Saturday, 8. August 2009, 21:33:01
man, bus, life, suit
There is an older man who rides the bus in my neighbourhood. He always rides alone. He looks to be in his early 80’s. He is well dressed every time I see him. He wears a nice suit with a white shirt and tie. He has dress socks with well-kept dress shoes. His hair is well combed and sharply edged at the back and sides by a barber. I’m sure he doesn’t live too far away since the end of the line for the route is only 5 minutes from my apartment.
He doesn’t seem to be going anywhere in particular. He just rides the bus to do simple errands or spend a few hours somewhere. I would suspect he was in sales most of his life—and was probably pretty good at it. He exudes an aura of trust and knowledge. Any time I see him, I just want to walk up and say, “Hello, how are you today?”
One day I will do that, and ask about his life.
Update from August 22: I was riding the bus home today when I saw The Impeccable Gentleman on the bus - with a lady friend beside him who seemed to be about 10 years younger. It all looked sweet and innocent enough until he began French kissing her in front of everyone!

Eewww...

His lady friend got off a few stops before me, but I'm sorta rethinking this interview thing...
Tuesday, 7. August 2007, 13:44:19
bus driver, life, bus, blessing
...
A few of you out there in Operaland have been praying for me regarding work (to get a “legitimate” job instead of working through a temp agency; that has been an experience in itself, let me tell you).
I came very close to that goal just last month, but then my car died. The out-of-town job had to be dropped (which was a disappointment to the area supervisor of the plant who called the agency back to see if there was any way I could get back there). I had to accept another job on the whole other end of town because it was on a bus route. It takes about 1.5 hours to get there and 1 hour coming home (a kind co-worker drops me off at a major terminal on her way home).
But today’s post is about a regular kind of hero…
In Canada, the first Monday of August is celebrated as a Civic Holiday. Most people don’t work that day, but there was an opportunity to garner some extra money to pay rent. The buses stop running way out where I work around 6pm on holidays. What to do at 11pm when I go home? Calling the city’s transit office revealed that the nearest stop would be a 5.5km walk (no one from work was going that way and my regular ride wasn’t working the holiday). So after 8 hours of being on my feet, it was another 45 minutes of fast paced walking to make the last bus at 12:08am.
I thought there was a final connection to get to my end of Hamilton. The bus driver informed me I was mistaken, and upon rechecking my schedule, he was correct.
Sigh…
The bus driver asked me where I lived and it seems he lives right in the same neighbourhood!
“Tell you what,” he says, “just stay on the bus. We will head downtown; then I go back to the yard and I’ll take you home in my car.”
“Really? You would do that?” I asked incredulously.

“Sure; I do it a lot. The transit service really sucks because a lot of the last buses have no connections. I see people like you getting left in the lurch all the time.”
He was true to his word and I finally got home around 1:15am – without having to walk any additional kilometres. We exchanged names as he dropped me off and I told him (again) how grateful I was for his generosity.
Thank you God – for Todd. A top-drawer bus driver who excels at customer service.