Lately, I find myself not driving as much as I used to. Since I do most of my work at home, I've never put a lot of miles on my car but in recent years, even that total has diminished. One reason is how bad traffic has gotten in some areas around me. Another is the rise of services like Lyft and Uber. It's simply easier to use them for some appointments, like when I go to my ophthalmologist, as I did last week for my annual check-up.
Driving there costs me some unknown amount of cash for the gas but it also costs me $12 to park in his building. Round trip by Lyft came to about $15 so it's less than three dollars to save myself the aggravation of driving myself. I've also had some great conversations with Lyft and Uber drivers.
Other reasons for driving less: I now have a real good assistant to run errands and then there's my still-relatively-new knee which works well but occasionally is not in the mood to work the pedals, especially when it's likely to be a lot of stop-and-go and stop-and-go and stop-and go. I didn't drive at all in the months after I got it and I got used to alternate modes of transportation. Plus, it was good for the knee to walk some short distances I might otherwise have driven.
And then there's the bus. Yes, the bus. There are some destinations in L.A. that are hell to get to by bus but many which are a breeze if you have two things. One is a Tap card, which you can buy and reload on the net. The other is the Google Maps app I have on my phone. At least in my experience, it's great at telling you which bus to take, where to wait for it, when it'll be along and when it'll get you where you're going. You also can read your iPad as you travel on the bus and you sometimes get good anecdotes.
Yesterday, I journeyed into Beverly Hills to meet with my Business Manager Person. I do this every so often so I can make sure he's still in the country and hasn't absconded to Peru with all my money. I probably shouldn't worry since all my money would actually get him about as far as Hermosa Beach and only if he took the bus and used the senior discount.
On the way there, I was running late so I took a Lyft. The driver overheard my end of a phone conversation with Paul Dini and figured out I was involved in comic books. We then had such a nice chat about conventions that I was almost disappointed when we arrived at my destination and it had to end. On the way home, I took a bus. Sitting next to me was a person who looked like Steve Bannon would look if Steve Bannon had a gender-reassignment.
She was telling everyone — not just me — how screwed-up the world was and especially "those idiots in Washington." She was harsher on Republicans than Democrats because Republicans are in power, but not fond of either. At one point she said, "Trump oughta bring me to Washington and let me tell him what to do" and I told her, "The way things are going, you may get a call any day now."
Not that any of us passengers were that interested but she told us all what she would do. "Locked rooms," she said. "You want to solve health insurance? You take all the people who have to agree on health insurance and you lock them in a room. Nobody gets out to eat or pee until they solve it.
"Taxes?" she said. "Put 'em all in a room, lock the door and nobody gets out until they get a deal!" For about eleven blocks, she ticked off the issues of the day — guns, gay rights, defense, election fraud…all of them are instantly solvable if we just start locking people in rooms without snacks or toilets.
As she was saying all this, I was exchanging looks with other passengers. There was much eye-rolling on that bus and quiet tolerance of the crazy lady in our midst. But as I got off, another passenger was getting off at the same stop and I said to him, "Gee, I'm almost sorry the ride's over. I wanted to hear about locking the leaders of Israel and Egypt in a room until they agree on what to do about Gaza."
The man chuckled and said, "You know, what scares me is that I don't see anyone around these days who makes a whole lotta sense more than she does!"