Spontaneity: Bright Sunny Day. Motivational Calamity. Lynnwood!

This journey needs good picture
even though this rhododendron
is from a different journey

RantWoman needs to recount a mostly joyous transportation on demand excursion out to Lynnwood to see her buddies The Weed Whackin Wenches. Curmudgeon and Wingnut have long ago migrated to Facebookistan and are otherwise having to be unintentionally adventurous, but getting to see them is always a delight. Before RantWoman gets to the meat of her recent journey, though, RantWoman needs to get one minor and two MAJOR gripes with Community Transit out there for the world to help digest..

1. As judged by signage on stops at the Aurora Village transit Center, Community Transit signage SUCKS. Metro has nice clear signage with good contrast that RantWoman can read as long as her nose is just inches from the signs. Community Transit signs have print that is too small and color elements that destroy contrast and make the already too small text even more unreadable.

2. Memo to everyone buying vehicles for on-demand service: give a contingent of people with all kinds of bodies and mobility devices and strollers and shopping carts a chance to test load the vehicles BEFORE you buy them. RantWoman was THRILLED when she finally connected with Community Transit's ZIP service that the driver has a reader that can read ORCA cards and even better that the last leg of the trip counted as a transfer. HOWEVER, RantWoman found the vehicle very hard to climb in and out of. The entry is high off the ground and the wall of the vehicle inside the door is very thick. RantWoman was offered the lift which did not seem on point, but the whole experience did not make RantWoman want to see how well RantMom and her walker would do.

3. Now the minor gripe: in the course of the journey RantWoman tried to download the Zip program app. The app has another name which RantWoman is not going to dig out of the text stream tonight. There was some hang-up in the download process. Curmudgeon and RantWoman both have Android phones. Curmudgeon reported also getting stuck, but neither of us have gone back to troubleshoot. For one thing there was a WONDERFUL customer service staffperson who is allowed maybe to think RantWoman might be a little nuts or giddy in the sunshine just because of being so happy about the parts of the trip that worked.

But back a few steps: Friday RantWoman started out underslept in the way that tends to make one basically a motivational calamity. Fortunately there was SUNSHINE and RantWoman had errands on the E line doing errands. It occurred to RantWoman that she has not seen the Wenches since exactly Christmas and that maybe it would be a good day to invite herself for a visit.

RantWoman texted and Curmudgeon instantly texted back YES!. 

The only hitch: Wing Nut, the driver in the household was out but hey there is this new service called Zip.

Excellent. RantWoman remembers getting to the Wenches' house via the E line, a Community Transit bus to the Lynnwood transit center and the last leg of the trip on foot, but RantWoman did not remember details like which Community Transit route was involved. RantWoman also remembered the last visit: RantWoman had let the Wenches kidnap her after an afternoon visit to RantMom but what RantWoman could see of the area around the transit center was a lot of construction mess. But RantWoman opted to proceed on the E line rather than catching something from the Northgate light rail system.

No Google. It was too nice a day and the lack of motivation that got RantWoman out in the sunshine definitely extended to excessive interaction with devices.

Plus RantWoman had to be reminded of the Wenches' street address; when RantWoman went to enter the address in the address field of her phone contacts, as soon as RantWoman entered the first digit some kind of autocomplete wanted RantWoman to be travelling off to Malaysia. RantWoman finally just entered the address in the Notes Field. RantWoman fired off a WTF Tweet to @GoogleAccess and now still needs to follow up with the reply. Stay tuned.

RantWoman tried the Zip phone number first phone from the Aurora Village transit center. Oops. Out of area. 

Okay, fog around the transit center. A helpful SWIFT driver suggested a couple route numbers and pointed RantWoman to the middle lane of the transit center. Sure enough, a stop for the 130 and a number of people waiting. A good sign!

Shortly the bus to the Lynnwood transit center came. There was lovely greenery along much of the route and then yet one more leg of the journey: find bay A1 where the Zip vehicle stopped. RantWoman has eyes enough to tell which direction bay letters and numbers change. After trying one direction, RantWoman realized she would need a different direction and had to find a place with a painted but not very convincing crosswalk. Luckily there was little traffic inside the transit center and RantWoman made her way to Bay A1.

Soon the Zip chariot arrived. RantWoman coped with the accessibility challenges listed above and the driver and another person delivered RantWoman right to the Wenches' front door.

There were hugs all around.

The house smelled wonderful. The menu was fajitas and rhubarb clafoutie (sp?) with this year's rhubarb.

So much worked, in spite of the hiccups!

As a final bonus, the Wenches' two cats M and C in the past have usually just ignored RantWoman. This time both came close enough when RantWoman dangled fingers down to sniff andC even let RantWoman pet her.