Tag: bus

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Bussing Broker: Week 14

Spring has definitely kicked off, because this week has been astonishingly busy, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon.  Despite that, and clients running me from hither and yon, I did make it out on tour this week.  (I suspect next week isn’t going to happen, though.  We’ll see.) I went on Wednesday, and this is the first chance I’ve gotten to sit down and write it up.

Given the frantic pace this week had, my goals for tour were pretty modest.  Three properties, a condo and two single family homes, in Fremont and Wallingford.  I caught the bus to the first property, walked to the other two, and then used a bus-train combo to get back.  This was slightly less than two hours round trip, including the tour, and I got a lot of correspondence and planning taken care of while I was on the bus, so it worked out pretty well.  Also, the weather on Wednesday was gorgeous, and everything is in bloom, so that was a really nice walk to take in the middle of the day.

Location: Fremont, Wallingford
Time: 2 hr
Transit modes: Bus, feet, train
Cost: $2.50
Cats petted: 0
Tea consumed: No tea
Properties Viewed: 3

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Bussing Broker: Week 5 Part 1

Today was a trip to the U District-Wallingford-Green Lake corridor, with a showing in each.  It rained.  I got very damp.  Also got off to an inauspicious start when I missed not one, or two, but three buses I wanted to take to the first open in the U District.  That meant I didn’t leave my office in Capitol Hill until eleven when I’d meant to be at the first property by then.

Things recovered nicely from there, though, and the rain let up halfway through.  I was very pleased to have brought a thermos with tea in it.  English tea with bergamot and a bit of honey cures rain.

I had to transfer buses to get to the first open, but the transfer went smoothly! Bus from first to second, and foot to the third, then bus back to the office with another transfer en route.  But, I made the final transfer less than two hours after getting onto the first bus.  I call that success.

Location: University District, Wallingford, Green Lake
Time: 2.25hr
Transit modes: Buses / Feet
Cats petted: 1
Tea consumed: 1 Thermos
Properties Viewed: 3

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Bussing Broker: Week 2 Part 2

There were four properties in Fremont and Ballard I wanted to see today.  The weather was okay and I was pretty excited because today was the day I was going to try biking to showings.  I was so excited, in fact, that I went rushing out of the office and left my helmet in the office.  I didn’t notice until I’d gone far enough that I did not want to turn around.  My office is on Capitol Hill – leaving is a much more pleasant experience than coming back by bike.  So I chased down a bus and still made it to Fremont in time for the first property I wanted to see on tour.

Half way between property one and property two, I noticed that my front tire was going flat.  I had just changed the tube in my front tire, so this was rather inconvenient.  I was already sticking to low traffic residential streets because I like my brains to stay securely inside my skull, but even I am not so stubborn as to try being a bicycle rider with one tire and no helmet.  I walked to the second showing, then hopped a bus back to the office.  My first great catastrophe of the experiment, but I still made it to half the tour, so I’m feeling more put out about missing a chance to get in a daylight bike ride when it wasn’t pouring down rain.

I’m counting the cost of the new tube against this tour, though.

Location: Ballard, Fremont
Time: 1.75 hr
Transit modes: Feet, Bus, Bike
Cats petted: 0
Tea consumed: One bottle water, no tea
Properties Viewed: 2
Cost: $7.98

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Bussing Broker: Week 1

I may have been slightly too enthusiastic about this project.  I dashed through my work for the morning and then hopped a bus up to Fremont with a plan to see four properties.  The bus got me there much faster than I’d expected it to.  So much faster that I was awkwardly early for the open of the first property.  I was forced to pass some time browsing the cookbooks at the Book Larder.  I’m feeling generous, so I’m not counting the expenses involved in that diversion against the project.  This time.

The weather was pretty pleasant, and I was armed with a thermos of tea which I sipped quite contently while wending my way from one property to the next.  It was definitely a bit slower than if I’d driven from property to property, but as anybody who’s tried to park in Fremont can attest, I saved a bundle of time by not having to park.  Probably a net loss for time by the clock, but definitely a huge gain in terms of avoiding frustration.

All told, it was an excellent and very encouraging start to the project. I’m excited to see how next week goes.

Location: Fremont, Green Lake, Ballard
Time: 2 hr
Transit modes: Feet, Bus
Cats petted: 1
Tea consumed: One Thermos
Cost: $5
Properties Viewed: 4