Silly stories from Mike...

I’ve discovered a bus that takes me from the Groenkloof Campus where we live to the main campus of the University of Pretoria. It leaves every hour on the hour- I think. (I haven’t really figured out what times it picks up to take me back from the main campus yet.) Anyway, on Tuesday night we had one of those big African thunder storms that makes you start humming the Toto song “I Blessed the Rains Down in Africa”. Lots of lightning and thunder. It rained and rained and rained. So, on Wednesday morning, I got on the bus and sat down and thought “Wow, these seats are refreshingly cool this morning.” Turns out they were just soakingly wet. Because I had been enjoying what I thought was refreshing coolness for a bit too long, the seat of my pants got thoroughly soaked- somewhat resembling Lydia in her prouder potty training moments. The bus driver, seeing our plight and realizing that he had indeed forgotten to close the bus windows during the Rains Down in Africa storm the night before, came up with a thoroughly resourceful solution. Every seat has a vinyl cover for the top of the seat where the passengers head rests. The bus driver carefully instructed us to remove the cover, place it on the wet seat and thereby protect our bums from further wetness. So we all put the seat covers on our seats and rode to the main campus. Unfortunately, I still had a wet bum. So, I did my best to extend the straps of the bag I carry to campus so that as I walked the bag covered my wet bum. Then, when I got to my office, I simply sat in my chair and worked until my pants had sufficiently dried so that no one could see my embarrassing wet stain.

To make my adventures on the bus even better that day, my bus ride on the way home was as crowded as the bus has ever been. I had to stand on the bus rather than sit and comfortably read on the ride home. I’m not sure if my legs were tired, or if I am a klutz, but since I was one of those who had to stand, I was one of the first off of the bus. While exiting I proceeded to slip on the second step out of the bus, land squarely on my previously wet bum and unceremoniously slide on elbows and bum out the bus door while crowds of undergraduate students gasped and guffawed. And yet, somehow I still enjoy riding the bus.