Rollout........

........yesterday (Tuesday, November 23, 2010) was at 5 a.m., which my good friend Gary Coleman (“coal-min”), also like me a Transit retiree, says is a disgrace to the Transit retiree code-of-conduct.
For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS — “Transit”) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and its environs. My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that.
Coleman is right, of course, since every run I had pulled out very early in the morning; usually no later than 6:45.
My worst pulled out at 5:05, which meant getting up at 3 a.m.
I was doing this for two reasons:
— 1) To allow time for breakfast, etc; perhaps 45 minutes.
— 2) To allow 30-40 minutes travel-time to the Barns.
The idea was to not be late for work, so I was usually arriving about 4:45.
Late would have been after 4:55; we were supposed to report 10 minutes before pull-out.
We were paid 10 minutes to pre-check our bus, which was hardly enough.
By reporting at 4:45, -a) I was never late, and -b) I could more thoroughly pre-check my bus.
Which in my case was make sure all the wheel lug-nuts were tight.
Quite often they weren’t, in which case I was directed to the Tire-Room.
Tightening everything might gobble 10 more minutes, but I wasn’t about to have a wheel come off.
It was easier when we lived in Rochester.
There I was about five minutes from the Barns.
That meant I could work runs with perhaps a five-hour break between “halves” (segments).
Such work was usually school-trips or Park-and-Rides. Park-and-Rides were the cream of the pickin’s.
Good clientele, and a scenic ride.
School-work was okay, but only in the morning, when the school-kids were too sleepy to be a problem.
By afternoon there were wired — monsters.
I had one run that took middle-school students downtown after school.
Many times I returned to the school with a discipline problem.
It was all I could do.
They were good after that because they wanted to get home.
Sometimes they were so desperate they jumped out the side-windows of my bus. The side-windows swung open from the top as a safety-measure.
Especially if they saw a fight was brewing on the sidewalk.
But in the morning they were too sleepy. I did a lot of morning school trips.
But after we moved to West Bloomfield I could no longer do work assignments with a five-hour break.
I was now 30-40 minutes from the Barns.
To do such work meant long trips to-and-fro, or staying downtown, which wasn’t possible.
I had to start doing regular city bus-runs, which made the clientele worse, and took out the time off for school off.
Driving school-work meant if school was off, you were off. Yet you were still getting eight hours of pay — per contract.
With that it was possible to work only four hours in the afternoon, yet collect eight hours pay.
With regular city-bus runs that was no longer possible.
School vacations didn’t apply.
Our early rollout was because we had to deliver a car to a car-wash place at 8 a.m.
The car-wash place was in nearby Canandaigua, 20-30 minutes away.
“Canandaigua” (“cannan-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.
We probably coulda got up 15-20 minutes later; we arrived at the car-wash place at 7:55. (We were also allowing for breakfast.)
It wasn’t open yet; but they arrived just before 8 a.m.
People are probably wondering why we couldn’t wash/wax ourselves.
Well we did before, but now we’re old.
I figure it’s better to farm it out than waste a whole day or more doing a sloppy job.
The car-wash place is also doing doll-ups for dealers.
They have what’s needed for black plastic trim. We always ended up with milky wax-smudges on that.

• I had a stroke I pretty much recovered from.
• “The Barns” are at 1372 East Main St. in Rochester, somewhat from downtown. The Barns were large sheds the buses were parked inside. Regional Transit’s operations were conducted in buildings adjacent to the Barns. (We Transit-employees always said we worked outta “the Barns.”)
• “Park-and-Rides” were trips from suburban or rural end-points, usually through Park-and-Ride parking-lots, where passengers would park their cars, for a bus-ride to work in Rochester.
• We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield in Western NY, southeast of Rochester. We previously lived in Rochester.
• RE: “Now we’re old....” —We’re both 66.