MUNI Tales: 'That's Why It's Dangerous To Have Coffee On These Things'
True story from a crowded J-Church this morning. We were sitting quietly, a little zoned out, holding the 20 oz. cup of coffee that we'd obtained at our neighborhood cafe with both of our hands, which had become rather cold from time outside. Yes, we had a lid on it.
The J-Church, particularly when it's on the streets heading from Dolores Park up to Market St., is a little herky-jerky. One well-known hazard faced by regular MUNI riders (whether bus or street car): you take a risk if you stand or try to move in advance of the vehicle actually coming to a complete stop. Chances are good you might take a dive if you try it. Hasn't this happened to most of us at one time or another? We recall a particularly embarrassing tumble on the 1 California a number of years ago.
And, yeah, we'll admit carrying a coffee on your morning commute is a calculated risk as well.
So, here's what happened: a woman, perhaps a relative MUNI noob, tried to shuffle closer to the exit door while the car was still in motion, just as it did one of its back-and-forth jerking things. She went flying into the woman sitting next to us, who bravely bore the brunt of the impact -- but then the tumbler continued her descent and knocked against our shoulder and arms, finally balancing herself against our torso. Oops!
Now, we've got fairly steady hands, and we're willing to sacrifice our body for the sake of coffee -- thus very little was spilled, and it was all on your correspondent.
Hey, fair enough, Like we said, we knew drinking coffee on MUNI was a calculated risk. We accepted that risk--and had that risky behavior affected others (i.e., if we'd gotten coffee on someone else), we'd have apologized profusely and offered compensation if appropriate (like for a cleaning bill).
We figured those brave enough to jump the gun and start moving before the car stops should have about the same attitude. In fact, in our opinion it was a "no harm, no foul" situation. Her fall didn't hurt us nor our neighbor, our coffee didn't make much of a mess, only our respective minor annoyances (her embarrassment; our need to clean up just a little) were the only fallout from the whole affair.
Well, she couldn't leave well enough alone for some reason. She actually looked at us and as we started cleaning our hands and jacket and said, "That's why it's dangerous to have coffee on these things."
What?! Are you kidding? Geez. Seriously, if we both just silently acknowledge we were taking risks and went on our merry way, wonderful -- but that's some audacity to pull a Chevy Chase-worthy pratfall, slam into two people, then chastise one of those people for daring to have a drink.
So are we way off base? Should we forgo coffee on the J forever? Anybody fallen on you on the MUNI lately? Any other recent annoyances ya'll care to share?
(oh, gawsh, and if you actually saw the above incident, please let us know how silly all parties involved looked!)