ping
Normally, you post or say stupid stuff.
This is the first time I’ve noticed you have posted something of value.
It was a good read. Thanks.
That’s one tough lady. I would suggest that she might be able to use a three wheeled bicycle, but it’s probably snowing. I hope things work out for her.
Heartwarming story in many ways. But it illustrates a good point: we all should be helping when we can so that when we need help, we have friends who would be willing to help. I see so many people who rely only on themselves, keep to themselves, and seldom help others. When they run into trouble, they have a great deal of difficulty asking for help. Yet everyone reaches that point sooner or later. Get involved. Serve in whatever ways you can. Make friends. Care for others. Then that bread cast upon the waters comes back to you. This woman probably had access to a lot more help than she knew but her European pride perhaps held her back. I am glad she was associated in a church because churches offer valuable networks for assistance at need.
Of course, the most difficult people I run into are those who are solely into taking. They constantly need help due to their choices in life and seem to have no difficulty asking/demanding it, and yet they never even attempt to help others. Those are the true sad cases.
You get dark hints of what her life back in Czechoslovakia may have been like in the bad old days. She would have been twenty in ‘68. She must have received some going-over in the Gulag for her to be so reclusive and close-mouthed about her past.
I’m not buying it. It is complete BS.
The big difference out there was that the management of the transit agency was under a lot of public pressure to bust the union -- and that's pretty much what they did. A few weeks after the light rail and bus system shut down, Calgary Transit had enough management personnel trained to drive a group of shuttle buses. So they took a big piece of open space near the Calgary Stampede grounds and used it as a park & ride lot, and shuttled commuters between there and downtown Calgary every day.
The atmosphere was almost festive on the first day that operation was in place. There was a high-rise apartment building across the street from the park & ride lot, and a few neighbors on one floor had created a giant banner that they hung from their balconies . . . it said: "BUST THE UNION" in huge letters for all of the motorists below to see. LOL.
I admire this woman’s spirit, but I’m afraid I’m not impressed with her resourcefulness.
Every day I saw a bus drive through our subdivision in Chester County, PA, "Chester County Paratransit". I called this agency and found out that it only serves people on medicaid or seniors 60 or older. So if you are a walking, driving, 60 year old millionaire, you can get a free ride, but if you are just a middle class working stiff paying the bill for this freebie, forget about it.
I forgot what I was gonna say.
I live in Ottawa, let me give you all the rundown on what is happening.
The transit union (bus drivers and mechanics) are on strike. They were offered a 10% raise over 3 years and a $2500 signing bonus but the union got them to turn it down because the union wants to set the work schedules for bus drivers. This was something that was given to the union over a decade ago, and they have done a poor job of it resulting in a 400% increase in overtime, costing the city a lot of money and also putting some drivers on the road for much longer than it really is safe for them to be. The union won’t give an inch, and their leader is an arrogant, thuggish man with no regard for the public. It seems he really doesn’t care about the union members either, and why they don’t revolt against him I don’t know. I know a bus driver, he and his family are hurting bad from his being out of work so long, but they have been stirred up to such anger against the city by these union thugs that they are sacrificing their families well being to support the union when it is the union that should be helping them.
While I can get by fine without them (in fact I like driving to work much better than taking the bus, even with the extra traffic) there are a lot of older and poorer people who are very much at risk from this. I think it’s sad that so many people don’t have a church or other social group who they can call on for help, but such is life these days for many.
This doesn’t look like it will end soon. And even if it ended today it would take them weeks to get service back up to normal levels.
Most of the public is very much on side with the city and would be happy to see the union busted. The city hasn’t done much in that area though.