the grass directly in front of the bus stop sign.  Now, I'm usually quite content to wait for the bus on the sidewalk, but he apparently likes to stand directly beside the sign.  He stood next to me and stared at that puddle for a good 3 minutes.  He was shaking his head in disgust, like I might do if I saw a dirty diaper discarded in the woods.  Finally, he mapped a route out in his head.  As he made his way toward the curb I noticed he was also afraid of snow which of course was why his route had to be so complicated.  Anyhow, we eventually made it onto the bus.  Five stops later he attempted to disembark.  Unfortunately the driver had stopped directly over a tiny little rivulet of water draining down a driveway.  The man asked the driver to please move forward.  Note that moving forward involves re-airing the front tire, closing the doors, engaging the gears, grinding to a stop two feet later, de-airing the tires, and opening the doors again.  Thank god there was no water two feet down the drive.  I wonder who I'll meet next?