Back Again

I'm back up! My genius brother somehow got my laptop to work again. Several people had tried and failed, and I was sure it was a goner, but my brother proved me wrong. He tried to explain what he was doing as he went along, but it made my head spin, so I don't really know. But I'm back!

As the Greyhound to Kitchener arrived in Guelph and passengers were getting off, the first person to get off thanked the driver for his kindness and gave him a hug. I thought that was a sweet gesture and figured they might have had some kind of good interaction. But the second person clasped both her hands around his, looked him in the eyes, and thanked him as well. And every single passenger after that made a sincere effort to express their gratitude to this driver. I know most of the Greyhound drivers that do the route between Kitchener and Guelph, and this guy was new. It made me wonder what he must have done on the bus to have invoked the gratitude of all the passengers.

Bus drivers are in general the subject of aggravation for people. I've often thought that it's a profession I do not envy. It's a position where people require you to be exact when you're operating under unpredictable circumstances, and people confront you when things don't go well, but don't acknowledge it when things are good. I feel like people go to bus drivers with their problems as much as social workers.

But the position being one that attracts such negative responses made me wonder more about what this driver had done to receive such admiration. I wanted to ask, but didn't, and no one boarding the bus did either. When exiting the bus, I thanked him with as much enthusiasm, because I enjoyed the positivity, even if I didn't understand where it was coming from.

I hate the limitations of human perception. When I was at the Guelph terminal, I noticed that there are ornamental metal carvings of crowns placed in the crook of each light post. I obviously know the symbolism, Guelph is the "Royal City" after all, but it made me think of how many times I've been at that bus stop and failed to notice this decoration. I really enjoy that some architect or whoever thought to make such a detail, but their effort was lost on me for how many years I've been taking that bus. There are likely many people who have been using that bus for longer than me and who still haven't noticed it.

Recently I found two pennies on the ground. Separate locations, each event a day apart from the other. The phrase "find a penny pick it up and all day long you'll have good luck" holds more weight now than ever, since pennies have been discontinued for years. I wonder who's dropping them, or if they'd just been overlooked for such a length of time.