OK. We all make mistakes, except for the boss that is, who never makes mistakes, but that is an other story. The mistake I made was made jointly with another driver who I will call Brian. Mainly because that's his name. Anyway, we had both finished work at the same time one day last week and we were walking down Regent Close from the depot to the main road to catch a number 12 into Torquay. Brian asked me what time the next bus was due and I told him 19:14 We had 2 mins to get to the stop to get the bus. Plenty of time. But at that moment a bus went hurtling by and did not stop. 2 mins early the bastard, was what we both said. So when we got down to the main road we had 15 mins to wait for the next bus. We didn't walk the 80 yards to the bus stop at this point as it was possible that an out of service bus might come out of the depot and head into Torquay to start work. So we stood on the corner where we could flag the driver down and travel into town that way.
No out of service bus turned up but we were joined at 19:25 by an other driver who was changing over with the driver of the bus we were now waiting for, the 19:29. This bus appeared in the distance at 19:26; not due till 19:29 and we all made comments about drivers running early. We began walking slowly to the bus stop, expecting the approaching bus to pull in as the driver was getting off. We were still about 30 yards away from the stop with the bus coming up behind us when a thought occurred to me just a few seconds too late.
What if the bus we had seen go by at 19:12 hadn't been the 19:14 running early but the 18:59 running 13 mins late and the bus coming up behind us wasn't the 19:29 running 3 mins early but the 19:14 running 12 mins late. And it was. And no one had put their hand out and we were still 30 yards from the stop and it went straight by at a steady 29.9999 mph oblivious to the screams being directed in it's direction by me and Brian.
The 19:29 arrived at 19:40 running 11 mins late.
There is a moral in this story some where.
4 comments:
As you would say Dave:
If you want the bus to stop - put your hand out!
Once upon a time, I was five minutes or so late. I was driving a route that only had service once an hour. A passenger boarded, quite upset, and asked me why the bus in front of me had never come, and why was I fifty five minutes early? I shouldn't have done it, but I couldn't resist. I suggested that there were at least two other possibilities he hadn't considered: 1.) I was the bus in front of me, and I was five minutes late, or 2.) The fabric of space and time had been torn asunder by a cosmic cataclysm, rendering the schedule null and void.
He replied, "Wha, huh?" but the homeless crazy lady in the front seat thought that it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. It's nice when people enjoy my jokes.
"19:29 arrived at 19:40" - so the West of England got the great crash when everyone else got the Battle of Britain...tch...are you lot asleep down there?
We just do things a little slower down here, why we like the place so much.
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