Stupid busses. :P

[annathepiper]

So last night, I promised solarbird I would leave the car at home today so that she could take it to get its oil changed, on the theory that it would be easier to do this since I have to, y'know, like, WORK. And I didn't know how long it would take me to get the oil for the car changed. I figured it'd be less complicated for me to just leave the car at home and take the bus in.

FOOLISH MORTAL!

I went up onto Metro's web site last night to try to figure out the best bus route to get from our place over to my workplace, and was presented with a couple of different options. One of them involved a two-bus scenario, with one of the busses being the one that goes right by our house. That sounded like a good idea. OR SO I THOUGHT.

Got up again this morning to confirm the route and figure out where the heck I needed to change busses. Realized, while waiting for the bus that goes past our house, that there were in fact two varieties of this bus, an express and a non-express, and I didn't know which one to take. So I asked the first driver that came by whether her express bus went to Yesler. She said no. I figured this meant okay, I needed to take the non-express version of the bus. So I got on that one.

And did not realize that this bus did not go where I needed it to go until it got to the Seattle Center and the driver told me to get off.

I wound up waffling between calling Dar for a ride and trying to find another way to work. I wound up opting for catching the monorail over to the Metro tunnels in the hopes of finding a bus that would take me across the lake, since I knew Dar had to, well, TAKE THE CAR FOR AN OIL CHANGE. So I did this, forking out another buck-fifty for the monorail on top of the two-buck bus fare I'd already paid.

Found a bus that went across the lake, though it only took me to the South Bellevue Park 'n' Ride and I needed to get to the Eastgate one a little farther west. So I got off at the South Bellevue Park 'n' Ride, and waited for the third bus.

Which came by in due course and took a nice loopy route IN THE OTHER DIRECTION, with me looking plaintively out the window and thinking 'SO CLOSE YET SO FAR' until the stupid thing finally turned around and came over to the place I wanted to go.

Caught the first bus at 8:30ish. 20 minutes to 11, I finally got to work.

Stupid busses. :P

Comments

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

Just for future reference, there's the Metro Trip Planner (http://tripplanner.metrokc.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U) which will map routes between any two points serviced by either Metro or Sound Transit. It tends to give really liberal time periods for walking insanely small distances (it allows me 15 minutes to walk one block from 5th and Stewart to 4th and Stewart), which can result in making quicker connections than it plans for you, but it generally seems to do a fairly passable job of getting the connections from point A to point B, even if having some geographic knowledge and walking quicker than a snail's pace might allow you to streamline the process and make it more efficient.

[annathepiper]

Ah, but you see, I used that very trip planner last night. That thing is the thing that claimed I should have been able to take the 74 to Yesler & Dilling, get off and go to 2nd & Washington and hop the 555, and get to the Eastgate Park 'n' Ride in roughly an hour.

Somewhere, there was a breakdown in information acquisition. Whether it was because the Trip Planner was mistaken or the first driver I asked was mistaken, I don't know.

Grf. And what also gets my goat is that the very same trip planner also informed me that I should have been able to take the 271 and have a ONE-BUS scenario to get to my destination. Foolishly, I opted to take the 74/555 plan instead, thinking that since the 74 went right past the Murkworks I would be able to get that one faster than I would have had to hussle over to where I'd have had to catch the 271.

[annathepiper]

Doublechecking the trip planner, I see now that it claimed that I should have taken the express version of the 74. So apparently when I asked the driver of that bus if she stopped on Yesler, and she said no, she was on crack. :P

Grf. Next time I'm taking the 271.

[lyricae.livejournal.com]

OMG that's awfull! I've always hated busses under the best of circumstances :-( I'm sorry to hear that your day started off so badly. Need a ride home?

[annathepiper]

Awwwww. :) *hugs* Thanks hon! In theory, at least, the 271 should take me from the Park 'n' Ride near my workplace back to the U district. So I shouldn't need a ride. You don't need to come all the way down here to Bellevue to get me unless you just WANT to and have nothing better to do, in which case you're certainly welcome to do so. :)

[lyricae.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind at all coming down, however, I think that fun time with Anna should involve lunch and not commuting ;-) If you find yourself in a situation where the busses are treating you badly, or you just realize you can't face them give me a call and I will be there :-) Otherwise, we should plan lunch sometime soonish.

[annathepiper]

I like this Plan of Lunch. Given sufficient advance warning I am free pretty much whenever; lunch opportunities either in Factoria or over by Crossroads are most easily accessible to me during work. Unless you wanted to do lunch on the weekends, in which case the U-district is at our disposal as well. :)

[lyricae.livejournal.com]

My dad is coming in on the eighteenth and I'm pretty much unavailable from then until the first of December. Until then, I'm schedule is open. I'll leave the venue choice up to you since you know the areas in question better than I.

Re:

[annathepiper]

Today's the 14th. I am available for lunch purposes tomorrow if you're interested, which would mean in or around my workplace; Factoria is near and so is the Crossroads shopping center.

Or Saturday the 16th is wide open. :)

Funny you should say that...

[lyricae.livejournal.com]

After much time of not doing anything out of the house, tomorrow I'm scheduled for breakfast with Q and tea with Jessica :-) Perhaps we can get together on the weekend or Monday? Let's transfer the discussion to email and we can see what works.

[ssha.livejournal.com]

The Roosevelt Express was indeed the one you wanted. Its the only 74 that goes downtown. You'd have had to walk a couple of blocks, as it does not go DIRECTLY to Yesler, but rather near it.

Where is work located?

Re:

[annathepiper]

Work is located over in Factoria, pretty close to Attachmate actually, but more up by the Safeway shopping center with the Dairy Queen, right around where I-90 intersects with 148th and 156th. If that means anything to you. :) Same general area as Attachmate, just a teeny bit further east.