{"id":4054,"date":"2012-09-19T08:30:06","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T15:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=4054"},"modified":"2012-09-18T15:19:45","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T22:19:45","slug":"thanks-for-the-pass-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/09\/19\/thanks-for-the-pass-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Thanks for the pass-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being passed up by BC Transit was the best part of my first week back at Camosun.<\/p>\n

I had made my way through that week with that student holy trinity of faith, hope, and patience. Faith that my loans would arrive, and hope that the lineup at the bookstore would see me through the door before it closed. The month of September must be approached with Zen-master levels of patience.<\/p>\n

Sublime weather conditions (and not having to be somewhere anytime soon) meant I decided not to mind when a number 4 bus rolled by me. And I didn\u2019t mind when a second went past, either.<\/p>\n

I playfully thumbed to \u201cPatience\u201d by Guns N\u2019 Roses on my iPod as my eyes lazily followed the second receding rear bus bumper waddling contentedly away from me.<\/p>\n

My mind recalled other ass ends of buses in Ontario, ones that left me behind standing in four feet of snow. In the \u201970s, Ontario Transit buses sported a \u201cthanks for the brake\u201d bumper-sticker campaign. I always liked that waving cartoon hand, meant as a request to drivers to let a bus in. It was comforting seeing the hand waving as the bus drove away, urging me to hang in there, making me feel I wasn\u2019t forgotten, even if the hand was really for other drivers. I made it my own.<\/p>\n

Back in reality, I took my negative thoughts in hand. The third bus is usually not far behind. We were surely at the convergence of hope, faith, and reward. The mood in the crowd was as giddy as gamblers who\u2019d been pulling on the arm of their favorite machine at the casino. Our luck was about to break.<\/p>\n

I waited. Face turned to the heat of the sun, eyes closed, sending out encouraging thoughts to the government. I had faith we would solve every people-moving issue. I hoped our transit would become a model for less-enlightened provinces to emulate and, in the meantime, I\u2019d practice patience.<\/p>\n

I thumbed back to Guns N\u2019 Roses, listening as Axl Rose crooned that \u201call you need\u2019s a little patience.\u201d I smiled.<\/p>\n

So, thanks, BC Transit. Thanks for the break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being passed up by BC Transit was the best part of my first week back at Camosun. I had made my way through that week with that student holy trinity of faith, hope, and patience. Faith that my loans would arrive, and hope that the lineup at the bookstore would see me through the door […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-issue","category-september-19-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t