Hello, to whomever is out there.
Last week the call went out that we should post blogs with pictures of our favorite bus drivers. This blog will be about Jean, who may even appear in the digital camera image of her inserted into this message. Or perhaps not, because of technological hiccups. This is my second attempt this week. In any case, she has a very welcoming face. I’ve had many good bus drivers from and to Seattle-Tacoma, and once to Olympia, but clearly Jean excels. We meet most mornings at the no. 11 bus stop, either at the Dome Station, after I’ve ridden the Sounder (excellent connection), or at the 10
th and Commerce stop, after I’ve walked the length of Pacific and Commerce, as described in a previous blog posting.
Jean is an excellent driver, and in fact has been offered the job to train the newbie’s. She also willingly tells the less experienced drivers the tricks of the trade not covered in basic training.
But her bus skills aside, she excels with her people skills. She knows how to control the occasional unruly passenger, but always with velvet-gloved hands, thanks to the skills she honed as a mother, grandmother, and nurse. She knows her regular passengers, often on a first-name basis, and looks out for them, when they aren’t waiting at their usual stop, or when, as happened to me, they are too absorbed in reading, that they are about to miss getting off at their regular stop. She facilitates conversation on her bus (one rider even saying the bus ride made her arrive at work finally fully awake, like having had a cup of java. But if no one on the bus wants to speak, she is also happy with that. She is invariably open, alert and friendly, even when, as happened after a recent weekend of muscle-straining yard work and obligation to entertain a houseful of guests. Jean is already ready for the challenges of the new day, and never a curmudgeon in the process.
When I took a picture of her last Friday to include in this posting, she said that someone else had pointed a camera at her earlier. Another UPSer? So this encomium may not be the only one she’ll be receiving this week.
Wallace, Faculty