Know your gear.

Overcast Tuesday. A wonderful respite from the beat-down of sun rays today. Still the overcast skies bore no fruit and the land grows more parched with every passing day. I saw perhaps one bird the whole way in to work today. No squirrels, no flies, no spiders of any kind. Even the ants failed to make an appearance. Only the bizarre image of a 10 dollar piece of Monopoly money lay on the ground by my bus stop today, a stark contrast of yellow against a green background of grass. How it got there is anyone's guess, but it somehow marked the significance of the savings riding the bus can provide. Multiply that by five and that's about what I was spending on my routine weekly drive to work in gas and morning vices.

So I somehow feel taller lately. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm burning off excess weight that I've packed on in the past year for no good reason and, as such, has returned length to my spine again. Perhaps its the confidence that comes with being able to free onesself of the chains of driving to work; of thinking about how much rubber you just burned off your tires and dodging people who clearly have no grasp of where they are, what they are doing.

I drove to lunch the other day with a friend and it was one of the more harrowing trips I've had lately. There was a person in a car just weaving to the left and right and I just laid into the horn, hoping to stir them from their slumber. My exit came before I was able to see the outcome, but something tells me it didn't have a happy ending as the car careened up and over the overpass as we exited safely.

It would appear that people decided today to come out in droves as they were walking and burning off their dinners and riding their bikes on the sidewalks narrowly missing me as I sauntered down the winding path of bliss. You start to become one with your gear when you ride the bus. Your awareness increases and you "tune" your bags and the locations of items you need to access regularly like the iPod and the bus pass and where you leave your badge in the bag for optimum accessibility when walking up to the workplace. You have to look like you have your stuff together when you're out in the wild, for to display disarray is but an invitation to disaster.

Tonight was no exception. I got off the bus and there was a guy standing out by the stop who did not get on the bus but seemed to hover. We gave each other the cursory glance and head nod to indicate friend or foe status, but as I walked away, I sensed his eyes upon me and as I looked over my shoulder, he was looking over his and he milled about as if waiting for me to inquire about a specific service. It was an odd feeling and I continued on in earnest to add a buffer zone to this bizarre encounter. I need to make an effort to catch the 7pm bus from now on.