A Bus Age Wonder

I am hoping that the pulchritudinous blonde sitting next to me this morning didn’t notice when I was looking at my hand. You see, I had just read that the hox genes (those genes which direct the assembly of your body in the womb and determine your morphology) that “control the growth of the genitalia also control the growth of digits”. The result of this was that, given proper does of testosterone, most men’s ring fingers are longer than their index fingers. Hence I gave a curious glance at my right hand.

I was allowed this indulgence because I now take the bus to work. Yesterday was my first day at my new job which is downtown. Had I stayed at my old gig, I would have driven 35-40 miles yesterday. Instead I drove 0. So my salary has gone up, I used no gas, and no wear & tear on my car. And I had the pleasure of standing on a crowded bus on the way home. I was reminded of my freshman year of high school in Chicago when I took the Big Green Limousine. (I think the buses were still green back then.) I took the Addison bus from Pulaski to Lane Tech. The route included an El stop and another high school – Gordon Tech. (Boo Goats!) There was many a time when I was packed in like a sardine – no an inch of space to move.

This morning the driver was the Otto Mann of Madison Metro. The only thing missing was the headphones. He didn’t even see me standing at the corner so I had to flag the bus down. It shuddered to a stop and I got on only to have the long-haired gentleman offer an apology. “No problem,” I replied. My uncle was a bus driver so I feel some kind of distant and indirect kinship with those who ferry we commuters across the concrete sea.

One thing I’ve noticed the past two mornings of standing at the bus stop is that all of the cars pulling out from the side street onto Milwaukee have but a single occupant – the driver. That used to be me but no more.

Post Script: since I am a computer geek and I’m waxing green, I’ll point out that I found a good article about building a more energy efficient computer up at Ars Technica called ”It’s Easy Being Green”.