Oh, la la la, di da da. La la, di da da da dum

Time's up. We run on a strict schedule here. There are consequences if you're late.

Today was one of those days.

My alarm goes off at 6:15 am, rain or shine. Well, it's pretty much never shine this time of year. Before we fell back an hour, it was plain dark when I would leave my house for my morning jog. For a couple of days after the time shift, it was nice and bright as I left my house. Now each morning it is a little darker. Soon it will be just plain dark again.

Today, I did my 2.5 mile loop, took a shower, dressed and took up my post in the kitchen.

I'm the people mover. I've held the job in our household since The Kid was old enough to go to school. For the 13 years The Kid was in school, I made his breakfast and then his lunch each school day and then I made sure he got to school on time.

Today, Mr. College Kid sleeps in. He doesn't need his old man making breakfast, let alone bagging a lunch for him.

No, today Mr. People Mover is in charge of getting The Wife out the door in time to meet her bus to work in Rancho Cordova.

Something went wrong this morning. I haven't been able to put my finger on what exactly happened. A chunk of time just disappeared. It wasn't much time. It doesn't need to be. A misplaced couple of minutes upset the balance. I remember being in the kitchen preparing The Wife's traveling cup of black tea with honey. I looked at the oven clock and I was surprised to see it was 7:22. Just as I turned to chase The Wife out the door I saw the bus drive by.

"To the car!" I urged.

Alas, we've been here before. But not to worry. We have plenty of time.

The No. 82 bus meanders down our street, makes two left turns to a parallel street, travels back the way it came, makes two right turns and again is traveling parallel to our street. It's one giant S that allows the bus to get as close as possible to Mira Loma High School and then head back to where American River Hospital once stood and then finally off on its way to points south and west, eventually stopping at the 65th Street light rail station.

So while the bus driver drove a total of 1.7 miles, stopping along the way, The Wife and I clamored into the car and raced less than three-quarters of a mile to a No. 82's stop on the far side of the S.

I waited in the car until the bus arrived and The Wife boarded. As the bus pulled away from the stop I started back home. Billy Joel was singing Piano Man on the radio:

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine
He gets me my drinks for free
And he's quick with a joke and he'll light up your smoke
But there's some place that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me."
As his smile ran away from his face
"Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place"

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Billy Joel was still playing as I parked the car in the garage and turned off the radio.

Oh, la la la, di da da
La la, di da da da dum

Off to work I went.