There is a certain happiness sighted when your bus comes along. It is of course a small specialized form of happiness and will never be a great thing.

-Richard Brautigan, The Old Bus

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

A new week of transit

In my ongoing effort to ease my panic about missing my transit connections I decided to use my cell phone's alarm clock. This morning I set the alarm for 8:34 a.m. The bus is scheduled for my stop at 8:39 a.m. Since I'm only two stops from the start of the route I am fairly certain of ontime service.

When the alarm went off this morning I managed to grab my coffee thermos; put on my shoes, coat and hat; grab my backpack; lock the front door and walk to the bus stop -- all before 8:36 a.m. (Yes, I'm that close to the bus stop.)

The bus arrived at 8:40 a.m. While I was settling in with my book I was reminded of an old WWII movie about prisoners who didn't have watches but needed to coordinate their escape plans. They taught themselves to become clocks, able to tell how much time had passed. That's a trick I could use. It would go a long way to easing my "Oh my God, I'm going to miss the bus!" anxiety.

If nothing else, riding transit to work will teach me to relax.

No comments: