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 ...

Thank You Ipod, SkullCandy and J Cole

Usually, I have no problem being on the bus and overhearing a bit of conversation. In fact, it gives me something to blog about once in a while. But today, I sat across the aisle from a loud talker.

It only took about 5 minutes to realize that if I had to hear this guy speak for the next twenty minutes, it would be torture. And it was very clear that he had no problem speaking non-stop.

" SO I LUCKED OUT AND GOT THIS WOOD-CHIPPING JOB, EH?"

The other guy he was talking to sounded mildly interested, "Oh yeah?"

"YEAH BUDDY! IMAGINE MY LUCK, EH? I'M LOOKING AT MY CHEQUE AND I THOUGHT THEY MADE A MISTAKE!"

His friend's responses, even though he was close by, were almost drowned out by the loud talker's story. The point where I knew I had to get out the iPod was when the story seemed to blend right into another, and at this point, all the friend was doing was saying. "Hmmm" and nodding.

"SO MY DAD, MY DAD HAD THIS GIRLFRIEND. SHE SEEMED NICE AT FIRST, EH? BUT SHE WAS ONLY ABOUT THE MONEY. SHE HATED ME TOO,"

Digging in my bag for my iPod. Come on, where is it?

"EVEN TRIED TO GET SOME GUYS TO BEAT ME UP, EH? OH YEAH, SHE DID ..."

There it is. Yes! Put the new SkullCandy noise cancelling headphones in, pressed play, and all I heard was J Cole - "Lights Please" while the loud talker instantly turned mute. Nice.

The headphones were a good buy. I was kind iffy about the in-ear headphones before, since I always pictured that little rubber piece getting stuck in my ear, but the sound is great, and apparently they're better for your ears than regular headphones, since they don't have to compete with outside noise like crowds and traffic.

And loud talkers on your morning ride.

I Got the Hook Up

Ran into a friend from way back who drives for Winnipeg Transit now. I stepped on the bus and we recognized each other right away. I won't date myself, but this guy was on my soccer team when I was 9 years old. I went to take out my bus pass, and he waved it off, "don't worry about it" style. So now if I ever ride his bus, I know I can ride free. That would be a nice hook up if somehow that could apply to all of the bus drivers, maybe he could spread the word and they could all put my picture on the dash. VIP seating. I would also be able to get friends on for free if they rode with me. It would be like a club hook up, where if my friends and I wanted drinks, the driver would pour from the cooler under his seat. And if I wanted anyone off for any reason, they would have to hit the pavement. So if I didn't like the smell of someone they were out.

That would be the ultimate bus hook up.

Of course, his shift changes every couple of weeks, and the route he drives changes any time. Man! Not really a useful hook up.

Back again ...

Hey! It's been a minute, but I promise more regular updates.  Work, summertime, I really have a ton of reasons I haven't blogged, so like Diddy says, "LET'S GO!!!!!!!" (probably with a few more exclamation points).

Return of the Tassels

I've said it before, but there's definitley a variety of people riding the bus.

For example, on my way home the other day, this guy got on who looked like he was straight out of an 80s heavy metal video. Long shaggy hair, sunglasses, goatee, jeans tighter than any man should legally wear - but the kicker was the leather jacket. Not just your regular standard black leather jacket, but one that undeniably screams "I WANNA ROCK!" Here's the best pic I could find, although it doesn't do it justice.

I hadn't seen one of those for years! Is it possible they're coming back? I hope not. If that's the case I will definitely not be in style.

Don't Read and Drive

So today on the bus ride to work, I happened to sit near the front of the bus, since the other seats were mainly filled. I'm listening to my iPod, enjoying some good old school hip hop, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed something about the bus driver, so I had to do a double take.

This was an older grey haired guy with glasses. He had a medium sized day planner/calendar spread out on the steering wheel, left hand flat on the calendar, and with his right index finger also running along on the calendar grid, I'm assuming looking for a certain date. This was on the highway, and I'm assuming he was driving with his knees for a bit or something. I'm not sure how long he was doing that for, but soon after I noticed he put it away. Really Mr. Bus driver?? Are you telling me you couldn't check that date while the bus was stopped? I know you hear a lot about not using cell phones while driving, but this guy has a bus full of people and he's looking over his calendar instead of watching the road. If bus drivers have bad habits like regular drivers, it makes me wonder what other kinds of things they do that we don't know about while they're sitting up there ...