Where's the bus?

Via Email

Howdy, Ms. Cindy!

It’s a real honor for me to be writin’ a famous person like you.  My missus, Daisy May, loves readin’ yer Crazy Train stories, but she got real upset the other day when you told ever’body that them there folks at GO Transit wasn’t keep y’all informed right proper ‘bout late trains.  You know, this here story.

Now Daisy May and me, we been married 29 years, and then some, and in that time she ain’t cussed but twice as I can recall.  When Daisy May got to readin’ the comments after the story, she was madder than a wet hen in a tote sack when she learned you bus folk don’t get told that buses are late or don’t show up.  That ain’t right!

Daisy May turned to me and said, “Billy Bob, we gotta help that nice Cindy lady!  It’s not right them yokels in Operations lettin’ her down like that.  We gotta tell Ms. Cindy ‘bout that new fangled real-time bus finder the local transit folks just installed here.  Maybe she can sit down with that Gary McNeil fella and get him to do the same at GO before he rides off into the sunset.”

Now, Ms. Cindy, home for us is in the southern parts of this country.  We lives in a fair to middlin’ town called St. Catharines.  Ever heard of it?  Any way, back to buses and such.  Real coincidence here, ‘cause them GO fellas run their big green buses through here, too.  But the company treats us folks here like we’re a hillbilly backwater stop.  Them city slickers won’t even put up a bus shelter for us.  Nope!  It don’t matter that this town carries Route 12 through the year; not like that summer time flash in the pan Niagara Falls.

Oops!  The missus is givin’ me the evil eye ‘cause I’m rachet jawin’.

So, the folks at St. Catharines Transit got this real slick system that tells you when the next bus you’re waitin’ for is gonna be there for you.  Check out the nitty gritty at this here web site.  It’s not as funky as yer blog site, Ms. Cindy, but it gets the job done.

On my cell phone, I just set up a contact called Find SCT Bus.  I sends a text message of the stop I’m at to the central phone number, and like magic a message comes back tellin’ me when then next buses are rollin’ past that very spot.  Hot diggity!  I know, you think I’m joshin’ you.  Well, here’s the proof.

A Route 9 bus in 25 minutes, and a Route 12 bus in 7 minutes at the Geneva St. @ N. Service Road stop – right in front of the Tim Hortons.  How convenient is that?  And all without some newfangled not-for-Z10 app!

There you go, Ms. Cindy.  The missus and me, we hope you can convince them dudes at Metrolinx to smarten up and replace that arcane e-mail alert system of theirs with something that’s simple and easy to use.  If they get confused and don’t understand the concept, tell the GO brass hop on one of their honkin’ big buses to pay us a visit; we’ll be glad to help.  (Speakin’ of honkin’, could you tell the GO bosses that their DDs need a more “manly” sounding horn?)

That’s it for now, Ms. Cindy.  Daisy May says she loves them pumpkin dishes you’ve been sharin’ on the internets.  She says if you want, she’ll share her mama’s secret BBQ possum recipe with you.  Roadside kill just doesn’t taste any better than that!

Y’all keep ridin’ those trains and buses in style!

Billy Bob