Wednesday misc

Gassed up my van today with the most expensive gas I’ve ever bought in the US (gasoline in Japan has always been, in my experience, about five times as expensive as the US).  $40.40 for 12.87 gallons of gas.  Reportedly, gas in Oregon and Washington is the most expensive in the US.  In 1985, I drove from Rhode Island to Oregon and on to southern California for just over $200.  I’ll never be able to do that again!

No big surprise, really.  Second quarter earnings reports are due out soon, and the oil companies want to show record profits again.  At this point in time, I don’t have a choice about driving to work, and the oil companies know that many Americans don’t, and that whatever gas costs, they’ll buy the stuff.

I feel that hand in my pocket.

I haven’t always gone by the name on my birth certificate.  In Japan, the language does not have a sound that makes up most of my name, and so I went by another name there that could be pronounced. (kinda like kato – in fact, it was Kato.  Maybe you wondered where my screen name comes from – there ya go.  My "Hanko", my legal stamp in Japan, was made up of charaters which meant "person who comes to Asia" – "Kaa ah toe")

It seems that more people know my name than I do theirs.  Every day, many people say hi ____ to me and for many of them, all I can say is hi back, blanking on their names, if I ever knew them.  Same here in my building.  I feel a little guilty about that.

I’ve picked up a nickname at the bus barn – they are calling me "Indiana".  I always wear a hat, and most often wear a leather jacket.  Being called Indiana doesn’t bother me.  I really liked the "Indiana Jones" movies, and ya know, being compared, kind of, to Harrison Ford is kind of flattering.  It could be worse, you know.  I’ve even been to Indiana a few times.

What is it?  Slowpoke season?  For the last couple of days, I’ve gotten stuck behind cars going ten miles an hour (or more) under the speed limit.  My 69 bus is no comet, but come on!  Go the speed limit or get off the road!  I got places to be and kids to transport.

I feel I’ve settled into a routine, a pleasant routine, at work.  I got a good night’s sleep last night – faded by 10 and slept til 5:40 this morning, so was ready to roll by 6:20 to go to the bus barn. 

My pretrip takes me a short amount of time to do, so I had plenty of time this morning to write referrals on some more of the Elementary kids.  A couple of boys thought it was a fun idea to throw a marble the length of the bus, narrowly missing their driver – while I was on 82nd avenue by the mall. 

Bad idea, boys.  I wrote another couple on kids who won’t stay in their seats properly, and who give me looks that if they could kill, they’d be walkin’ home.  Regulation number one on the bus is that the driver is god, or in charge at least, and not to be ignored.  Kids disrespect me at their peril.  I am sort of merciless about it too.

The Elementary kids were wild today – no school for them tomorrow.  The Elementary schools and the middle schools are closed tomorrow for a Teacher’s Work Day, but the high schools are in session, and there is an all hands meeting of the drivers too, 9 to noon.  It’ll be an easier day, but still will be an almost full day, more or less.

I used to come home and turn on the tv to watch the news, but it began to piss me off more than it was worth.  I don’t believe a fucking thing Bush says.  He is the worst president of my lifetime, and maybe the worst ever. 

Jackass.

The Democrats are pussies.  Clinton was impeached for lying to a Grand Jury, but Bush lied to the whole country many times over and what’s done about it? He is directly responsible for over three thousand soldiers dying in Iraq.  He has all but destroyed our rep with the rest of the world and has perverted the Justice system for fucking politics.

Forget Impeacement, crucify the fucker. 

All the Bushes are losers and if I were god, I’d strike ’em all dead, right fuckin’ now.  Bush claims he’s a religious man, with God’s words in his ear.  Anybody else, they’d throw him in the mental hospital.  What I think is that if God approves what Bush has done, then I want no part of that god – worship a diety who approves the shit Bush has done?  No fucking way.

I don’t beleive "Al Qeada" is any more than the bogey man they drag out to steal our money and to pay off their buddies with it.  Orwell called the same figure "Goldstein" in "1984", but we can’t have that – anti-semitism!  No, the approved bogeyman is a Muslim.

Gaaa, the whole thing reeks to heaven.  How long’s it gonna be before the military says enough and turns on Bush?  As it is, the Army is so tattered that if anything happens anywhere else, the US cannot respond – we’re tied down in Iraq.  Another Bush failure, in a life-long string of failures.

Fucking loser.

I’m almost done watching the second season of "LOST" on DVD, but recently discovered that Blockbuster movie rentals has the first season on disc too.  It’s "LOST" night again too.  I like Wednesdays a lot because of that, and because it’s my longest day bus driving.  A little over 8 and a half hours of work on Wednesdays.

I got my new glasses two weeks ago and really, really like them.  Yesterday was bus barn payday, and since I have direct deposit set up, the money was in my account when I woke up.  My new glasses are photo-gray, excuse me, "Tansitions!" but they don’t get dark enough sitting in the driver’s seat of the bus, so I went and got new dark lenses in my sunglasses.  I really like them too – the brown tint brings out the red of traffic and brake lights very well.

It’s getting warmer, and tomorrow is supposed to be a sunny day.  I love sungl

asses days.

8 more Thursdays to go and then school’s over.  My first paid time off in over ten years.  Something to look forward to, fer sure.

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