the jimmymac attack!

The bus driver is mad. There is no doubt about that. I would say it is a little known fact except it is really an unknown fact. However I have figured it out. I believe what happens is something like this. The bus driver has a cousin who is a resident of a hospital for the criminally insane. Somehow the cousin I will call Whacko Wang slips out of the insane asylum a couple of days a week. Then he meets his cousin the bus driver. They change clothes and Whacko then takes his cousin's place and drives the bus for the afternoon. It's a win/win for them. The bus driver gets the afternoon off to spend with his girlfriend and Whacko gets to drive through the streets of Taipei like the deranged lunatic that he is. I do not wish to slander deranged lunatics. I'm sure they are very nice people in their own way. But although it is win/win for Whacko and the bus driver it is a big LOSE for me and anyone else who unfortunately gets on bus 245 from Banqiao to Taipei in the afternoon. Whacko loves to drive fast and weave in and out of traffic. It does not help that the bus is old and rattling and falling apart as we fly through the streets. One of his tricks that is really infuriating for me is when he floors it to speed down the street when he only has 1/2 a block to go. Anyone could see that traffic is stopped at the red light ahead. But Whacko is not anyone. He floors it as I try to find a seat. Then as we approach 50 mph in 5 seconds he starts to hit the brakes. Now I am being hurled in the other direction. If he has 10 feet of day light to the next car he is hitting the gas again. So this is how we proceed through the streets of Banciao on the way to Taipei. The seats are rattling, the windows are shaking. One day I was splashed with what I thought was a big cup of water or soda. Looking around my seatmates and I realized it was a load of water from the air conditioner above. The seats were drenched. So although the bus was full a couple of seats sat empty and soaking wet when we ran for dry space. Life on the 245 is never boring. The rattling, shaky bus and Whacko Wang take care of that.