Commuting moments...

[elfs]

Little Evil Bird

My commutes are pretty routine. The bus is getting more and more crowded, and the city is giving us smaller and smaller buses. Seattle is pulling some of the heavier buses off routes as fast as it can to save gas money, and I can understand that, but some of the rides are becoming desperately unpleasant and the situation worsens.

My commute starts at a suburban stop next to a gas station. There's a tree of very dark, almost purplish leaves. Since I'm there right before sunrise, the tree looks positively black. And it chirps. It's always full of these tiny little birds which congregate deep within the tree, making them impossible to see. I pulled out my camera and took random shots of the tree, hoping to spot one. This is the best shot I got, although the bird looks quite evil, no?

Inside the bus wasn't too bad, but I have to really wonder: do the local imams really think that advertising is going to do them any good? I've started to notice "learn about Islam!" posters, black ones, all over town, including a new one inside the bus from a different mosque than the coalition that was putting out red posters last month. I mean, is that it? Is that all they've got?

Actually, it's probably working for them. A fellow on the bus last week was reading an Introduction to Islam.

Overhead electrical work

The midpoint of my commute is a transfer at either the Seattle Art Museum or the Pike Place Market bagel shop. If I'm behind in my writing, SAM has the better seats while waiting for a bus. (In fact, I ran into woggie there a few weeks ago) If I'm starving, the bagel shop. Today, it was the bagel shop, not because I was behind in my writing, but because I finished off the last sentence just as we reached SAM and I missed getting off the bus.

While I was waiting at the stop, a sharp bright flash filled the street, followed by a >crack< sound. I looked down the street and saw two construction workers on a lift platform out in the middle of the street. They were working on one of the many high-voltage lines that power our electrical bus grid, and must have done something wrong because they were down on the far side of the lift from the lines, and a big puff of smoke was coming up from where the lines intersected with another set of lines going up the street. They seemed to be okay-- in fact, it seemed like no big deal, and they went about their work as usual.

Office Space.

The last stage of my commute is a hike across three blocks from the stop to my office, usually between the meat packing plant and the animal testing laboratory (we've already made all the jokes you can imagine), down to the Seattle Art Museum outdoor garden, and then up to the office. Between the SAM garden and my office is a low, one-story building being used currently as a parking lot. A notice on the building this morning indicated that the city was now taking "comments from the public" about a developer's wish to build a 14-story "mixed use" building on the lot.

Which would completely block my view of the garden and the sound. Suck!