Next time, please call earlier
I should have been standing by the side of the road, singing “Oh what a beautiful morning”. Instead, I found myself on the bus, stopped in the middle of the highway leading into the city, staring at a car headed in the opposite direction – my direction. Eye to evil eye. Just then, the announcer at CBC added my school board to the list of those already closed due to inclement weather. A matter of minutes make the difference between enjoying the whole storm day at home or on the road.
Other school board erred on the side of caution, closing announcements made before the clientele had taken their seats. Mine used another approach, double-caution if you will. Only if the rest of the gang commits will we play along. From where I sat, it just meant an adjustment in travel plans.
First change: shopping for a muffin without a stopwatch. I sometimes get my fix of raisin and bran from a small coffee shop in the basement of the convention centre. My bus change happens just outside, and if I have a few minutes of slack time I sprint downstairs and join the queue. This place does a booming business, and the staff and customers have a familiarity that reminds me of a family kitchen. “Toasted one side with cheese and ham, hold the mayo”. No problem. On the days where my gamble pays off, I sprint back upstairs for a Just-in-time connection with the second bus on my route. Today, I had enough time to buy TWO.
Then, off to the university library, where I arrived before the unlocking ceremony. That hasn’t happened often, even when I had justifiable reason to be at the library before the sun came out. The campus tunnels were welcome protection from the winds and snow of a springtime storm. Thirty minutes later, back on the bus to beat a return trip to home. Not as fast as the express plan, but I was back in my own kitchen, for my own coffee just about the time that the sun shone through.
