Audacity

I was going through my normal routine this morning: downing coffee, cayenne pepper and cereal when I took a moment to lay out my day from the schedule sitting in my inbox. There was a new customer on the list, an older gentleman (I inferred from the status codes), going to the hospital and back, around mid-morning. I have lots of mapping utilities at my disposal (all written by me) so I looked his address up.

Cayenne fueled steam began to sizzle from my ears. I recognized this road, I’d been up it before, a few years ago, during the summer. It’s a narrow, steep, winding road up into the eastern foothills from the base of 5000 S. It’s one of the most treacherous roads in the valley.

I tried to visualize taking my bus up there but my mind just stopped me cold. It wasn’t going to happen, this is the dead of winter with lots of snow down, so I called dispatch first thing. They called the client and he said the road had been plowed, but it was steep, and I could turn around in his driveway.

Excuse me! You have to drive up his steep driveway just to get to his tight circular drive. He asked dispatch if I was driving a front-wheel or a four-wheel drive. It’s a large freaking bus for gods sake!

Anyway, he backed off and canceled and said he would come down to 5000 next time if he needed a ride in the future. My position is, if you’re going to build a house on the side of a mountain, high in the Rockies, don’t expect public transportation to come to your door when you get old…

↑ I would have been coming in from the left, which I’m not…

Map link…