I texted in a couple of IPTP, but there is one I would like to add, and also explain what made that trip out of the ordinary. What made that trip unique was the people I had with me. Mom and Dad went up to the Sunset Idea House, which is up in Menlo Park, and they left directly after church, which left Alex, Mandy, Nick, Beth, and myself in San Jose, needing to ride the bus home. Now I will not try to say that I did not volunteer, but when I volunteered I did not fully understand what would be entailed. It was not awful, but I would not to do it again, at least for a while. I got off, and my shoulders were so tense, all I felt like doing was laying on the ground. There were some interesting people, besides my family, though, so the trip still had redemptive value. As I texted in, the first IPTP was Latino, and what made him interesting was his general talkitiveness, despite the fact absolutely no one was listening. Plus he had those old-style sunglasses, the round ones, that are totally black. Tragically he got off pretty quickly.
The one I didn't text in was a Asian gentleman, between 50-80, dressed entirely in white, including hat and shoes, with a neat little goatee. He was one of the IPTP I wanted to talk with, if only to see if he could teach me karate so I could deal with a bully at my school. Perfectly quiet, really normal IPTP. I guess the "I" for him stands for "Intriguing".
The final IPTP was, as I said, the bus driver. We stopped at a stop, and I noticed a man sitting on the bench in a VTA shirt (VTA stands for Valley Transit Authority, whose bus I usually ride). The current driver got off, and he and VTA shirt talked for a bit, then VTA shirt started singing, not too badly, but certainly not good. He plopped himself down in the driver's seat, and off we went.
I noticed he was either a very experienced driver, or a very brash one, probably even a brashly experienced driver. Several times I saw the speed limit sign, and I knew we were going at least 10 mph over that. We were tootling along, and then I noticed one of the other passengers holding a $10 bill out to the people around him. Couldn't really hear, but then I hear the bus driver say over the intercom "Sir, we will stop at Starbucks, and you can get your change there." I didn't even know the buses had an intercom. So we stop, which is totally out of the norm for bus drivers, and we waited for a couple minutes, then he says "Forget it!", and then the guy comes running after the bus, and he let him on. Probably 20 minutes later, he picked up a large group of students, and after they sit down, he busts out another announcement. "Y'all need to have your money ready when we pull up. I have to wait while you get out your change, and that wastes a lot of time. There is even an announcer voice reminding you. (This is true) Its really rude, and I don't appreciate the attitude behind it." That's when I knew, this bus driver was a maverick. Perhaps he was a bus driver for John McCain. Moving along, and he comes over with an announcement that we would be stopping for a "courtesy stop, not an official stop, since I know how hard it is to get to Wal-Mart if you get off at Curtner" His last little tirade was against people who try to get off without pulling the cord. "If you don't pull the cord, I don't know you want to get off. I've been noticing a lot of this behavior too, and you people should know, I'm not physic." As we were coming into Morgan Hill, there is part of the route that doesn't have a lot of street signs, so it is harder to know which stop is the one you want. He solved this problem by announcing the name of every street we were about stop at. Nick had caught on to the fact that this driver was a cut above, so he started mocking the street announcing thing. I, unfortunatelly, had to shush him, because Nick has not mastered the concept of subtlety, so he was doing this as loud as possible. I wished I had been able to ride until the end of his route, just to if he did anything else.
This Saturday was the end of National Neighborhood some about beautification Week, and an event was held at the apartments, which we attended.It was marginally fun, I certainly enjoyed finishing, and seeing all the new growth around the complex. Lots of little plants, and flowers, all around. The planting of the flowers was just ok, but I did pick up on a Spanish phrase. "Is that the first flower you planted all day?" Darn proud of myself.
Today I picked up one of the kids we watch when we are housesitting, but I picked him up on my bike, so he rode on the seat and I peddled. He was really scared, but we didn't fall even once.
With the public school year ending, people keep asking me when my school year ends. It never really ends, which I like, because it discourages me disconnecting education from the rest of my life. Another reason I like doing school in the summertime, is because I can study outdoors, which is fun. Today I discovered the dark side of studying in natural light. I was laying on a blanket, reading Shakespeare, (Much Ado About Nothing), and suddenly I woke up, went inside, and realized I had taken about a 10 minute nap, accidentally. First time I fell asleep during school hours unintentionally. Might have been the Shakespeare.
The next post will be a collection of cool articles, music, videos, and sites that I have collected over a while.
That's it for now!
Enjoy!
The one I didn't text in was a Asian gentleman, between 50-80, dressed entirely in white, including hat and shoes, with a neat little goatee. He was one of the IPTP I wanted to talk with, if only to see if he could teach me karate so I could deal with a bully at my school. Perfectly quiet, really normal IPTP. I guess the "I" for him stands for "Intriguing".
The final IPTP was, as I said, the bus driver. We stopped at a stop, and I noticed a man sitting on the bench in a VTA shirt (VTA stands for Valley Transit Authority, whose bus I usually ride). The current driver got off, and he and VTA shirt talked for a bit, then VTA shirt started singing, not too badly, but certainly not good. He plopped himself down in the driver's seat, and off we went.
I noticed he was either a very experienced driver, or a very brash one, probably even a brashly experienced driver. Several times I saw the speed limit sign, and I knew we were going at least 10 mph over that. We were tootling along, and then I noticed one of the other passengers holding a $10 bill out to the people around him. Couldn't really hear, but then I hear the bus driver say over the intercom "Sir, we will stop at Starbucks, and you can get your change there." I didn't even know the buses had an intercom. So we stop, which is totally out of the norm for bus drivers, and we waited for a couple minutes, then he says "Forget it!", and then the guy comes running after the bus, and he let him on. Probably 20 minutes later, he picked up a large group of students, and after they sit down, he busts out another announcement. "Y'all need to have your money ready when we pull up. I have to wait while you get out your change, and that wastes a lot of time. There is even an announcer voice reminding you. (This is true) Its really rude, and I don't appreciate the attitude behind it." That's when I knew, this bus driver was a maverick. Perhaps he was a bus driver for John McCain. Moving along, and he comes over with an announcement that we would be stopping for a "courtesy stop, not an official stop, since I know how hard it is to get to Wal-Mart if you get off at Curtner" His last little tirade was against people who try to get off without pulling the cord. "If you don't pull the cord, I don't know you want to get off. I've been noticing a lot of this behavior too, and you people should know, I'm not physic." As we were coming into Morgan Hill, there is part of the route that doesn't have a lot of street signs, so it is harder to know which stop is the one you want. He solved this problem by announcing the name of every street we were about stop at. Nick had caught on to the fact that this driver was a cut above, so he started mocking the street announcing thing. I, unfortunatelly, had to shush him, because Nick has not mastered the concept of subtlety, so he was doing this as loud as possible. I wished I had been able to ride until the end of his route, just to if he did anything else.
This Saturday was the end of National Neighborhood some about beautification Week, and an event was held at the apartments, which we attended.It was marginally fun, I certainly enjoyed finishing, and seeing all the new growth around the complex. Lots of little plants, and flowers, all around. The planting of the flowers was just ok, but I did pick up on a Spanish phrase. "Is that the first flower you planted all day?" Darn proud of myself.
Today I picked up one of the kids we watch when we are housesitting, but I picked him up on my bike, so he rode on the seat and I peddled. He was really scared, but we didn't fall even once.
With the public school year ending, people keep asking me when my school year ends. It never really ends, which I like, because it discourages me disconnecting education from the rest of my life. Another reason I like doing school in the summertime, is because I can study outdoors, which is fun. Today I discovered the dark side of studying in natural light. I was laying on a blanket, reading Shakespeare, (Much Ado About Nothing), and suddenly I woke up, went inside, and realized I had taken about a 10 minute nap, accidentally. First time I fell asleep during school hours unintentionally. Might have been the Shakespeare.
The next post will be a collection of cool articles, music, videos, and sites that I have collected over a while.
That's it for now!
Enjoy!
1 comment:
hahah. ahhh Nick.
This one made me laugh more than usual!
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