Today I was late for my first bus. Not always an issue, as the bus I transfer to usually arrives about 12min after I get to the transfer point. In that time, another bus leaves my first stop and gets me to the transfer point with anywhere from 2min to “it’s right in front of us” to spare. Today was one of those days… kind of.
Missed the first bus, so I took a different bus that dropped me at a mid-point to that transfer point. So I think I'll walk over to the transfer, and get about 50yards out when I see the "next bus" I should be getting on pulling up. I scramble/nerd-run back to the stop and hop on, sit down, and then… nothing.
The full bus waits there for about 3minutes while the driver has a delicate and unfunny conversation about how traffic wasn’t bad yesterday and mostly it was just people not paying attention and blah blah blah talking to the woman sitting adjacent to her, in the 4 o’clock position. They had a nice talk while the bus idled, nobody else coming along, for 3 minutes. I’m already thinking “hey… shouldn’t we move now? We’re now a minute behind leaving this point of the trip, and the chatter isn’t getting us anywhere closer to the shitty work coffee I’ll have to endure if I miss the next bus.” The clench-factor of this whole thing was ratcheting quickly.
The driver finally lurches the bus back into gear and off we go, nearing the turn to the transfer point where I need to catch the final bus that drops me off at work. Ahead of us, about 100 yards, leaving the transfer point, is another bus, the route number is too small to read.
Let’s break it down if it’s all going right:
1st bus (255), 7:15am pick-up (or 7:24am if I miss it)
Off at Transfer Point, 7:27am (or 7:38-ish)
Wait, 15min-ish (or 2-5min if I get that 2nd option bus)
2nd bus (245), 7:40am-ish and we’re off to work.
Arrive at work, 8:25am-ish.
If I miss that that transfer bus, the 245, it’s another 15min wait for the next 245. In “rain minutes” that is 22minutes. And the time compounds as we move along, because the later we go, we pick up more students for a local community college as we get through the neighborhoods, so 20seconds to every late minute as another kid with dreams of a General Studies degree hops aboard. All the worker-bees are on-board that earlier one. There's really only like 8 of them all headed for Microsoft.
I got off at the transfer point, asked a person at the stop if the previous bus was the 245, the bus I needed, and he said, “Oh… yeah.” So I missed it. 45seconds. 100 yards. Thanks to the idle chatter, literally, of the bus driver we missed that 2nd bus, the one I should have been on, had the conversation happened while moving. It was literally a 3minute bullshit move that cost me another 28minutes of my day, 17 of which were spent in the rain. She was a minute behind, and it cost me a half hour.
We have no more valuable resource in our lives than our Time. Having a clear understanding of that, and how we should properly use it to our benefit, and to those around us, and to respect the time of other people, is a cornerstone of success. The other cornerstones are Altruism, Perseverance, Core Strength, and Ability to Synchronize-Dance With a Large Group Of Asian Youth.
Don’t give me the argument “Get a car!” or “Get out on time!” Live in the Now, and pay attention. The lesson is that this person’s inability to multitask cost myself and 2 other people the trip on the 245. It cost us TIME. Time is MONEY. And thanks to that bullshit, I had to take time away from my job to write this blog.
I hope that bus driver’s happy.==========
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