Rocket-ride

Yesterday’s misadventure (Wednesday, October 19, 2011) was not the actual Alumni meeting itself, it was the return drive.
The dreaded “Alumni” are the union retirees of Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY.
For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS — “Transit”), a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs.
The Alumni was a reaction to the fact Transit upper-management retirees ran roughshod over union retirees — a continuation of the bad vibes at Transit, management versus union.
Transit had a club for long-time employees, and I was in it. It was called the “15/25-year Club;” I guess at first the “25-year Club.” But they lowered the employment requirement, and renamed it “15/25-year Club.” The employment requirement was lowered even more; I joined at 10 years.
My employ there ended in 1993 with my stroke (disability retirement); and the “Alumni” didn’t exist then.
The Alumni is a special club — you have to join. It’s an Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) functionary. (ATU is nationwide.)
It isn’t just a social club.
It has bylaws, officers, and an Executive Board.
In many ways it’s just like our union-local, except it entertains issues of interest to retirees; like Medicare, healthcare, and diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
“Dreaded” because all my siblings are flagrantly anti-union, like the proper way for hourlies to parry the massive management juggernaut is one employee at a time; in which case that single employee gets trampled because he’s not presenting a united front with power equal to the management juggernaut.
The return drive was not home; it was to Ontario Honda in nearby Canandaigua, where I bought our car (a 2003 Honda CR-V), to get its oil changed — a free oil-change.
As such the return drive would not be the route I took to the meeting, which involved Interstate-390.
Interstate 390 and I-590, south around Rochester, would be roundabout.
More direct would be Interstate-490 through Rochester; a frenzied rocket-ride I haven’t done in years.
Leaving the meeting I got on Lyell Ave. (“lile;” as in “aisle”) which interchanges with 390.
From Lyell onto 390 is the right-most lane of four.
About 100 yards after Lyell is the ramp to Interstate-490 toward Rochester, out of the left-most lane.
I remember doing this with a transit bus, an extraordinary and daring maneuver.
Stomp the left turn-signal foot-button and hold it, then stand and look for an opening.
I had 100 yards to cross four lanes of NASCAR rush-hour.
I was coming from Spencerport, a western suburb, then 490 to Rochester.
Always a bucking bronco, but I never failed to make it.
Opposing drivers — and they were always opposing — cut some slack for a charging bus; after all, that’s nine tons of hurtling steel.
So here I am yesterday in our CR-V, suddenly realizing the lane I’m in directs me toward Buffalo.
And I have only 100 yards to get into the left-most lane of four.
Drama; I haven’t done this for years, and I’m old and slightly stroke-disabled. I have to concentrate extremely hard to drive.
The old waazoo; signal on, look for an opening.
It’s not NASCAR rush-hour, but everyone is frenzied, and I’m in a car, not a bus.
I pulled it off; charged into a huge gap. Not to Buffalo, and not roundabout south of Rochester.
The interstate through Rochester is also contorted, lanes charging this way and that onto exits into the city.
Signage can be confusing.
When I drove bus I knew all the moves.
I’m surrounded by hurtling Hummers and gigantic black Expeditions on glittering chrome-spoked wheels, thin tires like rubber-bands.
All at 65+; some doing 100!
I pulled that off too.
Weaving and bending under the old New York Central railroad-tracks, up over Main St., past the Public Safety Building, and then finally over the beautiful new Frederick Douglass bridge over the Genesee (“jen-uh-SEE”) river.
A rocket-ride.
Then another tortured S-curve east of the river, then out along the route of the old Erie Canal through the city.
Things are less frantic past the city, I’m on roads I’m familiar with — even though it’s interstate, I don’t have to concentrate as hard.
To think I used to do this daily with a bus.
Frenzied rocket-rides in rush-hour traffic.
Cutting slack for the NASCAR wannabees and befuddled grannies, yet getting my passengers to work on time.
(“Oh look Dora, a bus. Pull out! Pull out!”)
I wonder how much longer I can do it?

• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
• “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 14 miles away. —We live in the small rural town of West Bloomfield, southeast of Rochester. Canandaigua is about 25-30 miles southeast of Rochester.
• The “CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV.
• “Interstate-390” is the main interstate into Rochester from the south.
• RE: “Turn-signal foot-button.......” —Buses didn’t commonly use steering-column stalks to activate turn-signals. They used foot-button switches.
• “Spencerport” is an old farm-town west of Rochester, now a suburb. I was driving a “Park-and-Ride.” (“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.)
• Interstate-490 west goes toward Buffalo via the NY state Thruway (Interstate 90). Interstate-490 east goes through Rochester toward Syracuse via the NY state Thruway. (The “Thruway” is a toll interstate from New York City to the Pennsylvania state line west of Buffalo. It’s the main east-west highway through New York state. —It more-or-less parallels the Erie Canal, avoiding mountains.)
• The “Genesee river” is a fairly large river that runs south-to-north across Western New York, runs through Rochester, including over falls, and empties into Lake Ontario.
• The Erie Canal no longer goes through Rochester. It was rerouted south of the city. Interstates are in the old Erie Canal right-of-way east of Rochester; Interstates 490 and 590.