Blogs about living:
Natural Laws of Public Transit.
There are a few "natural laws" of riding public transit that I have noticed over several years of bus ridership.
- Slightly early buses tend to become very early buses as they progress along their route. As passengers miss the slightly early bus, the bus saves time and becomes even earlier. The same is also true for a very slightly late bus; it will have to pick up more passengers, and become even later.
- If one bus is early, the next one will probably be late. That second bus must to pick up the passengers who missed the first bus.
- If one bus is late, the next one will probably be early. The first bus has picked up some passengers who otherwise would have had to wait for that second bus.
- Buses tend to be more crowded, and hence later, during inclement weather. Some walkers will ride the bus if it's raining, and many drivers will ride during snow or ice.
- Most of the time, a bus will be at the front of a line of traffic. Stops along its route will cause the bus to be the slowest traveler in its traffic lane.
- Buses will tend to run earlier on federal and school holidays. There is less street traffic, and it only takes a bit less traffic to make a big difference. There are also fewer passengers, which means fewer stops and less load time.
Let the Games Begin.
You know how in Portland, The Rack is faux dingy warehouse? Last week I went to The Rack in downtown Seattle, assumedly the original one, and it is authentic dingy warehouse. I did find what I was looking for, however. I got some new simple black shoes ($50, originally $140) , and a pair of slacks for only $16. Score! I love saving money.
The impetus for this lunch hour trip to The Rack was my cousin's wedding in Corvallis. We had tons of fun at the wedding, and it was wonderful to see the whole family. I really wish I could have spent more 'quiet' time with them. There was an ad-hoc breakfast the next morning, that was in Corvallis too, and that's a good 2 hour drive from where the hubby and I were sleeping. Sigh. If we'd known in advance, we could have made it happen, but I guess that part of the family just doesn't operate that way. Ah well.
There will be more weddings this summer, so bring it on. ;)
Soo Busy.
Nope - I haven't written anything in a while. Nah, I didn't forget about you - we've just been soooo busy. Last weekend we drove around looking at neighborhoods. Monday night was soccer. Tuesday was looking inside actual houses - after we got a lovely tiramisu at Tutta Bella. Wednesday we came straight home and watched Casino Royale - it was very good. Tonight we did more house-looking. And we've got more lined up for Saturday.
We also have to decide whether we'd like a townhouse, or an actual house. It's a tough soul-searching kinda decision. Do we want frugality or lazyness? New construction or old? Close in or crime-ridden? Will we sell the second car? Soo many choices.
On a less whiny note, I've been getting some nifty icons from Icon Buffet. Lots of pretty stuff, and I'm particularly enamored with the delightfully smooth and alpha-transparent .pngs they provide. For my next design of the blog, I'm going all .png baby. Sorry in advance IE6 users - the site will be usable for you, but IE6's failure to handle alpha-transparencies will make the graphics uhg-ly. Time to consider FireFox.
Cabin Fever.
Fer crying' out loud. I dated the last two posts in 2006. (Fixed now.) I suppose someone would have told me, if I actually had 'comments' functionality. Alas. I do plan to rev the Pew-Pew-Laser-Backend someday, but that's an 'as it strikes me' project. I did sketch out a database design for this. But... don't hold your breath.
For most of Saturday, it was grey and lightly snowing. The snow dusted the landscape again, though it didn't add much to the existing ~7.5 centimeters on the ground. Saturday afternoon I was overcome with the desire to bake something, but all the eggs had been used in breakfast. (Mmmm - omelettes.) The road down from our hilltop apartment had been graveled, so we were able to go out and get some supplies. Today I was able to make a batch of Peanut Blossoms - mmmm. I do look forward to heading out to work tomorrow.