Monday, January 11, 2016

Bus stops with brussels sprouts

RantWoman has a LONG list of things she HOPES to get to-done today.

--RantWoman has some email she REALLY needs to interact with.

--RantWoman's email groans with a number of "little old ladies who should NOT be driving threads. One dear woman recently died peacefully in her sleep. So now another one has passed enough of her eye test to carry on the other's Sunday Chauffeur service. Another fessed up to someone else about what her visual acuity actually is. Ay-yi-yi. A third is actually being more responsible than one doctor even realizes is on point. There is further narrative and ideas lurking. Good News / bad news.

--RantWoman means to write up various shopping while transit-dependent moments particularly since RantWoman is CERTAIN that SOMEONE will find them interesting and topical.

--RantWoman still has her giant numbers wall calendar from last year. Getting it mail order would be LAME. RantWoman needs a fast trip to the vicinity of a certain mall to replace it but also needs to clear out some mental clutter she REALLY hoped to leave in 2015 and that keeps sloshing around her feet. Save the bus trip for another day.

So far today, though, RantWoman has

--Officially calendared something for tomorrow that RantWoman and the other party have danced about schedule hassles over for weeks.

--corraled some David Bowie RIP earworms

--Made it part way through uploading some photos to feed the living life on transit and with a mobile device threads. (water bottle matters, a new option for the phone, and shopping bags, but not the shopping cart issues others in RantWoman's orbit are craving)

And NOW, because RantWoman is strung out and paralyzed about bigger threads, RantWoman will offer DATA, data of the mess around with a data structure for something to be crowdsourced sort. RantWoman will also babble about Sunday excursions including the weekly Sunday Supper at RantMom's featuring Brussels Sprouts (YUM!)

Consider streets, intersections, traffic signals, lighting, trees or plants, sidewalks and what kind of info RantWoman wants to know when considering pedestrian choices.

The lucky winners for today's intersection reflections, surprise, all involving bus stops:

Campus Parkway and Brooklyn Ave NE: nice orthogonal intersection. Nice signals. Note boulevard in middle of Campus Parkway.

42nd and Roosevelt way NE: two-way street T'ing into a one-way street. Nice orthogonal T with traffic signal.  RantWoman regularly travels through this intersection needing to cross Roosevelt. RantWoman prefers crossing Roosevelt with a traffic signal. RantWoman also prefers crossing Roosevelt on the N side of the intersection. Roosevelt is one-way southbound. Can anyone articulate why RantWoman prefers the north side of the intersection?

Okay, forget that. RantWoman is hungry. It's past time to head to RantMom's. Of interest while figuring out where to get off the bus:

5th and Jackson: Nice orthogonal streets. Streetcar track. decent but not great audible signals. Decent lighting. Tonight: LOTS of police activity. That's where all the sirens RantWoman heard earlier  were headed. Will it be on tne news? RantWoman is VERY happy just to be on the bus. OF COURSE RantMom will hear the news and worry until RantWoman shows up. Catch the police blotter later. Ugh.

Rainier and Walden: Nice orthogonal intersection. Both streets two-way. Fairly easy to hear traffic movements. RantWoman is glad to be able to see the traffic signal, but traffic follows fairly predictable patterns. Downsides in the winter: RantMom lives on the E side of Rainier. RantWoman needs to walk S to get to RantMom's. RantWoman would get off a southbound bus at this intersection because it is orthogonal and has decent signals. RantWoman would cross Rainier and head to RantMom's BUT: there are trees and leaves do not tend to be well cleaned up. Hello soggy mass. Even worse, it's dark and RantWoman gets to look into oncoming headlights. Ugh!

Rainier and Letitia.  The stop closest to RantMom's. Ugly mess. Streets not orthogonal. Traffic signals hard to follow. a driveway that cars turn into before they get to the corner. RantWoman does NOT like this intersection. It makes RantWoman nervous that RantMom crosses here too. KNOCK ON WOOD.

Rainier and Andover: reasonably orthogonal intersection. Two-way traffic on both streets. A decent place to cross Rainier EXCEPT for the weed smoke. THREE marijuana dispensaries on one corner. RantWoman could live without the odor. But it's worthwhile to ride to Andover BECAUSE when RantWoman walks back to RantMom's the headlights are behind her.

Supper, to go with the brussels sprouts.

Obligatory play with Smartphone time: practice texting. Encourage RantMom to ask one of the people she knows who has the same phone...

Back to Rainier and Letitia. E side of the street. Bus stop is past the drivesay. Tolerable. Favorit Sunday driver is driving. Yes! Home to feed the Queen of Spades.

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