Dear Boss, You disrespected me by ignoring my requests for a meeting for over a year. When you finally decided your schedule could accommodate me, I had long lost interest in revisiting our initial visit. In the interim, you have allowed your non-union staff to run rampant over us once again. Randy Steadman's legacy seems to once again reign supreme. Even though the Rail Operator was cleared of any wrongdoing after a fatal incident, you allowed his dismissal after years of faithful service. Evidently, he was no longer considered a "hero". So much for family values. * A 70-something decades ..read more

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Deke’s Note: While waiting for my 12yo computer to return from its constant state of electronic senility, the cellphone (damn habit-forming device) takes hold of this post’s epiphany. So many ideas swarm around within as I drive the Beast it seems silly to remember them all. Here’s yet another attempt to recoup these ideas. * * * * * Over the last three years, having endured a pandemic-inspired shutdown whilst driving through it, I’ve witnessed a horrific breakdown in sanity amongst fellow motorists. Not enough cops = "screw y'all I'll do what I want."  Yeah, okay dumbasses. Your num ..read more

Deke's Note: They're all asleep now. Beloved Stacers, John & Bill, Baby Mila Rose, her mama and papa. How am I still awake? Sheer willpower plus the fact I work the late shift. I'm always UP this time of night. The wee hours are when I write to YOU. It's my self-therapy. Today is uplifting to me and I wanted to share it with you. This post begins with a song which registered early for me on the radio, and rings true for all those within my loving arms. Although perhaps TMI, it's one I sing in the shower. L - is for the way you look at me O - is for the only one I see V - is very, ver ..read more

  I’m trying to figure out how I can make it back into the seat. “Write what happened,” a sister said. “Print it out, then burn it.” Supposedly this method will rid me of the stress and fear. The damage done, the fucking grief. I am a writer. Wrote a blog post about what happened and how I feel. Can’t post it for legal reasons. Unable to burn it either. My body has rebelled against returning. Physically ill. Exhausted, then insomniac. Nightmares. Flashbacks galore. Confidence shattered. Bathroom blues. Refuse to medicate with uisge beatha for it doesn’t erase the problem, only accentuat ..read more

Author's Note: I began writing this story on a layover one afternoon last month. The idea for a story struck me as I drove my 35, so I just had to start writing it. The majority of it was written on my phone in the Notes app, a paragraph or two at a time just before I nodded into dreamland. Promising myself to finish it for Halloween, I finally did just a few minutes ago. Critics may assail this clumsy offering to the genre of horror, but fuck 'em. I'm happy with it. One idea morphed into a whole story. It was fun writing it! Hopefully, it scares you shitless on this spooky eve. It scared m ..read more

My Note: Perusing this blog's stats last week, I saw there were 499 posts so far. It was only fitting, on my Friday night, to find enough inspiration after another 55-hour week to write #500. It was too rough and unpolished to publish, maybe still so, but here it 'tis. I began this odyssey 10 years ago, simply to describe my life as a bus operator. To me it was pure nirvana to be read by so many of you for so many years. To the internet nerds, it was a paltry number. However, I have never written this blog for them, or any perception of "success". It has always been one operator's viewpoin ..read more

  Her habit of exiting the bus and then walking right in front of it without even looking for the inevitable car zipping by horrifies me.  I honked one night when I saw a car passing me as Dory Dumbo pretended my ride was a school bus. Frantically waving my hand out the window to alert both dumbasses of impending doom only prompted a middle finger from the 20-something I was trying to safeguard. The car stopped just in time, the driver also flipping me off and honking at me in foolish annoyance.  Saved both dumbasses. She doesn’t care to hear me. “Spare me the lecture and l ..read more

After years of being punked by our former management, I hesitate to fully praise the new regime. Sam has had two full years to discuss what changes NEED to happen before Portland transit once again regains its prominence in Portland. To date, he's found many more things to discuss EXCEPT my points. Guess you're still part of the old regime, Sam. Not quite up to prime time, just like before.  Transit still fails to honor a full third of its workforce. Any shift that begins after 3:00 p.m. is lost to the bankers' hours transit management is stuck within. Corporate hours. Anything later i ..read more

Deke/Patrick's Note: Has my wandering from this blog for other literary goals rendered my once-bellowing voice an echo from the past? I hope not, because there is SO much yet to say. Do NOT, for one instant, believe I have left you. While fewer actually read this nowadays, I'm still fervently attuned to the pulse of Portland transit, and I have much to say. All of it, I must add, from this Bus Operator's viewpoint.  * * * * * Why must this metropolis be the testing ground for a horribly-failed leftist policy favoring the whiny lowlifes? Look what this mind-set has done to our city! Our o ..read more