12/16

Today I  trudged through the snow to the bus stop and ride to work rather than risk the steep hill in our only car. Ice still rules the world and will continue to do so for at least another week.

I missed the closer bus, and so had to walk a mile down the icy hill in the predawn dark watching carefully for glimmer of slick ice, to another bus stop. A man with a scarf over his face came up as I was waiting.

“Yesterday the bus was 20 minutes late. Finally I had to cross the street to stand in a sunny patch so I wouldn’t turn into a popsicle.” We waited as the cloudy sky slowly lightened into  gray daylight.

The bus came  and we crowded in, a standing room only.  I guess a lot of other people feel safer having someone else drive in these conditions. After one more bus ride and a 1/2 mile walk I was at work only 15 minutes late.

12/17

Bus Notes On My Way to Work:

Sipping from a purple metallic travel cup, she studies an Illustrated French/English dictionary. A scarf protects her lower face. Her head is covered with a green and gray striped cap with a green yarn tassel suspended from the top.  Outside the snowy city slips and slides and bounces as the bus moves and stops.

She checks her phone, making calls, but no one answers. She pulls down the scarf and takes another sip from the cup and goes back to studying the dictionary, glancing every now and then at the icy road in front of the bus.  After a few minutes she puts the book away and concentrates, with a blank expression on the road ahead and whatever is in the cup. I hope it is something warm and comforting, something a person needs in hard white world of winter.