How a windscreen wiper brought down my plans
When travelling around the States, I was going to visit Yosemite national park. I was staying in San Francisco at the time. To make the most of the day (and the transport-schedules), I caught a bus at 5am in the morning. Because there was no-bus-shelter and I wanted to make sure the bus driver saw me waiting in the dark, I had to wait about 10 minutes standing outside in torrential rain.

When I got on the bus, I thought I could spend the time until I had to change to my connecting train catching up on some sleep. I’m one of those people who feels more relaxed whenever the vehicle I’m on is moving so when we came to a stop in the middle of a motorway, I knew something was amiss. The bus-driver got out, did something and then got back on again.

Now if your bus-driver exclaims “SHIT!” you know you’re day isn’t going ahead as planned.

It turned out that the windscreen wiper had broken down, and the rain was making it hard to see through the window. Not wanting to get into trouble, the bus driver parked the bus in a petrol station. We waited two hours for a replacement bus to turn up. While waiting, the bus driver told us some stories about her most memorable bus journeys (e.g. How she was worried her bus was constantly being followed by a car, called the police on him (this was just after 11/9 so she was a bit jumpy) and when the police questioned him, it turned out he was following his girlfriend to make sure she arrived safely – now it wasn’t as if he suspected her of being unfaithful, they were all over each other when she got off the bus).

When the replacement finally arrived, the driver of that bus quickly fiddled with the windscreen wiper and got it to work. When I got to the station, I had missed not only the train I was meant to get but the next one too. I would have caught that one even if I had gotten the following bus. Needless to say, the following train didn’t leave for ages and I wouldn’t have had much time to visit Yosemite national park, so instead, I just jumped on a train to L.A.

To this day, I’ve never visited Yosemite national park, and this I blame on a windscreen wiper.

Length? 3 foot and swings back and forth over the windshield.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Fri 30 May 2008, 17:43, 1 reply)

11/9
Clicked for 11/9 rather than 9/11. I love you
(drunkenfud, Fri 30 May 2008, 18:15, closed)