Went shopping at Fred Meyer (grocery store), first time I'd been there via the bus, and I couldn't believe that there's no walkway from the bus stop and sidewalk to the store. I had to cut through some low bushes and walk between the pumps at the store's gas station, to go shopping.

I'm able-bodied so it's no big deal, but my wife was in a wheelchair, and stuff like this seriously angers me. The ADA exists, damn it.

Soon as I got home, after putting away the groceries, I sent Fred Meyer an angry email. "Dear Fred," it started, and went on for eleven indignant paragraphs.

They answered in less than an hour, while I was writing a rant about this. The store manager explained that the walkway is on the other side of the driveway, which deflated me like a balloon. Pttttth.

Next time I went to the store, sure enough, there was the walkway. It's a little inconvenient to the bus stop, not even visible when you step off the bus, and it's a few hundred footsteps out of the way, so I'll continue cutting through the bushes and gas station, but — the walkway exists, and I'm an idiot.

On another trip to Fred Meyer, I was out of the store and waiting at the stop five minutes before the bus was due, but it never came. My shitty bus only runs twice hourly, so I stood there waiting for 35 damned minutes. The ice cream got soft. Oh, the outrage.

Not really. A late bus is part of riding the bus, and you get used to it. Stick it in the freezer and ice cream gets frozen fine again, but the long wait gave me too much time I didn't want to spend with another man waiting for the bus.

I assume he was homeless — he looked kinda messy, had a beer in his hand. He also had an old-school boombox playing rock'n'roll, but louder, more metallic than what I'd usually listen to. It wasn't awful, though. It was better than talking.

After a few minutes of Judas Priest or whatever, I went to check the bus schedule, conveniently posted on the post of the bus stop sign.

"When's it coming?" the bum asked me.

"Five minutes ago."

"I've been here twenty minutes already," he said, and I smiled and shook my head.

Done my duty, I thought. It's smart and kind to acknowledge the homeless, so I'd said howdy to him when I got to the bus stop, and now I'd answered his question, so let's shut up and enjoy the music.

After some Megadeath or Motörhead or whatever, he rolled a cigarette, what we old-timers used to call a 'doobie'. It smelled pleasant and matched the music. I didn't say anything because who cares, but he strolled over and offered me a toke.

I shook my head no.

"You don't imbibe?" he asked, shocked, probably because I was wearing my tie-dye jacket, which makes me look like a hippie.

I do imbibe, but not often, and not with strangers at a bus stop, so I said, "I'm out of work, might have to pee in a bottle sometime soon for a job."

At that he laughed, and began talking like the wind blows. He said he works as a security guard, and gave a thorough overview of beating the urinalysis. It's about carrying clean pee from a friend in a back-pocket baggie, so it's nice and warm when it's needed, he said, but the way he said it was much, much longer, and surprisingly, kind of entertaining.

Our bus wasn't merely late, it was never coming. It would be twenty minutes, maybe longer, before the next bus. Would me and that gainfully employed pot-smoking clean-pee guard be chatting all that time? He seemed nice enough, but I hate being sociable. And when the bus comes, is he gonna sit beside me and keep talking on my ride home?

Serendipity doo-dah, though — just as I was thinking those thoughts, he said, "Fuck it, man."

I raised my eyes, wondering what.

"I've waited too long for this bus, and it's an optional trip. I'll try again tomorrow."

I shook my head, didn't say anything.

He said, "Thanks for hanging with me, man," and walked off toward the Jack-in-the-Box.

And that was my social interaction for today.

And now,
the news you need,
whether you know it or not

• Netherlands has deployed NATO's first killer robot ground vehicles

• Georgia man sues Dinesh D'Souza and pals for falsely portraying footage of him using drop box as crime in bullshit 2000 Mules

One-word newscast,
because it's the same news every time…

Climate change isn't 'coming', it's underway. It'll kill billions, and we're not doing squat about it.

• climate • climate • climate

All cops are bastards, or they know who the bastard cops are and do nothing about it, which is the same thing.

• cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops• cops • cops • cops • cops

Republicans are the enemy of common sense, common decency, simple truth, and democracy.

• Republicans • Republicans • Republicans

Other links I liked

• Halloween was once so dangerous that some cities considered banning it

• Little girl having a tea party with a lobster and a hawk in 1938

• The Pope does not approve of porn.

• Weird Al

• Inventions from the past

• Vladimir Demikhov

♦ ♦ ♦

♫♬ Mix tape of my mind ♫

• "Don't Do Pharmaceuticals" by Luther Wrong and the Rights

• "Pure Imagination" by Willie Wonka

♦ ♦ ♦

The End

• Charley Trippi

• Roger Welsch

10/28/2022
Tip 'o the hat to Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S, Wynn Bruce, and always Stephanie...