Flu and Go

I had the flu last week, which isn't fair because I had my flu shot, and last year, I also got the flu even though I had my flu shot. Otherwise, I can't remember getting the flu since I was a kid. When I got my flu shot, everyone in the community was like "The flu shot gives you the flu!" and I was like "Ignorant people, you just don't like getting shots, and just because you know someone who got the flu after getting the shot doesn't mean it gives it to you. That's corroboration not causation, it lowers risk, it doesn't give immunity, so there's bound to be a few people every year who get the shot and sick anyway, but it doesn't excuse not trying to prevent it."

But then I got sick and nobody else did, which really made my logic look iffy. Oh well. I kind of like being sick, though. Forces me to just concentrate on myself and my own well being. It's like being on vacation with the added bonus that you're too delirious to worry about life's troubles.

My brother and mother both got the flu, and nobody else in Guelph did, and I didn't even see them in person, just talked to them over the phone. It's like I spread it through the phone line. Maybe it's a family thing, some genetic vulnerability.

My temperature peaked at 103.6. Before this, I wasn't even really sure what constituted a temperature. I first checked after a morning shift when my legs felt like they would give out, I was feeling short of breath and seemed to be complaining about the cold more than other people. I had an evening shift that day, and I usually don't bother to go home between shifts on days like that because I spend more time on the bus than at home if I do, but this time I thought I should at least check my temperature. Read 101.5, looked it up and saw that was a significant fever. Called my evening shift and read them the facts.

Good thing, too, because my temperature would continue to rise. First time I broke 103, I looked up the levels of fever, and it said "Adults should be able to survive temperatures of 103 to 104 for short periods of time" I was like, "I can survive this for a short period of time?!" Yeah, worst part of being sick. That didn't feel like vacation. I was going to take a Neocitrine, which "May cause drowsiness" but took Tylenol instead, because I wanted to be awake so I had a fighting shot of saving my life if my temperature continued to rise.

My grandmother said that the people who get hit hard often seem to recover faster. Like they just get it out of the way. I thought that seemed like a funny idea, like the virus shows up in my body, and my ornery cells are just like "BURN IT TO THE GROUND!!" and raises my temperature to near-fatal extremes just to get things done and out of the way. Next time guys, can we leave it in the 102 range?

I got to ride the Go Bus recently. In the next week and a half, I've got to be in Hamilton and Oakville for training. Oakville isn't connected by Greyhound, and I had to be in Hamilton earlier than a Greyhound could get me there. So curiously, even though I've never been called to use Go before, I'm now being called to do so due to two unrelated circumstances, six times in the next week and a half.

I was super sketched to be using a new transport system for something that required certain results. Go has its own trip planner, so I printed out my plans and went to buy my tickets from the terminal. I couldn't buy online, which seemed weird. I showed up, asked if I could buy a ticket departing from Guelph in the Kitchener station. She told me to buy it in Guelph and asked me when I was leaving. I said Thursday (I think it was Tuesday at the time), she said the tickets are only good for four hours.

So then I point out that my departure time is like, 4:00 AM and there's no ticket places open at that time. She says that I can purchase tickets from the driver if I have exact change. I ask if it's a flat rate for tickets and she says I'll need to know my exact distance.

SKETCHED! I don't know how a system can operate, where everyone potentially has to have an on-the-spot discussion about mileage with the driver when they get picked up.

I wound up buying something called a Presto Card, which is like a pay-as-you-go card that you tap in and out with when you ride. I take a Greyhound to Guelph to station myself for training, as it takes a half hour of travel out of each side of the Hamilton trips, and fifteen minutes of walking. That's an hour and a half saved per day. Mom's still got the flu though, so I'm really banking on our flus being the same, as I could otherwise be infected again.

But it's still all so new. It occurs to me (as it has before) that while I see Go buses all the time, and Go stops, I've never seen anyone board one. They just drive by, with people on them, but don't seem to have any interaction with the rest of the world. Like decor, or some kind of foreshadowing that I would eventually need to use one.

I actually begin to feel like the protagonist of a story, with this element introduced but left inactive because it would be pointless to involve it earlier. I'm further creeped out when I see that there is a Guelph bus that leaves every fifteen minutes, and it only goes one direction, which is the way I need. The first conversation I hear that day is about the roundabout transit system for traveling to Hamilton. I'm like, how could I have possibly never seen one board if they come to the main station every fiteen minutes?!

I've got nightmares that the bus driver won't take Presto because we're leaving from Guelph and not Kitchener, and then he won't be selling bus tickets because even though the bus lady said they did, the website said not to purchase from drivers. I'm worried I won't know how to signal I want to stop and that I won't recognize my stop since it's a foreign city.

Turns out, the Go is exactly like a city bus. There's an electric sign that says which stop is coming up (sometimes with a list of the four following stops!) and a voiceover. There are "Stop" buttons at every seat that you can press to signal when you want to get off. Presto tap was easy. I got to ride in a double decker! I sat in the seat above the driver and pretended I was driving the bus from my tower in the sky!

I get to my destination and it turns out my training isn't Thursday and Friday, it's Friday and Saturday! I was given bad info! By some miracle I actually am free on Saturday. At least I got to get used to the system, but that's $27 and five hours on the bus for a practice run... I was thinking of renting a motel room before I found out day trips could be an option, good thing I didn't do that!