A Long Ride B.C.

I had a very cranky bus driver this morning. I almost got kicked off for drinking coffee!

It started when I got on and took my seat. The driver played a message over the speakers:

"Passengers may not eat or drink aboard the bus."

So I look around. There's a girl in the seat next to me eating some cereal out of a ziploc bag. He must mean her, I think.

She's also drinking water out of a reusable, closeable bottle but I figure it's the cereal he doesn't like. She grabs a couple of bits, and puts the bag back in her backpack. She takes a drink of water. At the next stop, the driver stops the bus, jumps out of his seat and storms back to confront her.

He waggles his finger the girl, telling her he "done told you twice!"

She looks shocked but apparently, he has warned her before, because she says something like, "You only warned me once."

"Next time," he says, "I won't even let you on."

This is lame, but I'm now thinking, "Does he mean coffee in closed containers too? Does he mean me?"

So I take a sip, to test this hypothesis.

I can see him glaring at me in the rearview mirror. He plays the damn message again:

"Passengers may not eat or drink aboard the bus."

So I become more discrete, sipping when he has to drive. I am sure he sees me out of the corner of his eye, but he can either be a driver or an enforcer, not both at the same time.

Then someone else gets on with a closed coffee cup. She sits down. He plays the damn message again:

"Passengers may not eat or drink aboard the bus."

She isn't listening. It is 7.45 am for crying out loud!

As he pulls away from the curb, he slams on the brakes in a pique and looks back at the new culprit. She is oblivious, so he waves his arms and says, "Nuh-uh"

She gets the message, and even though I can't see her expression, I am sure she's shocked too.

I don't know what the actual rule is. A friend of mine who rides the bus a lot more than I do tells me this is probably within the driver's rights, but I have to say it makes for a long ride BC (Before Coffee).