A short one, fights with Nun, etc etc

Hmmm , this will be short and sweet. No pics to post right now due to son taking all the batteries,, and not telling anyone naturally. So on shopping list,, Batteries!

Been busy the past 3 weekends. SP8 shopping and browsing (why is it when I shop for someone else I have to buy for myself too!) Been hooking up With Kelly (Licraftgal), hit some craft/yarn stores,,, hung out at Panera bread and knitted (or at least she knitted, lol). Went to The Village Knitter in Bablyon to go to a Superbowl Charity knitting event yesterday. You bring the needles or crochet hooks, they supply the yarns for making Chemo caps for charity. Got there later than I liked but nice turnout,, very cute cozy store,, and everyone was friendly, chatty,, and knitting/crocheting up a storm!

Biggest news,, My Lendrum came!

It came Thursday,, a day later than it should have,, and due to UPS error, I'm getting credit at Bountifulspinweave.com,,, where it was purchased. And thanks to me,,,for finally playing Saturday night with my dog brushes,,,,,I LOVE CARDING!!! So,,, I think I know what the credit is going towards too!

Lets see what else,,,, between last week and today alone at work. I am beginning to hate school kids. And Nuns,, (or possibly make-believe Nuns). In a nutshell,, concerning the kids. These are literally snot nosed bratty know it alls, who are probably told by their parents "Just take the bus home,, dont worry if you dont have any money to pay,, the bus driver cant throw you off",, well I dont,, but I ask where are their school bus passes, and,,,"Dont you have any change to throw in the fare box?" Of course they dont. Who doesnt know a single teenager that doesnt have some change on them? Of course I let them on,, ask them for something to put in, but guess what? THEY HAVE NO GOD DAMN MONEY AT ALL! Amazing isnt it? Designer jeans,, Ipods,, the newest latest cellphone, with gps capabilities,, internet surfing,, DVD players (yup they bring them on the bus too!) but ANY change whatsoever? NOPE. Plus on top of that I get cursed out, threatened just for asking. In the long run its no skin off my nose. As the bosses that run the job have been saying since I was hired,, and keep saying. "Dont worry about it" "Let them on, its not worth the hassle", "The agency has more money than they know what to do with since the advent of Metrocards in 1995. How is that you say? Easy,,, say you buy your Metrocard,, whether its a pay per ride,, or a weekly or montly Metrocard. You pay upfront,,, say its the monthly card. Say you dont use it for about 3 weeks because your old one is still current. You have paid your money,, not using the product for that period of time all the while MTA has your money sitting in their banks earning interest. Now I'm bad in math but thats a no brainer. But the general public (now I'm not knocking them) doesnt give a thought to this.

Still they will cry, rant and rave when 2007 comes to an end,, and with the entrance of 2008,, the inevitable fare hikes will it,,, as they promised. We'll see,, time will tell.

Now on to the Nun. This is a doozy.

Last Thursday,, its my last trip. I do the 9pm trip out of the SI ferry. It should be an uneventful trip due to the fact that if I leave on time,, 19 minutes later I'm due to be at the stop across from my depot, where my relief driver gets on, I get off and drop my paperwork off and hightail it out of there to head home to LI. Of course things never turn out that way. Something almost always happens on the last trip of the night.

Its a packed bus,,, I mean sardine can packed. I'm about to leave when I see one more person in my sideview mirror running up the ramp towards my bus, schlepping a gigantic rolling luggage thingy. I open the doors and its a Nun. In a blue habit, complete with rosary beads and the works. She takes about 3 mins trying to lug her bag on behind her,, pushing the passenger up front all the while. Someone kindly sat up and gave her a seat right across from me. She then attempts to put in a single ride ticket (exactly as the name applies, not a transfer,, and single use no transfer ticket), which was already used as stated by my farebox. All I did was tell her that it wasnt good, that it was a used ticket. Well,, I'm by no means a prude, but did my jaw drop by what happened next! She whaled out on me with a string of profanity and then some! Telling me where to go,,, what I can do to myself and so on and so on. The whole bus became so quiet you could hear a proverbial pin drop. I then said to her "your supposed to pay your fare". She then threw at me, "What do you want me to do then" with much disdain in her voice as if she were testing me. Nothing I could do,, I did what the job wanted me to do, which was to tell her what the fare was. I shrugged my shoulders and that was it.

If I were catholic I bet she would have tried to excommunicate me! I cant beleive for the life of me that she was a real Nun. I told one driver what happened, once I was back at the depot and I've been getting tortured since. Really big mistake that I should not have done. Drivers see me at the depot or in passing on the bus and they make the sign of the cross as they pass me now. Good thing I have a sense of humor. I think I'll make a paper sign available that reads "In God we trust, All others pay cash" just in case she ever gets on my bus again.

And short of the freezing cold we are experiencing now,, I think its gonna be a hellava long week!