An inordinate portion of my life is spent at the Burien Transit Center. That's where the #99 bus ends, the only route the runs by my house, so I'm often riding the #99 to the transit center, to stand there on a concrete island and wait for another bus going somewhere else.

On this particular yesterday, I'd ridden to Mrs Rigby's diner for two early-morning burgers with peanut butter. Also fries and a shake. Omelets are a fine breakfast, but my belly wanted burgers.

Then I'd ridden back to the transit center to do the stand and wait. Lots of waiting. The #99 only runs twice an hour.

So I was standing there, watching the nine bums, and about a hundred pigeons. The trash cans are emptied maybe twice weekly, but filled within hours, so there's always trash on the ground, lots of it's edible, and where there's edible trash there are pigeons. To amuse myself, I walked through the pigeon multitudes, watching them walk or fly away. I'm Moses, parting the pigeons.

The F bus pulled in — end of the line for them too, and a dozen people stepped off. Seven of them were teenagers, probably on their way to school, but traveling as a clique, and two of them left me flabbergasted.

Five boys, two girls, all about 15 or so, and talking to each other about whatever dumb stuff teenagers talk about. Being a dirty old man, yeah, I noticed the girls. One was a little chubby, and she was the cuter one, but they were both cute.

The not-so-chubby one was holding hands with one of the boys, and she lifted herself on tippy-toes to kiss him. They walked a few steps to check the posted schedule, and she kissed him again, longer, tongueier. The guy she was kissing so insistently, though, was fat. Not chubby. Fat.

This was something I'd never seen before — a pretty girl with a medium (M) size bod was smooching a boy who was at least 4XL. This does not happen. It's disallowed by the laws of physics or whatever, and there are no exceptions. Don't be bullshitting me, saying that the old rules and barriers have melted away. These are eternal rules, and especially at that age, such rules cannot be broken. Absolutely never saw it when I was in school, and I've absolutely never seen it in life, until yesterday at the Burien Transit Center.

A day later I am still amazed.

Fifteen people boarded the #99 northbound. I was one of them. I sat alone, near the front. The driver closed the door, but didn't pull away. We couldn't leave, because there was nowhere to go; three buses were ahead of our bus, waiting for the light to turn green, so they could leave the transit center.

While we waited, another would-be passenger knocked at the glass door, but he didn't knock with knuckles. He knocked with the beer can in his hand, open, can against glass. The door didn't open, so he took a couple of gulps from the can, then knocked again, with the can. The driver ignored him.

Drivers aren't supposed to ignore people who want to ride the bus, but a scruffy-looking 50-year-old man with a beer at 8:45 in the morning? Yeah, please do ignore him. The light turned green, the buses in front of us rolled away, and my beloved #99 bus followed the other buses into the intersection, and turned left onto 148th Street.

A mile or so north, our bus rolled past a portapotty-sized wooden shed I've noticed a lotta times, because it has "ONLY RECYCLED NEWSPAPERS" stenciled on the side. The shed looks 25 years old. The stenciled lettering is faded. Nobody reads newspapers any more, so what's inside?

At my corner I rang the bell, stepped off the bus, walked half a block home, and nestled myself into the recliner. Full of good burgers, I watched an old movie and took a long nap.

Some day, some day soon, I am gonna have to get a job, but these are the good old days, until then.

Here's the news you need,
whether you know it or not

• D.C. votes to eliminate Metrobus fares in movement toward free transit

Good news. Public transit should be free, and better funded and run more frequently than now.

• San Jose becomes largest city in U.S. to abolish minimum parking

• FTC sues to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard

• Citing staff safety and dignity, restaurant refuses to serve Christian hate group

This is the way to start repairing America.

• Younger evangelicals in the U.S. are more concerned than their elders about climate change

And this is not.

Maybe it's news, even good news, that the next generation of 'Evangelicals' is a smidgen less insane than their parents. There's no solution down that path, though. There's not enough time left for America and the world to wait patiently while 'Evangelicals' maybe come to their senses, one generation at a time.

For what they've done to America — by which I mean Trump and DeSantis and the entire Republican agenda so enthusiastically supported by 'Evangelicals' — they need to be utterly ostracized from political discourse. Their opinions and the very word 'Evangelicals' should be mocked, not taken seriously, and decent, intelligent people should have nothing to do with them.

Unless (maybe) they're family. That's my excuse.

• Exxon, Chevron to spend billions more on oil projects next year

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, because climate change isn't 'coming', it's underway. It'll kill billions, and we're not doing squat about it.

• Utah Department of Public Safety apologizes for whitewashed investigation into serial child-rapist trooper who got away with everything

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, because all cops are bastards, or they know who the bastard cops are and do nothing about it, which is the same thing.

• Republican Florida state lawmaker who wrote "Don't Say Gay" bill indicted on wire fraud charges in COVID relief loan scam

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, because Republicans are the enemy of common sense, common decency, simple truth, and democracy.
Links I liked

• As the USDA invests in "climate-smart" agriculture, it's hard to follow the money

• Says here, the National Board of Review is run by nincompoops.

• Cannibalism in poultry

• Guided rat

Mystery links
Like life itself, there's no
knowing where you're going

• click

• click

• click

♫♬ Mix tape of my mind ♫

• Comfortably Numb — Luther Wright and the Wrongs

• Go to the Mirror — The Who

• The Man in Me - Bob Dylan

• Route 66 — Nelson Riddle

• Watching the Wheels — John Lennon

The End

• Hans Magnus Enzensberger

• Tom Phillips

• Eleanor Jackson Piel

• Marcus Sedgwick

12/9/2022
Tip 'o the hat to Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S, Wynn Bruce, and always Stephanie...