Hope You Voted!

I've had a busy couple of days riding around on the bus doing things.

Yesterday, I went (on the bus, very early) to the county dental clinic, and they are going to fix my teeth!

Then, I had to go to the doctor's office to get a note from the doctor, and a prescription (so that the dentist will work on my teeth). Although there were regular office hours on Monday, they were not open for some reason.

Which segues into today.

Today, I got up early for me, but not as early as yesterday, and ran out to vote without a shower or brushing my teeth. The water was off this morning and so the lack of ablutions.

The busses were NOT going to the polls today, so I rode to the nearest stop and walked. Although the people there said it had been quite busy earlier, there was no line when I arrived, and each voter was almost able to go through the whole process solo. I was in and out so quickly that I was totally surprised.

After walking to the polling place, I found that I was now in between two bus stops, and one of them was the one where I usually get off to walk to the clinic. So I had a loooong walk over to the doctor's office, and after a short wait, was successful in getting the note and the prescriptions I needed/wanted. I talked the doctor into giving me a heavy duty Rx for Valium, too. Dentists stress me so much, and I used to be able to avoid it by having them tell me what they were doing as they worked, but my hearing problems make that impractical. Hence, the request for Valium.

Then, it was back on the bus to Potomac Mills Mall to look at a camera that's just come out. 

I was really upset to discover that Ritz Camera doesn't have either of the cameras I was considering. They seem to be doing a brisk business online, but the store I went to was one of their main stores, and they had very little. The shelves looked very empty. They did have some nice camera bags, but nothing that was really tempting.

Back to the bus for a ride to Best Buy, which had one of the cameras I am interested in. At the same price as everyone else. I mean, this is Best Buy! I expected a better-than-average price, but no. They had the same price I could get anywhere (except Ritz Camera). At least I did get to see the actual camera and try out the different functions.

It's amazing! 

I looked at the Canon Powershot SX 10 IS, and loved it! They're not kidding about how long the lens is. It went from a real wide angle to nearly telescopic! The thing I loved was that the camera would make a good stab at focusing, but the instant you moved to include a face, it immediately focused on the face! And when I set it to the right timer setting, I could pan around to various background shots, and it waited until it could see a face, and then took the photo! I love this camera! I just didn't love it enough to pay an extra $100 to buy it at Best Buy. I'll get it elsewhere and save. 

Unfortunately, that means I won't have it this weekend. I probably wouldn't have taken a lot of photos at Stitches anyway, but we were going to ride the water taxi (maybe), which would have given me the chance for some good photos, and I would really like to take some good photos of Holly and Lynn. We might go to the aquarium in Baltimore, too.

So, I got home, totally exhausted, at about 6 pm.

 There's not much to watch on TV except the voting results, which are just starting to come in now. The results are exciting, but watching it on TV is like watching glacier races. It makes me want to watch something else, and check in on it periodically.

Have a great evening!

Police Raid!

Yesterday, I foolishly promised John that I would work on the back cover for the first of the Steve Canyon DVDs this afternoon, without stopping to think that I needed to go to WalMart to get some necessary things.

When I realized my mistake late last night, I thought, well, I'll get up early, go do what I need to do, get out and get home. So, I armed myself with a list I could use to just sail through WalMart, grab what I need and split.

Things started going wrong early, when I missed waking up as early as I intended.

But I raced around and got out to the bus stop, where the bus had arrived early and was waiting.

I got on, said clearly to the bus driver that I had a Senior Pass, showed him a pass, asked for a day pass, and put my money in the container, he gave me the pass and I sat down.

A lady on the bus started yelling at the driver about how I had only paid a dollar and he had given me a day pass, and you can only do that if you have a Senior Pass, and that I hadn't shown it to the driver and he hadn't bothered to look at it.

I asked the driver if he wanted to see it again, and he said no, he'd already seen it. I asked the lady if she wanted to see it, and she said no. We left the bus stop and everything seemed to be OK.

A half an hour later, almost at WalMart, the bus stopped at the Prince William County Clinic, and the lady got off. I was sitting behind the driver, and there's a big partition behind him, so I didn't see part of what happened. But the lady who was making trouble earlier got off. 

She had two very small children with her, and she got up and got off as fast as she could go considering that she was using a walker. At no point did she glance behind to see if the children were still with her, or if she was abandoning them on the bus. One was about two and a half and the older one was about a year older. The little one was bringing up the rear, and he got to the bus door, and was confronted by a step down that was almost as high as he was tall. I felt so bad for him. But he took a couple of deep breaths and jumped.

In the meantime, the lady was steaming away at top speed (considering the walker), and had disappeared into the clinic.

The driver got off the bus with the cell phone mounted in the bus and made a phone call. Then he went in the clinic for a few minutes and came out again. Then he made another call.

Then there were sirens and flashing lights and the police arrived. They parked their cars in front of, beside, and behind the bus, blocking it in so it couldn't leave, and also blocking up the parking lot.

They went into the clinic, and a few minutes later, they came out followed by the annoying lady, who had, once again, walked away and left her children. A big, long conversation ensued, which ended with the police handcuffing her, and fastening some kind of restraints on her feet, although they let her keep her walker.

A representative from the bus company showed up and spoke with the driver and the police, and got started taking names and addresses of the people on the bus.

Finally, another woman, who worked at the clinic came out with the kids and made the annoying woman take them. I was a little relieved by that because I was afraid the cops were going to take her away and leave the kids without knowing that they were abandoning children.

So, it turns out that the lady had grabbed a book of transfers off the holder on the bus, which may have had something to do with why she was so keen to abandon her kids. A regular fare is about $2.50, so that represents a chunk of money.

I'll leave you to imagine the circus that developed from that point. Compared to the sirens, flashing lights, and handcuffs at the beginning, it got steadily more boring and time-consuming.

I haven't even started on the back cover yet.

I hope you're having a better day than I had.