Liberation Day

So I sell my car to this guy and do the deal out at DMV and after I'm walking around with $1000 in my pocket feeling like I won the lottery (although every dime of it is already owed every which way) so I decide to go to the mall to price cell phones and PSP video games....I'm still a child!

No purchasing this good day....just looking.

So I decide it's time to get back to town and of course I'm waiting around for a bus but with a happy feeling. I feel really free and thankful to rid myself of my heap of a car and to just be done paying $4 a gallon. I'm real, real thankful and when I'm done meditating on that idea the bus arrives and one right behind that one.....that's the way our stupid busses work here. You can wait an hour for a bus and then all of a sudden there are 3 heading for the same destination. Brilliiant!!

I get on the second bus cuz it's a prettier ride. The driver sits around for about 10 minutes. The bus in front of us pulls out and more minutes go by. Finally dude pulls out and just as he does this lady is taking her seat. Of course she misses the seat and falls on her ass. Kind of funny, she's not hurt but plenty embarrassed. Dude pulls bus back to the curb. He announces that he must follow procedure now and collect an accident report from the lady. She's all like, no way.....let's get the fuck going. He insists and gets on the CB to headquarters and she's filling out this paperwork and half the people on the bus don't even know what's going on because their all on headphones and the other half of the bus is this group of developmentally disabled adults that travel everywhere by bus with the help of an aide.

Several minutes go by and the aire of annoyance rises inside the bus. I'm fine though....like I'm chewing on something magic and tangy. Life is real good for me.

Then the dude announces to the whole bus that it is also procedure for all of us to fill out an accident report. Grimmaces, groans and moans. The lady is pleading with the driver to just let her off the bus and she'll catch the next one (god only knows how long she would be standing there) but dude can't let anyone on or off the bus. We're captives of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District till this matter is resolved.

In the meantime one of the disabled girls starts wailing. I guess it was the groans and moans or something but the tension cut straight through her. The girl's aide stands up and announces loudly that, "EVERYONE MUST CALM DOWN IMMEDIATELY" and she begins shouting at the driver to let her people off the bus. He says he's bound by policy and procedure. No one leaves. Another gal starts crying and the aide is freaking out.

I get my card and they want all this info about where I was sitting and what I saw. I write in simplicity, "I saw nothing" which is actually truthful because I only heard the thump of her ass hitting the floor and besides.....I don't want to ever be a part of no stinkin lawsuit.


After about twenty minutes we get started and my pretty, half hour trip across town that really takes 12 minutes turns into an hour.

The aftermath:
I spent most of the ride talking with one of the disabled guys who was at the mall trying to sell his PS1 games to the game store but they wouldn't take them because they are worth nothing but they are gonna hook the guy up with a vendor at the flea market who will take them supposedly. I think they just said that though to get the guy out of the store because he's a real talker. He reviewed his whole inventory of DVD's of classic shows from the 70's and 80's giving me episode-by-episode synopsis. He's a big Dukes of Hazard fan.....an Emergency 51 fan too....hey, me too!

The girls calmed down all except for the aide. Boy she has a tough job.

We all made it to town and somehow got off the bus. Personalized gasoline powered transport is a thing of the past for me now and the bus ordeal was my confirmation. I'm car-free now!!!!

I still feel great about my decision to sell the LE6G. I feel liberated!....even if the consequences of my liberation require the extra time and patience needed as I move this sack of silly bones across the conuty and universe.