Getting Grandmother at the Bus Station

Are there still bus stations any more?  Does Greyhound still take people all across the country?  Bus tickets and rides are still popular in songs, movies and television shows, but how many of us still travel by bus?  Is it a dying mode of transportation?

When I was young, small even, my father's mother would come to visit us from the coast.  She lived, "far far away" to my mind and it would take her long periods of time to get to our town via a bus ride from the city in which she lived.

Today, that town is two hours away, although the highways are more direct and the speed limit is faster, but it still wasn't as far away, even then, as my child's mind imagined it to be.

When she first started to come and visit, the Greyhound bus station was a smallish affair in the downtown area.  It didn't seem clean or welcoming, but it did the job and she arrived and we were all happy to see her.  I remember the excitement of standing just to the side of the bus, waiting for her to come out.  At that point, her arrival and visit had begun.

Shortly before she stopped coming to visit via bus there was a newer, sleeker, more expensive-looking building she would arrive in.  It seems expansive and huge to me.  I don't remember going there more than a few times.  In comparison to the old building it almost seemed opulent.  Was that right before the decline of bus-based travel?

My children ride in a car with a television in it today.  Their grandparents have their own cars and come to visit at their convenience.  When they arrive, it's to my children's door.  I wonder how things will be different for my children's children some day?

The Big Boy Update:  Anticipating the next line.  My son is getting to the early stages of repetition of things he's seen many times.  You know what I'm talking about: you've read a book so many time to your child that the child starts to read the page back to you before you even get there...and the child can't read yet.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Pulling out her hair?  Her hair is growing slowly, and I yearn for it to be a little longer so it moves beyond the bothersome spots in front of her eyes.  We keep it back during the day, but every so often there are bits of hair on the car seat or in her hand.  Is she accidentally pulling some out or is she annoyed and pulling out pieces intentionally?

Fitness Update: Thirty minutes in brief at the fitness room.  Twenty on the elliptical, trying to push the resistance as much as I could.  Five minutes on the weight machine, testing out my shoulder.  Good news is no pain.  It looks like it might have been just a big scare; but one of warning nonetheless. 

Someone Once Said:  Novelty is the currency of childhood. Spend it wisely.