Brief story about two of my bus stops (Dec. 13, 2007)

Good news, bad news. Fortunately, the good news is permanent, and the bad news is temporary.

At the other end of my road is McKnight Road, the main business thoroughfare through Pittsburgh's northern suburbs. It's about a 3/4 mile walk, but since bus service there is much better than the much closer Perry Highway, I make the long hike at least as often as the short.

First the good news. Last week, I discovered with glee that the Perrymont stop has a bus shelter. Yay! I've been standing in the mud and weeds there for 16 years, not that I had much choice. The only real alternative was to stand right on the curb, where I could easily fall into the path of fast moving traffic. On occasion I would trample down the burdocks and goldenrod, but mainly I put up with it. But no more!

Now the bad news. One stop downstream is Malibran Drive, a short hop across a dry cleaner's parking lot and the edge of a gas station. This bus stop matters because some buses arrive from a different direction and so do not pass by the Perrymont stop. Getting there requires an extra 30 seconds travel, but on weekends the buses only use that one.

This morning, as I was filling the tank of my two ton tin can, I noticed water spouting from under a manhole cover in the corner of the gas station near the bus stop. Upon closer inspection, that was the sanitary sewer that was overflowing, and all that crud between the cover and the bus stop sign was ... well, you can guess. Aaackkk!!! Fortunately, the mess went right down a storm sewer 20 feet away, but still ...

I called 9-1-1 from my cell phone, and in 5 to 10 minutes, a town cop stopped by to check it out. Just what had happened to cause it, I do not know. It had been raining pretty hard a bit before, but that should not have caused the sanitary sewers to overflow.

It's possible to avoid the mess by sticking to the grass. I sure hope, though, that whoever uses that bus stop later chooses to use the muddy grass to get to the stop instead of the paved lot. It'd be cleaner.

Aaacckkk again. Bleah. *shivers*