Good Morning!

A rather quiet start around the TriSec compound. I'm heading in to work later in a rather rare afternoon/evening shift for me. But it's also my next-to-last day driving MBTA service.


More on that in a minute. It's also the last quiet summer weekend around this college town. Next week, all 250,000 college students headed to Boston move in at the same time, a phenomenon locally called "Hell Week". There are many traditions of the event, chief among them being the "Annual Wedging of the Truck". You might know this one from the Urban Dictionary.



The phenomenon is named for a local traffic artery, Storrow Drive, which goes along the Boston side of the Charles River directly to the campus of Boston University, and leads downtown to many other major schools in the region. We've already had an early-season sighting.

Storrow Drive was built in Boston in the 1950s, originally intended as a scenic parkway along the Charles River. Over time it has morphed into the major secondary road to the Western suburbs, and sees heavy traffic on a daily basis. It's also the way to Fenway Park, so there's plenty of gameday traffic as well. But being built as a parkway - it was never intended for heavy trucking. The lowest clearance on the road is a mere ten feet.

So, we'll be seeing plenty of action over the next two weeks or so. My personal favourite was from three or four seasons ago - a truck got stuck under the BU bridge, and the tow truck sent to rescue it was also too big, and it got stuck there, too. Fun times.

But, back to me. I noted that I'm all done with MBTA service, today and tomorrow being my last regularly-scheduled days. Whelp, that's because I'm leaving the city.

Oh, I'm not moving away - not yet, anyway. But that greener pasture at Yankee Bus turned out to be a false bill of goods, as many greener pastures often turn out to be. I essentially traded one "Hop on Hop off" tour for another. All I have driven since I left the trolleys has been transit shuttles. Not hard, but tedious. And all twelve-hour days behind the wheel. As I opined to Mrs. TriSec, if I wanted to drive transit, I would have signed up with the MBTA.

I don't want to drive transit.

Fortunately, commercial drivers are in high demand. As long as I can pass a drug test and haven't crashed in the last six months, you usually get hired on the spot.

A tremendous opportunity landed on my lap a month ago, which I took immediately. I had to bide my time, because it's tied to the school year. Here is what I'll be driving, starting on August 26.

It is at the college campus that I literally live across the street from. I drive past my house twice on the route. The bus itself lives a fifteen-minute walk from my house. It's a full schedule, 40-50 hours per week, all through the winter (when tourism and travel is dead in Boston). Tied to the academic calendar, I already know when all my holidays and vacation weeks are until next June. And best of all - being a school job, the layoff is in the SUMMER, and yes, I can collect.

I wasn't necessarily looking for it, but it found me. "Cubbie" won't be retired, as I still use my stage name behind the wheel. But it looks like I don't have to deal with tourists, traffic, terrible working conditions, or anything like that anymore.