The Dingbat is The Ubyssey’s humour column. You can submit completed pieces or pitches to blog@ubyssey.ca.
On Wednesday morning — only hours after bus workers and the Coast Mountain Bus Company reached a last-minute deal to prevent a three-day shutdown of the Vancouver transit system — Andy McCormick, 22, rolled out of bed as if it were any other day.
A fifth-year forestry student at the University of British Columbia, McCormick brushed his teeth, threw on some clothes, grabbed a week-old croissant for breakfast and walked from his Dunbar apartment to catch the 8 a.m. 25 bus.
“I don’t normally wake up this early, but I had to hand an essay in for my 9 a.m Pine and Its Many Great Uses course,” he said.
Despite using transit almost every day since workers began striking on November 1, starting with a uniform and overtime ban, McCormick never noticed a disruption in service.
“I thought it was a little weird that drivers were just chillin’ in hoodies instead of their uniforms,” said McCormick. “I figured it was just casual Friday — but, like, every day.”
When asked what he would have done if a deal had not been reached and the shutdown proceeded as planned, McCormick was at a loss.
“Holy shit, man, I mean, I would’ve been screwed. I guess I could’ve asked my buddy Jason to give me a ride, but I probably would’ve spent an hour waiting at the bus stop before I noticed anything weird,” he said.
“My essay would be, like, so late.”
McCormick said he heard his friends and classmates talking about transit a lot lately, but never realized why.
“I mean we were in my Intro to Urban Planning course, where the prof talks about transit all the time. I usually just zone out when people go off about politics.”