From bad to worse - the bus ride home

Today started out nice.  But midday it started raining heavily and the wind trashed around a lot.  Our building had several brown-outs and reset our computers.  Seeing how windy it was, I checked online for any potential bridge closures.  Fortunately, none of the 20 state highway closures involved the 520 bridge.  Yes, 20 highway closures.

So I decide to leave work a little early and get to the bus stop at 4:30.  My trip is normally about 40 minutes (I bus/bike from Seattle to Microsoft each day).  But the bus is running late and arrives at 4:50.  This is understandable when we get to the onramp.  The bus driver spent 30 minutes trying to get onto the highway.  Yes, 30 minutes on the on-ramp.

She gives up and starts taking surface streets.  It's been an hour and we've gone 2 miles.  Then the power goes out.  So we're on side streets, the highway is backed up, and there are no street or traffic lights which causes a further mess.  Yes, a power outage.

Then the bus driver starts cursing and pulls over.  At the start of our trip she had lost a contact lense.  That's OK because her other eye was OK... until now!  With both contact lenses lost to the unlit floor of the bus, we're stuck in heavy traffic on a side street with a blind driver!  Yes, a blind driver!

After 15 minutes of searching with flashlights we were able to find her lenses.  As we get onto the highway (again), I hear over the radio that there is some kind of police action downtown and that they are detouring buses.  Boy am I glad that I get off at the stop before the detour!

So I survived: 20 highway closures, gridlock on SR 520, side streets, a power outage, a blind driver, and police action.  And it still only took 2.5 hours.

-Ben Karas