Stemming from Jess' post about the man and gasoline we decided to stick it to him. The man, that is. So we road the bus today to church and back. It was a test ride to see if it's a lifestyle we're willing to commit to. There are still some questions concerning Jess' ability to walk or corral Jones on the bus, but in general it was an encouraging experiment.
You see, because we're poor we can get bus passes for 18 bucks a person per month. These passes work for all of the 'Couve in addition to all of Portland. Yeah, thats right, we can ride the max, the street car, and the bus in Portland. Pretty good deal if you ask me. It took us a total of 50 minutes from start to finish and one transfer to get across town to Renovatus today (normally it takes 20). But the time investment is worth it. I'm looking forward to reading while on the way to work, to saving gas money, and to helping get cars off the road.
It reminds me of when I lived in Portugal. Jonathan and I road the bus everywhere. It was good at times and killer at others but we didn't really know any different because we didn't have a choice. The best part about riding the bus in Vancouver is that people don't stoop to the level of animals. That's an odd thing to say because in big cities everyone takes public transit, but in Vancouver it's just we poor people. I'll tell ya though, there were times that I regretted being a part of the human race as I watched respectable little Portuguese people smash themselves on an already full bus as the doors would close repeatedly on their butt until they sucked it in enough to allow closure. It was like watching cows trying to fit around a feeding trough or piglets trying to all find their own nipple to suck. The greatest part was that if you were willing to wait seven minutes for the next bus it would inevitably be empty because everyone crowded on the first. I miss those days. I miss sleeping on the bus and always waking up at the right time to get off (I never missed a stop from sleeping...I'm not sure how). I miss having a bus book, one that I carried around and only read while on mass transit. I miss having blind guys sit on my lap or rude people talking smack about me thinking I didn't understand what they were saying. I don't, however, miss the mugginess on the bus when it was full. And I don't miss grocery shopping. And I don't miss waiting for the mysterious bus to Quejas (it didn't follow a schedule and sometimes just wouldn't show up). I don't miss waiting for the bus after a long day when all you want to do is crawl into bed and go to sleep. I don't miss waiting for the bus on extremely hot days with no shade.

I'll let you know how this little experiment goes.