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A Nice "Crazy" Person and a Clean and Polite Hobo
Ok, not sucky, but didn't really fit in "praising."
Sighting the First: A Nice Crazy Person
The other night I was on the bus much later than I should have been, trying to get home from getting Hubby's meds at an all-night pharmacy (lack of planning on my part, there's a Greens of Wall literally less than a block away from our apartment, but I got involved in a video game until right before their pharmacy closed). As I was on a route I'm unfamiliar with, I asked the driver if this was the right bus to get to the corner of A and B streets (it was).
A guy nearby asks me, very nicely, if A and B street is near Royal Burger and Taco Smell, just across from a specific landmark. I told him it was. He says thank you. He then proceeds to sit down and have a rational conversation with a non-present person. He was not angry, not upset, and was speaking at normal volume, in fact he was quiet enough that I couldn't hear the topic of conversation from a few seats away. I naturally assumed he was on the phone. Only when we got off the bus, I got a look at both sides of his head. No bluetooth, no earbuds, no phone.
Sighting the Second: A Clean and Polite Hobo
This was coming home from work yesterday. I sat across from an older man who had all the usual earmarks of being homeless. Long beard, backpacking backpack, somewhat scuffy clothes. His clothes, however, were clean, and his beard, though long, was neatly trimmed. Most impressive, he had no discernible BO, and this was on a day where the outside temp was over 90 degrees F (over 32 C). Having waited for my bus for about 20 minutes in that heat, after a long day at work (long enough for my deodorant to wear off even though I work indoors), I'm sure I smelled worse than him.
So anyway, he asks me very politely, and in a soft voice, if he can invade my privacy for just a moment. I said "ok?" He then asks me to use my cell phone (a smartphone) to look up a specific campground. Which I'd have been happy to do, only I'd forgotten to pay the bill the day before and had no data access (I was reading one of my saved ebooks). I told him that, and he said "oh well, thanks anyway, I'll go ask in that gas station if they have a map." He got off the bus at said gas station, giving me a friendly wave.
I love my city. In Denver, even our "nut cases" and "bums" are better than the rest of the country's. :P
Sighting the First: A Nice Crazy Person
The other night I was on the bus much later than I should have been, trying to get home from getting Hubby's meds at an all-night pharmacy (lack of planning on my part, there's a Greens of Wall literally less than a block away from our apartment, but I got involved in a video game until right before their pharmacy closed). As I was on a route I'm unfamiliar with, I asked the driver if this was the right bus to get to the corner of A and B streets (it was).
A guy nearby asks me, very nicely, if A and B street is near Royal Burger and Taco Smell, just across from a specific landmark. I told him it was. He says thank you. He then proceeds to sit down and have a rational conversation with a non-present person. He was not angry, not upset, and was speaking at normal volume, in fact he was quiet enough that I couldn't hear the topic of conversation from a few seats away. I naturally assumed he was on the phone. Only when we got off the bus, I got a look at both sides of his head. No bluetooth, no earbuds, no phone.
Sighting the Second: A Clean and Polite Hobo
This was coming home from work yesterday. I sat across from an older man who had all the usual earmarks of being homeless. Long beard, backpacking backpack, somewhat scuffy clothes. His clothes, however, were clean, and his beard, though long, was neatly trimmed. Most impressive, he had no discernible BO, and this was on a day where the outside temp was over 90 degrees F (over 32 C). Having waited for my bus for about 20 minutes in that heat, after a long day at work (long enough for my deodorant to wear off even though I work indoors), I'm sure I smelled worse than him.
So anyway, he asks me very politely, and in a soft voice, if he can invade my privacy for just a moment. I said "ok?" He then asks me to use my cell phone (a smartphone) to look up a specific campground. Which I'd have been happy to do, only I'd forgotten to pay the bill the day before and had no data access (I was reading one of my saved ebooks). I told him that, and he said "oh well, thanks anyway, I'll go ask in that gas station if they have a map." He got off the bus at said gas station, giving me a friendly wave.
I love my city. In Denver, even our "nut cases" and "bums" are better than the rest of the country's. :P