Bus-abilities: Person of Interest #1

Mr. A goes to a woodworking cooperative in Burnsville.  He pays $240/yr for unlimited use of their tools.  He purchases wood through the cooperative to save on trips to the hardware store.  He says their wood prices are about half what he would pay elsewhere.  Onto the bus, he carried a few scraps of wood from his latest project--a cutting board.  Made of elegant dark wood squares, perfectly fitted them perfectly, their tight grains weaving a checkered pattern.  It was such a wonderful work of art, he exclaimed, he may not give it to the person who commissioned him.  Clearly, Mr. A is an able experienced woodworker.

 

"I was led here"

From October 2011...

Today was my third day of training for driving vulnerable adults around with a transit company called Transit Team. I rolled out of bed at 6:15. I pulled together the belongings for the day and headed to the garage to meet Bob for the day of training.

Bob is a older gentleman with a limp. He's been driving with TT for seven years. He was very thorough in his pre-trip training with me: check the fluids, the clips, the lift, etc. We pulled away in his Ford Diesel mini-bus at 7:30 enroute to our first destination.

I wouldn't have necessarily signed up for this job, except I have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay, and, frankly, apparently no other productive connections in Minneapolis to hook me up with work. I applied for the job initially because my neighbor Tom also did, and I was desperate. To make matters worse, I got the job and he didn't. Though perhaps I understand why: starting as a new driver as a senior citizen as he is might be tough, the work will require stamina and endurance.

The job requires 5 days of riding along with an experienced driver and 4 Saturdays of classroom training before becoming a fully certified driver. Day one was with Tom or "New York" as they call him. He's from Queens and has the accent to prove it. He was actually quite entertaining to ride along with and our route, fortunately, had a couple of opportunities for using the facilities of various Super Americas.

A memorable moment with Tom was our encounter with an amputee at the VA hospital. I went in to the entryway to pick up the man as Tom waited with the vehicle. When we came out, Tom asked the man if he was going to the destination listed on the manifest. "No, I'm going to the Fair Grounds, I called and made the change on Monday" the man replied. The client became irate as he noted the company's mistake. A call to the dispatcher by us, a call by cellphone to the company by the livid client and a quick trip to the bathroom by moi later, and I was in the driver seat watching Tom patiently tell the man he'd have to wait for the company to send a bus in 15 minutes.

A few more F bombs by the vet and we shut the door. With the dispatchers blessings and Tom's direction, I pulled away from the curb, leaving the gentleman screaming at us for not taking him with us. He flung his half-filled bottle of Dr. Pepper at the bus as I pull away.

There was a gentleman already on the bus who watched all of this. I believe he was mostly deaf. He felt bad and apologized if the commotion was because of him.

Lesson: Mistakes happen, and sometimes I'll have to be the powerless middleman who has to put up with it.

Back to Bob. By lunch time, he had explained quite a few things to me and I had mentioned that I had worked at a church. He told me that he used to work sales and, knowing that I was a man of faith, said "I was led to this job." From the middle of the classifieds which were full of jobs he had no skill in, this one stuck out as one he could do. It has turned out to be a rewarding job for him.

I shared that I thought it was an honor to drive these folks around. He agreed. He mentioned he'd read the Bible three times through during the breaks of this job. I mentioned that we reflect God's heart for the weak and oppressed when we, too, care for these people.

I also read a chapter of Jim Palmer's Divine Nobodies today. It really only confirmed that working at a common labor job is a very Jesus-like thing to do.