Miscellaneous Observations

Observation 1:

When one is a bus rider, one must develop a self-defense mechanism for dealing with the fruits and nuts one is occasionally forced to share space with. Since engaged reading and headphones are not always an adequate means of self-defense, I find that pretending that I am deaf and dumb (or don't speak English) is rather effective. While it does not deter the said fruit from engaging in conversation, it does frustrate them a great deal when they do not get a response from me and leads to a great deal of amusement for me when I give an audible farewell to the bus driver before disembark.

My latest experience in frustrating a fellow rider occurred on Friday, when a rather nasty man, dragging a five gallon paint bucket (with what appeared to be potato peelings) and a bag of groceries, boarded the bus and settled into one of the handicapped seats near the front. He attempted to engage me in conversation as I was reading, and I automatically switched to deaf/dumb/non-English speaker mode as his behavior was highly eccentric.

Shortly after the man had settled down, a blind woman with a service dog boarded the bus. I rose to offer her my seat, but she found a space near a friend and began talking.

Nasty little man decided a little amusement was in order and started throwing cereal on the floor for the dog to eat. When the blind passenger realized that he was feeding her service dog, she started to yell at the man to stop. An argument broke out between the two of them. The blind woman was justifiably furious that the man was feeding her dog. Nasty little man claimed that the dog's sniffing of his potato bucket upon boarding meant that he was hungry.

Naturally, nasty little man turned to me and attempted to justify his bad behavior. As my stop was coming up shortly, I simply gazed off into the distance, nodding out of time to his remarks and smiling vaguely. I would have preferred to hit him with the book I was holding, but that would have been a waste of a perfectly good novel. I said a cheerful good evening to the bus driver when I left the bus and prayed that the man was not behind me.

Observation 2:

Pittsburgh is not exactly the wealthiest of cities. The demise of the steel mills has sent multiple neighborhoods into poverty. One of those neighborhoods is South Braddock.

Locals may wonder why darling husband and myself were driving through Braddock early Sunday afternoon. We were meeting friends to watch the Steeler game and the Parkway was its usual cluster. Depressing does not begin to describe what it feels like to drive through that neighborhood. It looks like a bomb hit it.

As we pulled up to a light behind two trucks, we saw a woman standing on the street. She was middle-aged, appeared to be pregnant and was stopping every vehicle at the light. She initiated conversations with the two vehicles in front of us and the one behind. As we were driving off I realized that she was a prostitute.

Surreal.