bus window photo of fun dense clouds yet hints of sun
The story begins the midnight before
a quick check of the greyhound schedule online
many routes are sold out as via was too
mass transportation in Canada is lugubrious as tar
like they’re trying to flush everyone onto the highways
for more cars more gas more gridlock and accidents and insurance companies benefit oil and gas and rescue
and pollution maximized that way
i do not use credit cards
but my mother volunteered hers
i went through layers of the wonky website
trying to pay greyhound
all the while telling her never trust the internet,
and certainly not greyhound’s wonksite
but she insisted and when i clicked Complete Purchase
a lyricist moment itself,
telling her no, but doing what she says
o the green pants and footwear button shirts flimsy uncomfortable pants
souls heaven
Part II: The Journey
travelling is trouble moreso than ever
but it is marvellous to be in other places
trying to purchase a ticket by credit card
and the baffling failures screen would pop
two steps back and it was chaos, who knows what,
like a bad home made trampoline the whole website,
I was 5 times as worried the transaction had
gone through more than once than worried it hadn’t, stressed enough to tell my mum ‘they probably
have it that way so people make multiple payments
trying again’and she said “who? greyhound? no,
they wouldn’t do that.” (Frustrations when dealing
with businessy websites)
Nonetheless both of us were up early in the morning
equally intent on a quick drive to the bus station to see if it went through at all, or multiple times,
or if there were tickets available. 8:0’something
the only customers in the building demanding to know
while i lectured all who’d hear about the frustrating website and the issues its demand for information then malfunction causes people I think they heard loud and clear
but bus travel is random.
We were early to arrive for the actual bus trip.
My Mum drove off contentedly after a nice conversation
in the car, and the waiting began. The line filled out
and the more expectantly at 11:30am when the bus
should have been there already.
An hour later we were still standing or crouching waiting
border patrol had interrupted the bus route, which begins in Detroit
I tried the old “light a smoke and the bus comes”
and walked out into the bus territory in the
absence of buses
joking with the people waiting
the whole thing seemed like bullshit because
the border patrol are so secretive about everything
either we can just take another bus if necessary
and give border patrol all day if
some one merits detaining let that one person wait
for the 2:30 instead they stop up the whole system
for an hour, tiring, costly, pointless !!!
finally on our way it’s a tired group,
nervous old guy wondering about his connection
in london to kitchener, put through that for no
reason, the guy looked near death already just in the lineup, all the families and old folks travelling
journey to london is dark rain almost no sun,
one glimmer of a ray once
london ontario, a pretty neutral place that time of day
of acanada day, a canada day,
i’m almost familiar now with the staff at the
tim hortons they have there, thats the agit prop bus station tho like a comedy skit that never gets made
so it stays serious bossy unhelpful lifestyle,
but some have sense of humour
we get dicked around a bit then finally get to bored,
a really exhausted group by this time
but just before brantford commotion at the back:
people think a woman went into the bathroom and never came out
and they can’t get the door open. It dies down
but somehow just before brantford the driver has
picked up wind of it. There’s the belief there’s a wrong smell and the door remains locked, as if triggered by
some toilet room disaster readings of some kind.
I smell nothing but the moist sandwich that
unfortunately had to spend all this extra time
swathed in the backpack of a warm day, in my backpack before even boarding, and the car ride in.
Smell was awful this long later. ham with cole
slaw and mayo on wonder bread soft whole wheat
my dad and i have reported not liking ham since the 70s
but my mum believes she’s found a better type of ham
it smelt awful, while the bus toilet was exactly what it always is
the whole thing seemed set up bullshit
so we pull off the highway and they battle the door
the driver and a few ‘patients’ of the bus as ive come
to think of it get it open. There’s no woman in there,
but there is “a smell” (drivers have never sat at the back of the bus acknowledging the ever
present smell on every ride there’s been!
So we resume and lumber off the highway, Garden Ave exit
How many times I been there before in such better circumstances
this time it’s a long sprawling nonsense moment of existence
as the whole bus empties out at random into the big unused parking lot
of a crappy looking unpopular apparently unpopular best western
wide assembly for this impromptu parking lot
canada day party. russian accents have the most info
of whats happened, having pursued the driver about it.
families from all over the planet and the whole array
of travellers such a cast i don’t want to describe them so unique
all making new choices periodically what to do in this large parking lot
from the russians (neither looked russian but had the accent) the chinese business woman, so impressive,
strong as hell, fearless hard at work on her cell phone,
wandering the area, tattooed people, a mysterious group of women from India in my opinion who may have been associated with males of a family at the front of the bus
a few caribbean people not liking the situation,
loners on the road
some refugees going somewhere they hope
it was all pretty sad
and android phones and laptops
the wonder of becoming miscellaneous
and small
just like at windsor bus station earlier that day
when a bus finally did arrive no one could believe it,
an actual bus, so we set off on the exactly
100k journey from garden ave exit to toronto
greyhound station on dundas many so exhausted they were past sleep, back on the road
(The bus “starts” in Detroit but is full
of people from all over the region, many from Chicago,
many from all over the continent and world,
some on the bus routes for years, having this
usually simple windsor to Toronto route take so long
could be the breaking point for some)
In all it took 8 hours from bus station windsor
to bus station toronto and into the ttc
to make way home was its own irrelevant timing
it’s just life in toronto
be here or anywhere
i was proud of my building though
that nothing was disturbed
the whole property around
and my place with photo perfect as i left it
the himalayan still sleeping in the yard
everything just fine
those were the days
when everything
was just fine
what is humanity capable of?
definitely all worth it to hang around with my mother
and see the windsor alt art world
“It’s a good life”
“The good life”
“People don’t know. If they knew, they would want this life.”
“The good life”
“They don’t know.”
Footnote: When I view the blog in itself there are not, but sometimes once forwarded as a link wordpress allows ads to appear in the bottom of the actual template of the blogpost. Often including video. I’ve never clicked on one but it always troubles me wondering if people associate it with the post. Haha, maybe it’ll be Greyhound ad this time. Or something with a bus reference. But it isn’t here now. This is the spot where my post concludes. zZ X Zz
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Oversion 
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