The Case of the Clippers and the Zoo...

The Gratiot bus pulled up at Macomb Mall right on time this morning, and when the doors opened, I seriously thought twice about boarding. Coming from the bus was a cacophony of noise. I reluctantly stepped in, swiped my card, and looked at the driver. "Quite the zoo today!" I said. He smiled and shook his head. "Sure is!"

I weaved my way through the mass of yelling, crying, screaming, you name it children towards the back to find a seat. It was quite amusing watching the mom's trying to keep their children corralled.

Shortly after, I hear a distinctive "clip, clip, clip" sound. I look across from me, and hear is this guy clipping his nasty, dirty fingernails. And some of the parings are flying my way!! I gave him my best owlish, "Are you kidding me?" look, which phased him not at all. I resolved to have words with him if any landed on me, but lucky for him (or more likely, me) none did. He finally moved closer up front and resumed clipping. I wondered how much he had to go when he finally rang the bell. Quite the ride!

Feisty Old Man

I looked up from the funny novel I was reading to see who was raising his voice to the bus driver and saw this feisty old man at the back bus door. He was complaining that the driver didn't stop at his spot after Seven Mile Road. The driver told him he'd have to pull the signal earlier if he wanted to get off at Seven Mile because he was past it. He insisted that there was a closer stop to where he now was and advised the driver that he should tell SMART to make a stop closer. What the older man didn't realize was that he was stopping at the next stop after Seven Mile. The driver told the older man that the City of Detroit was responsible for the drop off locations in the city. The old man exited still agitated at the driver. I even heard one of the passengers at the rear of the bus confirm that it was indeed the next stop after Seven Mile. The poor old guy probably had farther to walk than he anticipated.
bus rides = entertainment.