This was an interesting day. I started out by going to a TABRU meeting this morning. It was good and there were a couple of new people. We really need an agenda for these meetings as we tend to ramble if we don't. Some good issues were brought up though I'm always surprised, though I should know better, that other peoples perceptions are so different from mine. Several said that there was so much violence at the transit centers and I haven't really seen any. One said they had seen someone bleeding at the downtown center but the only bleeding I've seen was one guy over by TCC a couple years ago.

After the meeting I took the bus to Motor Vehicle to redo my license. There is some ironic about a person without a car taking a bus to renew her drivers license. Uh huh! The bus driver didn't seem to find it strange when I asked her to let me off at the stop closest since this is a part of town I don't know that well and the bus stops are far apart on this section of Palo Verde.

Well it only took me two hours to get a new license. I finally decided to get my social security number off my license and also to put my PO box on instead of my home address. It was interesting. People were very well behaved and since you get a number it's not like you have to stand in line. Everyone wandered a bit.

There were quite a few phones ringing and people weren't exactly out of touch during the whole procedure. A couple people were quite popular and one girl was testing the different rings on her phone. That was a bit annoying after a while. I wanted to tell her to just pick. It wasn't like she was stuck with it forever. I don't mind people talking on the phone in public. To me it's no different than someone talking to a person right there except that I can't see the other person. I don't really understand why seeing someone talk on a phone in public pushes some people's buttons.

Well, my picture was, as usual, too much like me. The stats were the sad part. I went from 110 lbs to 155 lbs and brown hair to gray in the fifteen years since the first license. That is so sad. I noticed several small children getting their pictures taken. I suppose for IDs but what for? If they were taking fingerprints I would understand as these could be used for ID in case of kidnappings, etc., but just a picture ID seems unusual. They had a bit of a problem getting a cute little three year old to take her hand out of her mouth long enough to take the picture.

All in all it wasn't bad. I always enjoy people watching and this was certainly a captive audience. Sometimes it's nice to know you just have to sit and wait and can't go doing anything. You can feel righteously put upon and blame your doing nothing on 'them' while secretly enjoying your downtime.

Since I was already so far south I decided to catch the same bus and continue on to the Laos Transit Center and then take the 6 all the way home. The times were good enough for the connection that it was quicker than going north and connecting. As I waited I watched the cars coming over the Palo Verde/Alvernon overpass. This always seems like a more desolate part of town.

It was interesting making a circle through the south side of town. I know it since I've been here several times but it's not familiar to me so there are always new things to see as well as seeing again places that are familiar. The Laos Transit Center reminds me of islands unlike the other transit centers which are more like strips. I need to ride my bike down the bike routes that show on the map.