This past Tuesday I grabbed a shovel and headed into the back yard to address some of the difficult issues dog owners face when the thaw begins and it becomes horribly evident that Fido has not been telling the whole truth about his business dealings. I should have suspected that story about desperate, out-of-work squirrels acting as personal valets was a mere fantasy. I chose to believe it because it made my life easier. Temporarily.
Walking with grim determination down a south-facing hill that the sun had cleared of snow, I stepped on a patch of brown grass that turned out to be covered with ice. As gravity took over I felt a tearing sensation in one of the major muscles of my left leg. I’ll spare you the spluttering and thrashing around and the Biblical oaths that followed. The result is that I can’t drive my car because I can’t lift up the foot that operates the clutch. I am suddenly impaired, but feeling lucky. I might have hit my head or fallen on the shovel, or toppled into the area that the dog has been decorating for the past three months with … well, let’s just say it could have been worse.
Yesterday my dear wife was kind enough to give me a ride to the doctor, but then she had to go to work and I undertook my errands by hobbling from one city bus to the next. It opened my eyes to part of a public transportation system that I had overlooked – namely, the part where I climb on and use it. I went from Shoreview to Rosedale to the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus, then to the Minneapolis campus, downtown Minneapolis and back to the northern suburbs. It all went smoothly and just as the Metro Transit website had predicted. The only drawback was my sudden inability to hurry from one thing to the next.
It was a pleasant surprise to be forced to take things very slowly. The weather was fine. There was plenty to watch. At one point I had to kill 40 minutes at the central library in downtown Minneapolis. Was that a problem? Yes, the bus came too soon. Next time I’ll try to arrange it so I have to waste a couple of hours. And then there was the U of M stop where I felt compelled to fill the interlude with a cup of coffee and an apple fritter. The wait was no problem but the fritter was about 30% too big. I should have shared the extra chunk with the campus squirrels, but a misunderstanding about squirrels and chunks had gotten me into this situation in the first place.
In between rides I got from place to place the way Marty Feldman did when he played Igor in Young Frankenstein. Remember when he said “Walk this way”? That was me, minus the hump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaPZZJVDx6Y
When have circumstances forced you to slow it down?
Trail Baboon 
As a fellow victim of ice and gravity this week, I feel your pain — wait! No, I feel my pain (bruised hip and damaged ribs). I’m lucky I can still drive since the public transit in Northfield is a bit under developed — although I could call for pick up at my door.
I decided that the high school football player I was 50 years ago was better able to deal with impacts with the ground, but he didn’t land on concrete and he was 40 pounds lighter than I am today.
It could have been worse even though I wasn’t carrying a shovel.
Here’s to recovery.
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Take it easy, Ken! Maybe we should wear our old football helmets through February and March.
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Helmet for walking in winter. I would feel safer, but dorkier. And do I need appliances to be dorkier?
After Monday’s fall, I really need an inflatable body suit (like an auto air bag) to go with the helmet.
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I’m thinking, wrap yourselves in bubble wrap-would be warm AND fun.
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40 minutes to kill downtown in the library? Sounds like heaven to me. I think I’ll head out to the backyard with a shovel right now!
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Oops – went too fast.
I have a friend who makes a MetroTransit pilgrimage once a year. He takes the day and hops on the first bus that comes his way, then transfers and transfers and transfers. No plan, no goal other than to see what the city has to offer. Eventually he works his way home. I’ve always thought I should join in one year, but haven’t yet.
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That sounds like fun, VS. You really do see the terrain differently from a bus window and on foot. So, when it is time to head back, does your friend cross the street to catch the bus on the other side and re-trace his steps? Otherwise he could wind up very far from home!
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No he doesn’t usually trace his steps. I think one year he did end up hiking quite a distance to get to a bus that would get him home before it got very late. Although he doesn’t usually have a plan, he does travel that day w/ lots and lots of bus schedules in his pocket!
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I did some bus riding in the Bronx when I was there to visit my aunt. The bus drivers were helpful, but also a little annoyed that I was so dumb because I didn’t know what I was doing. I enjoyed seeing the Bronx from the bus and the people on the bus who were nice to me.
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One of the things I most enjoy about traveling to Eastern US Cities or European cities is public transport and walking everywhere. It is a different view.
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and if you do it as a regular thing, it is amazing how much you get done on your commute-I can’t read in a car, but the train is no problem-and of course, there is the knitting. Miss that.
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The commuter lines to downtown and U of M from here are packed with people doing just those things. When I need to head to either of those places, which is not often, I take those buses. They are great.
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When I was working downtown (decades ago) it was so relaxing to sit down on the bus and open my book. I do miss that.
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With you on that-going downtown is always the train for me! There is a pretty good bus from home to work for me, should really get serious about taking it.
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Rise and Walk Funny Baboons:
Oh, Dale. What a whimsical way to start the day! Thank you for the laugh. I forgot about that movie. The actors look so young. (I am glad I have not aged at the same rate they have, yuk, yuk). So sorry you hurt yourself on the job that we refer to as Poop Patrol in my yard. However, you might develop a full time career doing this. I’d pay someone almost anything to do this undesirable job…. Once you heal up, of course.
Once I have a goal, I have always been loath to slow down. However, like your experience, slowing down does make me be more aware and enjoy the process more, rather than getting so tied up in my goal. I found child-rearing like that, too. A trip to the library with a tot can be excruciatingly slow. Yet the blades of grass and birdies they point to on the way are interesting. And the tot’s delight in all that stuff around him that I ignored, is worth the experience, too.
Get well. BTW, Ben, your transcriptions of tim’s writing yesterday gave me such a chuckle! Thanks to both of you!
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J — we also refer to it as Poop Patrol at our house!
AND – a couple of years ago I see an add in the Southwest Journal for someone to come to your house and do Poop Patrol. I actually called them, not because I want the service (well, I do want the service, I just don’t want to pay for it) but because I was just dying to know if there were for real and who would do this kind of thing. The woman who owned the company said that she had a couple of employees, both who were had decided they needed to make changes in their life and were just looking to do something mindless for a bit. I wonder if she’s still in business?
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Well, if I get tired of my business which deals with a different kind of poop, maybe I’ll give her a call! Or we could go into business together, Poop Patrol Incorporated. Dale could be our humpback, dragging the garbage bag behind him.
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Beware the squirrels!
Glad you got out and about yesterday, Dale, as today sounds rather wicked, if the rattling of my windows is anything to go on.
On the other side of Jacque’s comment, most of the toddlers I know are pretty zippy, but going anywhere with one of my aged friends or family members brings my usual bustle to a contemplative stroll, something I seem incapable of achieving on my own.
Let’s be extra careful out there!
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My son could meander and look and talk and react endlessly. He had his zippy moments, too, but if something captured his attention there we were indefinitely!
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Como Zoo was like that for us, but mostly it was zoom-stop for a long while-zoom-stop for another thing.
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Good morning to all,
Oh no! That’s not good, Dale. I hope you heal quickly. The best example of something that slows me down is being sick in bed. Some times I think it might even be good for people to get sick because it forces them to slow down.
I am kind of a slow moving person normally, so I don’t usually need to slow down. I do get going too fast at times. Once I was in a hurry to get some gas because my truck was empty and tried to ride to the gas station on my bike carrying a gas can. I fell off the bike and broke my collar bone. That should have taught me a leason. I don’t know if it did. At least I haven’t broken any more bones.
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oh, so sorry Dale and Ken! i’m slowing down before i get injured this year – can’t say i don’t learn! every year about this time i’m going too quickly on the ice and boops, i fall. two years ago it was quite a hit, and i thought i’d pay for it in my right knee, but my right shoulder has remained the (sometimes not-so) gentle reminder to slow down and walk like an old lady – even with my ice grabbers on.
i’ve been yearning to take the Girls out in the beautiful weather these past days (not today!) but only Dream is sensible and walks much like i do on the ice – flat-footed, one step at a time, and very cautiously. but Kona and Lassi just want to run and i don’t want any pregnant does splayed out and injured.
speaking of injury. Lassi, running around in the pole barn which has been child-proofed, i thought – managed to bean herself really good the other day. i didn’t see how she did it, (was cleaning pens getting ready for kidding) but i heard her smacking her lips. turned around and she had blood running down her face, dripping off her muzzle! had a deep gash in her forhead right next to her eye! got it taken care of and she is healing. did that slow her down? no.
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Lassi, she just scampers to the beat of a different drummer, doesn’t she? It will be interesting to see if her kids take after her.
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Was she the one who was sticking her head into the fence?
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the same. ‘nuf said, huh?
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biB will have to confirm, of course, but at our house, we still laugh about her stats on that -silly new girl (and I am pretty sure it is Lassi), quite a few, every other goat Barb has ever had, zero total
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we lost count at 12 times head stuck in the fence. finally we changed the fence because we couldn’t seem to change her behaviour. Lassi’s mother rejected her at birth. we think she might have known something was wrong from the get-go 🙂 we love her, and lord knows, we don’t believe in survival of the fittest here at MeadowWild Farm. she is beautiful, and we think she and Chief (Dodger’s buck, now living in Kettle River) will have some great (albeit strong genetic potential for Noodlehood) babies.
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Dale, I did exactly that to my right hamstring in early Dec. and then repeated it almost exactly the same way a week later. Did the whole doctor bit, and was told to just ice it and do light indoor biking and had no real damage. I could drive but was not sure about all the driving for our trip. So I scheduled shorter drives on the way out. Then in Williams AZ walked out of a confusing motel, thinking there were no steps where there were two (different door that looked exactly like the other) and tore up my left leg. Had thoughts like Ken’s. Limped around the G. Canyon rim, not sure if I was steadying my wife’s walker or supporting myself on it. Somehow neither leg bothered on the very quick drive home. Now two wrongs make a right, that is limps on my both sides make me look more like Gene Wilder right now than Marty Feldman. But nobody mention Cloris Leachman or I may start neighing.
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Blücher
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snort
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Neiiiiigggghhhh!
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Having a child who has had 150 fractures do to brittle bone disease has provided more than a few opportunities to slow down. I still have painful memories of a dawdling toddler with a walker. As I chided him to move faster a person in the shopping mall scolded me for mistreating a handicapped child. I began to fantasize about a way to read while walking with him.
Dale, we have lots of handy hints for folks, like you in the O-limp-ics. Helpful idea #1 put a lawn chair or a cooler in your shower so you can sit while the water sluices over you.
Step carefully baboons!
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Had a friend with a child with that disease. Tough parenting challenge.
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Love the O-limp-ics!
I have a nephew with CP who has had several surgeries that involved walkers-for that, they have the walker go behind him so he got used to the idea of open space in front of him as he regained confidence in walking alone.
We figured he was about done with it when he could run, get up enough speed and then pop a wheeley by lifting up his feet and letting the momentum carry him along.
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In an attempt to avoid the wheelies and the risk of falling the therapist and I substituted 4 point canes. The panicked call from pre-school, “Bring back the walker. The canes are being used as weapons.”
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I agree w/ MIG- Love “O-limp-ics”!
And canes as weapons… they must have been observing my Father -in-law… do they also point, nudge, poke and gesture w/ them??
My Mom recently bought a new cane because she didn’t want a plain old black one; she wanted something fancier than that so found one with a wild color scheme on it…
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Love it, Beth-Ann. I sometimes think the general public thinks of kids with walkers and in wheelchairs as little saintly Tiny Tims-in truth they are just kids first and happen to have walkers and wheelchairs, and given the opportunity will race with them. And any kind of cane-a boy with a stick is still a boy with a stick.
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Steve must be on poop patrol.
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Steve said earlier this week he caught a bad cold. If it was anything like the one I had, he might be sleeping if he is lucky. What a beasty virus.
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I had that cold, too, as a Groundhog Day gift. Still coughing a little.
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Gravity, the friend of the young and the demon of the old.
Gravity, which has become for me a force most profound.
Gravity, most gravitas when the earth has grown cold.
Gravity, gravely, marches me to my place IN the ground.
Gravity, written on my face dragged down.
Gravity, stealing the spaces in my skeleton.
Gravity, making me walk like a clown.
Gravity, keeping me behind life’s peloton.
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Had to look up peloton – thanks for the new word!
But being behind the peloton is an advantage most of the time, right? The only time it’s a negative is when you’re crossing the finish line.
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Behind the peloton is a guaranteed loss.
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Well, I’m pretty certain I’ll come in last in any race, but I welcome the opportunity to conserve energy by drafting the rest of you.
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OK, we have two new words for the baboon dictionary – O-limp-ics and peloton. Nice to have a word that rhymes with skeleton!
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It just goes to show that being diligent and responsible just bring about more work.
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Truer words were never spoken!
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Dale, I’m surprised that with all the snow you had this winter poor Fido was even able to get off the deck onto the lawn! Sorry to hear about your leg. Its a good thing to have those sorts of injuries dealt with promptly, as they can make for bigger problems down the road if you don’t. My neighbor is nursing a sore hip, the result of straining it after two yearling heifers managed to bust her leg a couple of years ago.
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You would laugh and laugh at our house the last day or so. When we first got our mountains of snow, I blew a couple of paths in the back yard and the dogs pretty much stuck to the paths (big dogs). Then when the snow hardened up, they made a few paths of their own, one straight from the back door to the back of the yard (where the terrorist mutant ninja squirrels hang out). However, w/ the melting the last few days, those dog paths are now getting less hard. Several times they started in from the back of the yard at a full gallop only to “fall in”. The look on their faces is worth the price of admission. The Irish Setter has finally decided to take the original safer path. The Samoyed hasn’t quite figured it out yet!
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We have enough trouble reliably shoveling the driveway, so I wasn’t about to shovel the back yard, which has 2-3 feet of snow. Our Welsh Terrier (15 inches at the shoulder) hasn’t been able to get off the deck for quite a while, so we are doing doggy clean up daily. I can imagine the looks of dismay and shock on your dogs’ faces. Welshie stands at the top of the deck stairs and wants desperately to get off the deck and run around, but the snow mountains are too high and hard for her to manage. We are predicted to get some heavy snow this weekend, so I imagine her chances for a good run in the backyard have been pushed back on the calender until April. This winter has been too long!
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I admit to being so indulgent, I did actually shovel a path for the dog to move from the back door of the garage through the back yard to the deck that’s attached to the rear of our house. I knew she wasn’t going to get many walks when winter was at its coldest, and she needed a place to stretch her legs.
Now that the melting has begun, she has moved out into open terrain, though sometimes her legs do go through the crusty top and into the still deep snow.
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I used to do that for my cats, Dale – shoveled a path from the front door around to the back so they’d at least “feel” like they had some place to go even with a lot of snow or bitter cold… let ’em out the back door, go around and let ’em in the front. 🙂
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I had a bad scratch on my right cornea about 25 years ago, and the eye doctor put a pressure patch over it and told me to go home and watch television. No reading, because when you read you move your eyes from side to side and blink a lot; when you watch TV you just stare straight ahead.
Now they have bandage contact lenses for this sort of injury. Much better option.
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“bandage contact lenses”? the things I learn here.
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It’s just a soft contact lens with no refraction that you leave in for ten days.
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Huh- interesting.
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Ow.
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Sorry to hear of your injuries, Babooners! Get well soon. I can attest to the truth of the adage, “If the game is “You vs Ice”, put your money on Ice.” Sadly I have met many folks recently – in the xray department – who bet on themselves being victorious over ice. Monday and Tuesday were especially busy because the warm temps and melting snow restored people’s confidence and sense of surefootedness when walking outdoors. Spring is coming, yes -but is not quite here yet. We may all have a chance to copy Igor’s walk, (which is a fine version of The Minnesota Hunch and Shuffle) for a couple of months yet.
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If some ice falls on a Dale
too bad, too bad for the Dale.
If a Dale falls on some ice
too bad for the Dale.
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funny
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b-i-B : That is EXACTLY what was runnning through my mind as I did xrays on the patients who came through the department this week! Could have been the Imaging Department theme song.
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my favorite philosophy – that song.
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Morning–
Don’t ya hate it when that happens? Right there with you Dale… two weeks ago I tripped over a tire in the shed in the dark. (I swear that tire wasn’t there earlier… it must be a plot!) and I sprained my left knee… can drive but it sure did hurt for awhile… Kelly had to put my sock on for a couple days… and getting in the car took some time–and curse words… lots of ice and ibuprofen and Chiropractor visits… getting better but still hurts on occasion. And I already had arthritis in my knees so today’s weather change isn’t helping it…
Thanks for the ‘Young Frankenstein’ clip… what fun. When given the opportunity I use the Groucho Marx, ‘Walk this way’ line but then have to tell the students ‘Now you say ‘If I could walk like that I wouldn’t need the orthopedic shoes’… and they just stare at me… darn kids; they don’t understand my sense of humor.
You know, I’ve never ridden a city bus. Just never had the opportunity or need… I know; I do need to get out more…
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FIELD TRIP!!!!
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Ride the 16 down University Avenue from the Capitol to the U of M at least once; if you haven’t done it you haven’t tasted the full flavor of urban life.
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My thought exactly, mig!
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Me neither. I’ve thought about it but I have no idea how you know which one to get on or where it’s going. I tried to think about it but it hurt my brain so I stopped.
No buses, commuter or otherwise, in Waterville. No taxis. Lots of huge Ford F350s and Dodge trucks though. Loud ones. And bikes. Lots of bikes.
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hitchhiking is good though
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I haven’t tried that since 1978.
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Glad to know you are out and about in this weather. Hope you didnt kill your feet Mr. C. By the way, the first volume of Keepers is available on Amazon, but the sellers who are selling it are asking for upwards of 90 bucks! Must be really hard to come by now! I mean the CD is priceless, but come on! Were public radio people here, not rich CD hunters!
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can you say dupe
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dupe
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Touche’
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I think the hard part of being told to slow down is to figure out just how slow. The last time I had a surgery I was sent home with an instruction sheet that said “NO LIFTING” – in all caps, just like that – and I had to ask, well, what does that mean? Do I have to call a friend to come over and lift my coffee cup for me? The nurse tells me, well, just don’t lift anything heavy, use your judgment. So when I got home the first thing I did was to pick up a certain 13-pound cat who had missed me. Because how do you define “heavy”?
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They have always told me a weight, like 15 lbs, as if I could judge that. But it’s a starting point.
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i can carry a half full 5 gallon jug up the stairs all day long no problem. carry a full one and im toast every time. thats how you tell if its too heavy. try it and find out
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but that’s probably 20 pounds, tim in your half-full 5 gallon jug – a gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds. if it’s goats’ milk, it weighs about 8.6 pounds/gallon.
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Post c-section I was told that even carrying my 8 lb infant while I was navigating steps was probably iffy – I was fine on flat ground, but was not to be trusted (unless absolutely necessary) for the first few days to get her up and down stairs. (And frankly, the stairs were their own challenge, so I gave up being indignant about being told what I could and couldn’t do with my own child…)
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this is kind of on topic – skewed a bit to city buses. when we lived in Mpls in the mid-late 70s we did not have a car. biked or rode the bus. a friend was visiting us for a week and had a car. we were driving around in the morning and then i had to go to work. i hopped on the bus and got downtown. reached in my pocket and discovered the car keys. gave the car keys to the bus driver and said “give these to the people who will meet you at (i forget what stop).” then i called home and told them what i had done. the Boys were NOT happy with me. but met the bus on it’s return and there were the car keys. the bus driver had them – and they were amazed. i found the bus drivers always friendly and fun. had to be a hard job.
there was one who drove the route from U of M hospitals stop to downtown, who always talked on the PA system like he was giving a tour “here is the beautiful old Pilsbury plant” blah, blah. always got a kick out of him.
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Great story BiB. One of the summer projects at our house is to teach the teenager how to use the bus. So we’re going to take a few trips together and then I’m going to drive her somewhere (we’ll probably start w/ near school) and she has to get herself back home on the bus. She’s not crazy about this but has resigned herself to the fact that I’m serious about this.
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I’ve noticed there is a tendency in my nieces’ generation to regard taking public transit as déclassé.
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We rode the bus alot in Winnipeg since we only had one vehicle. There was a city bus driver in Winnipeg who had a great voice and often sang the sort of songs Mel Torme would over the loud speaker.
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I remember riding the bus on my own a lot in junior high. My cousin, when he would visit from Brainerd, and I would take trips from my folks house in S. Mpls, stop at 50th and France (making a pit stop at Rainbow Balloon), and transfer to a bus that would take us out to Southdale (where we would buy 45s and other fabulous things one must have at the age of 13). Loved those trips – and such freedom to be on the bus and away from adult relatives.
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I was slowed down last year not by ice…but by a basset hound. Or rather, avoiding same. I was attempting to move around our hound while he ate his dinner (which, due to the small size of our kitchen, is placed right by the doorway into the dining room). I’m still not sure exactly what I did, besides try to move closer to his rump, but I managed to whack my right foot into the end of the double-swinging door (one of those lovely heavy oak doors from when houses were built with things that were sturdy and could support an elephant or two). The door survived, the toe next in from my pinky toe did not. I wound up having my mother drive me to the doctor’s office – where they taped it, gave me a funny shoe (if I wanted to wear it…mostly no), told me that my Birkies were a good bet for footwear until it healed, and sent me on my way. I stopped and bought myself a cane that got used for several weeks. Working for a large company where meetings can be in a different building, I had to plan on extra travel time just to get from my cubicle to wherever I needed to be. I’d like to say that this caused me to stop and smell the roses some – but mostly it just annoyed me b/c any pressure on the toe was unique and pain-inducing. I couldn’t even ride a bike for about half the summer as the downward pressure when I pedaled was so bad. It did give me an excuse to wear shoes that probably, strictly speaking, weren’t “dress code approved”…but that might have been the only true benefit.
Ice and poop patrol…oy don’t get me started. I need to break out the wellies this weekend and head out for round two. Thankfully the yard is small – and flat – and the hound’s path well-worn. 🙂
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Anna – this is what children as for. The teenager has been in charge of Poop Patrol since she was 7!
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Daughter has helped some (pre-deep snow – she’s tall, but we could have lost her in some of the drifts and piles before this week’s melt), but she gets bored. Maybe if I give her a quarter a poo…hmm…
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In January 2010, I was descending my backstairs to leave for work when I hit a patch of ice. It was 5 in the morning and very dark. I was suddenly looking up at the icy stars and wondering if I would be able to get up, for my spine had landed against two different stairs. My head against one, too. I was hugely relieved when I was able to stand, but my back hurt so bad that it wasn’t until the next day that I realized I had a goose egg on my head and whiplash. After a week of rest from running, I was driving to a frozen half marathon I was to run, when the simple act of driving hurt my back so bad that I had to turn around and go home. There were MRIs, physical therapy, and trips to the massage therapist. The outcome was that, because of bulging discs, I was out from running for about three whole weeks and running half strength for a few more. That was a real slow down for me. If watching crappy TV is a benefit to be had from slowing down, I guess there was a benefit. A year and then some later, I am still recovering from that back injury and trying to speed up, as the time lost and the injury itself literally made me a slower runner!
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Oh, ow… ow.
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What a fragile klutzy group we are.
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I resemble that remark… 😉
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I have been pretty healthy and accident free in my life, but now that I think of it, two high risk prenancies, one with complete bedrest in hospital, one with a cerclage, really slowed me down for a while, too. I think the most annoying muscle problem I ever had was an inflamed muscle in my right thumb that I somehow sustained while I was in labor with my daughter. It took months for that thumb to heal, and since I and right handed and had a newborn to haul around, it was contantly irritated.
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ouch
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I’m really sorry to hear about your fall, Dale. I hope you heal up soon!
I have fallen or nearly fallen five times already today! I just read the blog through and all I can think is OW! This morning I landed on my back in front of my garage door, then I slipped and lurched around to keep my balance when taking Pippin out for his morning business, then slipped and stumbled and lurched in the parking lot at work, slipped and fell on a frozen puddle while out walking around the ponds on break, and lurched one more time before I got back to my desk. All of this happened before noon today. Be careful out there! My back and neck are both feeling stiff.
Yes, the back yard. Well, I shoveled mine because Pippin has four-inch legs and Misty has five-inch legs. Misty is my friend’s dog. I have her for about six weeks in the winter. I’ve never been able to train Pippin to go out on his own and do his business. He just pokes around and eats stuff or stands there and looks at me. So, I go out there with him and encourage him. As long as I’m out there, I carry plastic bags and clean up right away. It helps but it doesn’t prevent other visitors from leaving gifts behind, so I’ve got some cleaning to do too.
It’s nice to see some of this snow melting, isn’t it? Keep your feet firmly on the ground, Baboons!
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Ah, slowing down. We’ve had first hand experience with this of late, and Husband’s noticed it is kind of nice to have to go slower. I get to go slower just by being in his current world. The coolest thing has been having a good excuse to “clear the calendar”, and the things that must get done in a day are now: preparing meals and getting in a cribbage game!
Glad you were able to make the most of your misfortune, Dale. It does sound fun getting to all the places by bus, since it sounds like there weren’t a lot of time deadlines – that’s when it’s not so much fun… We in the Big City are lucky to have the transit alternatives we do. As Krista pointed out, a novice to public transit has some things to learn. You can, for instance, board the right bus going the wrong way, or get on the right numbered bus but with the wrong letter (somewhat different route), and even board wrong numbered bus by not looking carefully at said numbers (or not realizing multiple lines stop there). In some cities you cannot use a transfer to reboard on the same busline, only on and intersecting one going in the same general direction. I have learned each of these things by experience, and no doubt some of you have too!
Sherrilee – love your friend’s plan, might have to try that some time. I love taking the bus downtown if I have plenty of time… no parking hassles.
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OT – and I promise that at some undetermined future time I will stop repeating myself about this – Pull out your old woven cotton Mexican blanket, your cooler and your beverage of choice, your sandals and your favorite t-shirt and get ready to feel some warm good vibes! Rock Bend Folk Festival on Radio Heartland at 7 p.m. tonight! Be there with me! 🙂
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Thanks for the reminder, KiW – I’m there!
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OOhh Mike did a good job. Nice program. I couldn’t go this time so I was glad to hear the highlights.
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Completely OT. Any Jasper Fforde fans here? He’s speaking at Mpls Library downtown on 3/16.
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Are you kidding! I LOVE Thursday Next-but why oh why on a Wednesday!
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I’m planning on being there – probably with several members of my other book club. Love love love Jasper Fforde.
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I think there will be 3 or 4 of us as well. Name of our group is Illiterati (sic but well read). Does your group have a name?
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We go by the very catchy name “book club”….we tried for another name for awhile (Women Emerging Beyond Silence…or WEBS) – but it seemed a bit overwrought and lasted about 3 months.
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Oooh, just looked him up and looks marvelous. I should start with The Eyre Affair?
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Eyre Affair is a great place to start… the first of the “Thursday” series. There is also a “Nursery Crime” series… the first of that series is The Big Over Easy. And then there is the “Colour” series (well, not a series yet – just one book so far) that starts with “Shades of Grey”. Each series can be read independently, but I think Eyre Affair is a great jumping off point.
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Totally agree that Eyre Affair is the place to start. Probably the best introduction to the weird and whacky place that is the creative mind of Jasper Fforde.
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