Creepy Old Drunk Guy

Yup. Not much of a clever title for this one, that pretty much says it. And no, it wasn't Nick Nolte as he looks in the pic above, but close. But why was this guy creepy? Read on.

I took the bus after working late one day last week, and I have a pretty strong theory about transit bus passengers. The later it gets, the more strange people get on the bus. Kind of like that funky old hip hop classic goes, "The freaks come out at night". Whodini was right on with that one. The freaks will be out even as early as 6 p.m..

I'm sitting near the front of the bus, and a stop or two later, this guy gets on and sits in front of me. This guy reeks of alcohol and you can tell that he's out of it. He happens to sit down beside a blonde girl, probably in her mid 20's, and this is where the creepiness starts.

The guy looks at her. Then he looks her up and down. Then looks forward again. Then looks at her. Then looks her up and down. Then looks forward for a bit. Repeat. I mean it was very obvious, and I'm sure she was uncomfortable. At the next stop, the seat in front of him opens up, so he gets up and moves there. I swear I could hear a sigh of relief from the girl.

So now, the guy is sitting in the seats that face each other at the front of the bus, usually reserved for elderly and women with young children. And just when I thought he wouldn't be making anyone uncomfortable anymore, a mother and her friend get on with a baby in a stroller and sit directly across from drunkie. The guy is kind of wobbly in his seat, and soon he focuses on the baby. The mother is talking to her friend, and he leans forward, gets up and touches the baby's hand and smiles. I'm sure the mom must smell the beer on him if I can, but she gives the man a weak smile.

A moment later, he touches the kid's hand again, then he touches the kid's face, then pokes the kid's belly, and is chuckling to himself. I'm thinking, at what point do you tell a stranger - a drunk old creepy stranger - something like, "Hey - stop touching my kid" ? But the mother doesn't said a word. If that was my kid, I'd stop him right away. It seemed that it was inevitable that there would be a scene where the mom yells at him to stop, the driver pulls over, and the cops are called, but the mom never said a word. Maybe she had a high tolerance for that kind of thing, or maybe the guy got off the bus just before she would have blown up. Drunkie and myself both got off at the same stop, and I walked to where I had parked my car that day. I'm not sure where he went, but at least he wasn't driving.

Banged Up

Last week I saw a high speed car crash just outside my window. First time I've ever seen something like that up close, and its like they say, it seemed to happen in slow motion. Two cars trying to get into the same lane, and when they collided, it sounded like empty Coke cans being crushed.
Hubcaps went flying and both cars flew up onto the boulevard before coming to a complete stop.
Airbags went off in both cars, a guy stumbled out of the Toyota Echo and fell to the ground in pain beside his car. Construction workers closeby rushed the scene, and the other driver in the Prius was in obvious pain, but didn't seem like he could move from his car. The bus was stopped for a while as our driver got out, and we were there for what seemed like half an hour waiting for EMR unit to get there. After looking at my watch I realized we were there less than 15 minutes total.

Of course I got to work later than expected, but thought about the accident, and that was one thing I didn't have to worry about in the morning. The bus is pretty safe, no worries about road rage drivers, until I hop in my car on the weekend ...