The Complaint Department

Is closed. Or so I was told every time I entered the tower at Potrero by the lead shop man whenever I had to pull-in. Perhaps this message stemmed from the incident with the dirty filter I had on my bus when I pulled in one night.

The clasp holding the grille that protects the filter inside dropped to the floor, and I gasped at seeing filthy dust bunnies on both sides of the fiberglass tray.  Babies were crying and seniors were coughing all day long on my bus. I kept my cockpit window open and was blessed by the Pacific breeze which can remain continuous throughout the day, so I didn’t notice how dirty the air was streaming into the coach. This was my first realization why operators don’t turn on the heat in the coach. On my crosstown ride home on the 22 Fillmore, I finally got the lesson from an operator about the do’s and dont’s of when to use the fan on a bus.

Do turn on the blower to high before pulling out to warm up the cold metal terrarium inside before sitting down inside the cockpit seat to set the controls. Sure enough, after the first five minutes, the blower motor warms up and quiets down. All the collected dust and carbon settled in the tubes gets pushed out from the first burst of air, and air quality improves. Once warm, the blowers can be turned off before picking up at the first bus stop. Don’t leave the fan on for extended time during a trip.

Do use terminal breaks as a good time to reuse the fans to reheat the coach, again while standing outside the coach or using the bathroom. I also learned the valuable lesson about the other drawback to a warm coach: sleepers. So many of us are deficient in sleep hours that it is usually a matter of fifteen minutes of warm interior air that  we doze off into la-la land. Making a coach a hospitable interior climate is not helpful when pulling in on a twilight run! Our twilight trips last up to an hour, so it is key to spot potential sleepers when they board, especially during the first few minutes of departing the terminal.  

Do keep mental track of who is boarding, especially when the aisle becomes crowded and the rear interior view is blocked from seeing who is laying down on the back seats. Don’t allow persons with blankets to board rear if you cannot see where they ‘sit.’ Do pop the brake and stop a sleeper in their tracks when they first board, by asking where they are going. If they cannot answer, politely, and in keeping their dignity intact, state that Muni is not a shelter, and my job is to get you where you need to go. This usually helps in getting an answer. If they are just shining me on, I tell them I am pulling-in. I don’t want you to get stuck far away from where you need to be. If they do answer, I can wake them up at their requested stop. If they are really dead in the water, I have to wake them up a few blocks early.

This may seem like a call above and beyond duty, but the only way to get them off is by going to their seat and letting them know we are at their stop. This saves a call for an inspector, the police, or the fire department later on when I desire to go home. We cannot pull-in to the yard with a sleeper on board.

I do provide wake up service. It saves down time so my follower doesn’t lose me as a leader when I am waiting for the inspector or police to rouse a deep sleeper. On late nights, it is sometimes easier to let sleepers go for a trip or two to catch up on sleep, but there are limits.

So back to my pull-in at the tower and my tirade upon pull-in. I held up the fiberglass baffles and shook the nasty dust on the floor. “This is unacceptable! Seniors are coughing and babies are crying!” Silence. My mind conveniently goes blank on what I said next, but I was full of rage. The tower was full of other shop workers, the yard starter, and other operators waiting on equipment. 

My compassion for safety and doing my job backfires at times in inappropriate ways if I do not express myself at the right time. This time I nailed it. I finally showed an inadvertent omission on an item not considered “safety significant.” I got angry at the right time and never looked back. And there was nothing anyone could say about it from the shop because I was right. And I bore witness in front of all my peers. This was one of those classic moments. 

My “out to get me” conspiracy theory thinking has not served me, but I never knew it because I never stopped to see the effect I was having on others when I would pass anger on to someone else at another time and place. Only by keeping Zen with prayer and meditation do I have a shot at an easier, friendlier way. And so the transference of frustration at hearing, “The complaint department is closed,” thereafter, by the lead shop man at the Potrero tower, to a smile that it is not all about me. 

I now feel the relief of this realization as I sit here and type this in on my netbook. This is why I write. This is why writer’s write. If I were a normal non-writer, I may have never needed to do an personal moral inventory. A secret of “Why?” emerges. It helps get out the crazy. In this case, the nasty dust bunnies trapped in the filter of my brain and behavior! 

Now when I hear the complaint department is closed, I can turn in my defect card quietly, and keep a copy for myself. Keeping a day timers daily log diary helps, too. 

I just had my jacket snatched down at Townsend on the 45!  I left it on the operator’s seat back and stepped off to talk to my leader. I got my uniform jacket back, but my daily diary book was taken. So much for the record from January to June!  Hmm. I wonder if the Muniverse is trying to tell me something: secure the coach when leaving, if only for a moment. Now I have to tie my bag to the back seat. I hate having to worry about security when I am just trying to take a break. This job keeps me on my toes. As soon as I slack off in one area, such as security or defects, the “complaint department” responds in kind! The killer allied incident was when I got my first air-conditioned trolleybus after eighteen years of service without air, and the first passenger I picked up asked if I would turn off the air!

When I am rested and mindful, I am in the Zen to do the right action, and keep the complaints at bay. At bay with the barking sea walruses and seals.