Stupid, Cold, Stinky Bus

What? The picture is a little blurry? Oh, yes..that is because I took it while I was parked at a red light - how could I not?! Look at that price! $1.76 a gallon for gas! Sheez!

Makes me feel a little better about missing the bus for the upteenth time in a row yesterday. Apparently we have new drivers and they like to be early (ok, ok...on time) - but after getting used to our old drivers and their loosey goosey schedule - on time WAS early.

Now, with our new AM drivers, if you are not early you are way late...the bus pulled away as I pulled into the lot this morning and I was there by 7:35 at the lastest! I sat there in shock thinking for sure he would wait for me since I had drive right in front of him to pull in to the lot so he had to see me - and no one parks in the lot unless they are riding the bus - so HELLO...I was TRYING to catch the bus. Could you not have waited 30 more seconds for me to park my car and get out??

I should have known something was up when the driver (pretty sure it was the same one) closed the door and starting pulling away AS I WAS WALKING UP TO THE BUS on Monday morning...thankfully my dutiful co-riders yelled for him to wait. Sadly, their calls went unheeded Tuesday morning...sigh. (I was two feet from the door when this happened - NOT all the way across the parking lot or anything.)

Whatever. Stupid, cold, stinky bus....who needs grouchy drivers who don't give a hoot when you have heated leather seats and a pass to the parking garage? And gas is $1.76...

Sigh. Don't worry everyone...my clock is set a half an hour earlier for tomorrow - I am still going to TRY to catch the bus, I haven't thrown in the towel - I am just ranting. It's what I do. :)

Living Lean & Green: Class 4

Well, yesterday I thought I would brave it and take the Route 8 IndyGo bus to the library where I take my Living Lean & Green class. Ha! That didn't work out so well.

I had picked up a route map a few days prior - but those maps are pretty much useless when it comes to learning a new route. For one, they only list a fraction of the stops - maybe 8 out of 30. And the route map doesn't really show the route on a road map in relation to where streets are. So you can't really guess where it is going to be at when. I mean they give times, but they are never on time - not even close.

I was perusing around downtown Indianapolis trying to find a Eastbound bus along my chosen route and I couldn't find one....it was awful. And I was getting blisters the size of Taiwan on my heels from new "comfortable" shoes (snort) - ended up limping 8 blocks until I was finally able to wave down a bus. Wasn't at a stop - just an intersection but the driver was a saint and let me on.



The trip home wasn't much better. Thankfully my friend, who I go to the green class with, brought the most marvelous band aids ever - so my heels were finally getting relief - but I could see out the window from where our class was and I watched hopefully as a bus went by at 7:00 - then another at 7:38....thinking, "OK, so class gets out at 8 and another bus should go by right?!" NO. I sat out in an unfamiliar neighborhood in the dark for more than 30 minutes before breaking down and calling my friend to drive me back to my car. Sigh.



So riding the bus to my green class to be more green....fail.

Oh well, the last class is next Wednesday and we are going to have a little pitch-in and green elephant gift exchange - so I am just going to drive. I would rather use up some gas than go through all that again.

I STILL ride the bus to work everyday on normal days...days when I don't have to be anywhere at a specific time. But what I've learned and am still learning is that you just can't rely on the bus to get you where you want on time. It isn't a very reliable source of transportation for people on a rigid schedule.

Heck, one morning we all boarded the bus to head downtown and as the driver fired her up to pull away from the curb - the thing just died. And we waited probably 15 minutes because we really didn't know what was going on and the driver at no point apologized or explained what was happening or what was going to happen. Was another bus going to come in time to take us where we needed to be? Answer ended up being no. That bus was supposed to leave at 8:10 and get downtown by 8:30...well since it broke down, the next bus that would come through wouldn't be until 8:38...which means it wouldn't get downtown until at least 9. Everyone had to get off and get back into their cars and drive to work. The sad thing is that we had already paid our bus fares and the driver couldn't reimburse us.

In retrospect, I think riding the bus is great in many ways, but unrealistic in others.

Sorry for the bus rant there....my heels are still smarting this morning...and I had to sit next to a breather-mcstinky-breath this morning and it was no fun.

Anyways, back to my Green Class.

I got drilled again by squinty eyes about my carbon footprint. I had to give her the low down about what all I was doing to get it so low. Honestly, it is like the perfect alignment. We just bought our first new home and it is insulated well and came fully equipped with all Energy Star appliances. Our community pays for curbside recycling and we have compost out back. With the bus and my husband's new job being so close - we have cut our miles down to nothing.

One of the things we talked about last night was pretty intriguing though - battery powered lawn mowers. Huh...I guess they come with a key start ignition so maybe I could even run the darn thing!

After all my ranting I think I should participate in Thankful Thursdays - a great idea by garden blogger Thyme for Herbs.

Top 10 Highlights & Lowlights of My Weekend

1. My husband's birthday was Friday. Wanted to buy him everything he wanted - but his wish list is a little pricey. (eastern Caribbean cruises, hot tubs, flat screen tvs - yeah, he dreams big!) Planned on getting him either an IU grill cover (sounds lame, but it was what he wanted dammit!), the overstuffed chair that goes with our living room set he has been wanting OR finally getting cable. But life had other plans apparently...though we are going to go on that cruise next year!

2. Our washing machine died. (so, yeah, my hubby got a washing machine for his bday - yay!) Stupid thing started making an awful sound....thought it was just because hubby was in the shower and was using the water supply. Upon further investigation found out that the agitator won't move....and the back of the dang machine won't come off and can't find any other way to get into the appliance to see what is wrong. But really, even if we could get inside the machine - we wouldn't have a clue what to look for or how to fix it. Had to stop the husband when I saw him go upstairs with a hammer and a crowbar - there was no way that was going to end well.

3. Husband lost his last pair of contacts. Could not get a new pair because his prescription expired. Set up eye appointments for both of us one the same day - his birthday - because we were both off from work. Same day the washer died, same day we had to go to the BMV....S.A.M.E. day. Puffs of air to the pupils don't exactly equal birthday fun.

4. Had to go the BMV to renew our plates. Yup, wanted to renew online but somehow August 15th snuck up on me and all of sudden our plates were expired. Tried to use the easy-peasy DIY kiosk. Yeah, didn't happen because of some sort of "binder" on my plate - something about our car insurance verification...so wasted all that time at the darn kiosk and ended up having to go inside anyways. Sigh.

5. Washing machines are expensive and cannot be delivered in a reasonable amount of time. Won't be here till Thursday. In the two days since it broke - one of our dogs has managed to both soil her crate which had a blanket in it AND puke on a towel - yay!!! Because, unless I make trip to the laundry mat - I gotta wait till Thursday to do a load of laundry. :( We opted for an Energy Star GE front loader model. (i.e. expensive)

6. Managed to have a great time with new friends who were kind enough to let us wash and dry the wet load of dirty clothes that were in the washing machine at the time of its demise (this was BEFORE the dog got sick). Ended up staying up till 2 in the morn (our host and hostess were whipping up some great drinks and convo) - though not good when you have an all day, two day conference to wake up for the next day. Blah! Was definitely a little blurry eyed and dehydrated the whole weekend.

7. Attended the blogIndiana Conference. Met and caught up with lots of great local Indiana bloggers including Kirsten from Middle West Meals and Casey from Moosh in Indy - among many others! Heard from great speakers including Douglas Karr, Krista Neher and Scott Abel - view the full list of all the wonderful speakers at the blogIndiana website! Now I just need a day or two process what all I learned and put it all to good use both towards my personal blogs and the blog we are building for one of our clients at work.

8. Added 3 more pairs of shoes to my collection! Sandals are on sale at Target everyone!! We are talking shoes for $7 - that is my kind of bargain! Wore all three pairs this weekend and none gave me blisters - hooray!

9. Bought yet another pineapple themed item to our home decor. Found a lovely pineapple doormat from Home Depot for $9.99! Thank goodness pineapples are a symbol of hospitality and not something weird or crazy - because we have pineapple everything (doorbell, door mat, lamps, etc). We like them because they are tropical-esqe and we are pretty much not Hoosiers at heart though we were both born and raised here in Indiana. We need sand, sun and salt water to feel at home.

10. Got to eat DQ Ice Cream Blizzard cake for breakfast all weekend! Managed to buy hubby a birthday cake BEFORE all hell broke lose this weekend. Gotta love that fudgey crunchy center!