The brightest and best on the bus....

[Kit-Ginevra]

This week's crop have been up to the usual standard.

Tonight's stars

*Do get brownie points for actually voluntarily staggering off the vehicle during its five minute stop in town to down your bottles before we all move off.

*Lose your brownie points for your female friend.We do all make errors of judgment in choosing a mate and it was admirable you went to court to support him,even though it was 'well bad for him'.'
He did indeed make a bad choice in choosing to do 'some gun thing' especially one that got him sentenced to 13 years imprisonment.

But last week's idiot beats all.

*Yes,we're all sick of sitting in this bus in a heatwave going nowhere for an hour because lots of goons want to pile into a castle to hear Bryan Adams warble. Telling us to get a f****ing move on every time the car ahead shifts two foot forward will not help.We cannot teleport ahead or we would have done.
You may have Tourette's(although that seemed to vanish when Granny called!) and various other mental issues,but you used up your three strikes.

Strike 1:Telling us you have to get back to the hospital for the safety of the public and that you don't want to.We can well believe this,but now you've moved from comical to worrying.

Strike 2:Telling us that if the bus doesn't get a f***ing move on,you'll go f***ing mental.We're now very worried about you-that's why you have the back
half of the top deck to yourself.

Strike 3:Telling us you've had enough and you're going to blow the bus up and everyone on it.We're now evacuating the top deck and the police are coming very quickly to remove you.Which means you won't have to worry about only getting to spend an hour with Granny this evening,because now you'll be spending the night in a cell...

It wasn't quite so entertaining at the time.Even though the guy was clearly spouting gobbledegook,there was still a bit of me that was thinking 'What if he pulls something out of his bag'?'....

[RealUnimportant]

Oy. It amazes me with this country's history that people still think it's funny to pretend to be potential terrorists when around a group of total strangers (it's one thing to joke about it quietly with your mates, and quite another when it's among the general populace or even better authority figures!) And as it's likely that your fool ended up being taken into custody, they've accomplished the exact opposite of their intention, and delayed their journey indefinitely instead of scaring people into going faster!

[Minflick]

That's the truly frightening thing about mentally impaired people, whether the impairment is neurologial or pharmacological. You just have NO way of knowing what's coming next, and if it's going to be violent or not. I promised myself decades ago that I would no longer live in a neighborhood where I had to check for passersby being close to my car before I exited it. The burbs had a far lower number of them, even if the burbs were boring in many other aspects.

[protege]

That's the truly frightening thing about mentally impaired people, whether the impairment is neurologial or pharmacological. You just have NO way of knowing what's coming next, and if it's going to be violent or not

That's just it. Where I work, there's a lot of drug activity. Most of the dealers keep to themselves. They'll leave you alone--they're smart enough to not attract the attention of the cops. The users though, are another story. They're pretty fucking scary at times. You don't know what they're on, or how they're going to react to simple things. Things like seeing a fire hydrant, or even a bus approaching from 2 blocks away can send them into screaming fits.

[Minflick]

Back in the OLD DAYS. Mid 1970's. I used to be a slim white girl. With boobs. One day, a man followed me from the bus to my front door. Very black man, in Oakland, California, USA. Spouting/mumbling a desire to be given oral sex, by me. Very obviously not sober, but not smelling of booze, so drugs of some kind.

And he followed me up 2 flights of stairs to my front door, which was an older apartment building with glass front doors. Nice old solid glass, but glass. And then he pounded on the glass for me to let him in. I called the cops. As did the woman up the street he accosted next. Cops found him at the local 7-11, but wouldn't arrest him!

I mention skin color because it was pertinent. I got verbally accosted ALL the damned time by black men in those days (there is something to be said for being older and fatter!) and it was both tedious and frightening. Adding in a mental issue or sobriety issue and it went beyond frightening and into terrifying. Events like that were why I moved out of Oakland, which had architecture I loved, family I loved, high density of restaurants I loved, but social, racial and economic issues that had me checking the street and sidewalk for passers by anytime I parked my car. I sat in the car until there was nobody by me, and then ran for my front door. It was worse when I couldn't find parking close to the door (not rare, given that I lived in neighborhoods mostly built well before so many people had cars). The burbs were boring in many ways, but safer and less adrenalizing. Oakland was so nasty in those days I knew black people who left for safer and less angry cities to live in. Nobody wants to live in frightening areas, and when I had a choice to leave, I did so.

[Kit-Ginevra]

I sympathize to anyone who has mental issues having not only had them myself,but having met many people with them-however I would argue that if your mental issues mean you are a threat to other people or yourself-or that they would perceive you to be a threat-then at the least you need someone to accompany you when you go out in public.

[protege]

...however I would argue that if your mental issues mean you are a threat to other people or yourself-or that they would perceive you to be a threat-then at the least you need someone to accompany you when you go out in public.

Unfortunately, mental health is still seen as the nasty little secret that nobody really wants to deal with. Many of the programs have had their funding cut or even discontinued. (Take the political crap to Fratching, OK?) Plus, it's also very difficult to get people into those programs--if they're reasonably coherent most of the time, at least in the US, they cannot be forced to do so. With that said, there are some people near my office that are best avoided. While the guy talking to stop signs is harmless...the guy across the street, punching the wall while screaming incoherently probably isn't. Best to stay on your side and call the police.

[Pixelated]

*snip* Plus, it's also very difficult to get people into those programs--if they're reasonably coherent most of the time, at least in the US, they cannot be forced to do so. *snip*

That is indeed a problem. Former coworker had elderly relative with mental problems (could've been dementia, or something else; I no longer remember). The one time a representative of "authority" came to interview the relative, she was fine. Rep said sorry, can't do anything about her, no reason to do so.

Her lucid periods were few and far between; it was just unfortunate that one of them was that day. How unfortunate? Several months later she set the house on fire. IIRC, she died and a relative who lived with her was badly injured. Nothing left of the house but a pile of rubble.

[protege]

That is indeed a problem. Former coworker had elderly relative with mental problems (could've been dementia, or something else; I no longer remember). The one time a representative of "authority" came to interview the relative, she was fine. Rep said sorry, can't do anything about her, no reason to do so.

I remember once, when my granddad was still alive. He was starting to have memory issues. Towards the end, before he got sick and developed cancer, he was going around and proudly telling everyone how he fixed my grandmother's cow-shaped cutting board. I'd taken it home, and fixed it some months prior, but I wasn't about to rain on his parade. Nor was I about to let my grandmother do so. As long as he was happy, I didn't care.

Not long after, he started having issues when he was driving. He got lost while coming home from the grocery store. Even though my grandparents had lived in the same neighborhood since 1955, he couldn't remember how to get home Luckily, he was lucid enough to flag down a passing patrol car, and after they checked him out, called my grandmother, and picked her up to get the car. That wasn't the last time he tried to drive--a few days later, he took off both mirrors, and scratched up the car while leaving the garage. That's when he quit driving.

Later that year, he developed cancer, which was slowly killing him. Even with his mind failing, he made it clear that he didn't want chemo. That's what stirred up a lot of the family drama. Because he was still somewhat lucid, he couldn't be forced into taking treatment if he didn't want it. My aunt--dad's half-sister--flipped out and actually *blames* my mom for not forcing him into treatment, and his eventual death

[WishfulSpirit]

Makes me glad the only mentally compromised people I seem to encounter on the bus are the tinfoil-hat-wearers who want to tell me all about the lizard people or something. They're convinced of their theory but if you smile and nod and say that's interesting, oops this is my stop, they're generally harmless.

[telecom_goddess]

Oakland was so nasty in those days I knew black people who left for safer and less angry cities to live in. Nobody wants to live in frightening areas, and when I had a choice to leave, I did so.

Sigh. My hometown. Grew up in there in the 70's, in east Oakland on 27th avenue, down the street from the old Oakland Hospital. Know exactly what you mean.

[Minflick]

That was when and nearly where I was. Gram's house we were renting was out on East 14th. Lots of lovely little 100 year old homes, falling into disrepair and decay. The house we were in had a bathroom that was clearly an ad-on to the original building, and was nearly microscopic. Between that and the sometimes scary interactions with men, it was time to leave.

[telecom_goddess]

That was when and nearly where I was. Gram's house we were renting was out on East 14th. Lots of lovely little 100 year old homes, falling into disrepair and decay. The house we were in had a bathroom that was clearly an ad-on to the original building, and was nearly microscopic. Between that and the sometimes scary interactions with men, it was time to leave.

Yup my mom and I left in 1976, never to look back again. I did end up working in downtown Oakland later, at I Magnin, which doesn't even exist anymore.

[Minflick]

I miss both Magnins. They were nice stores. And Capwells. And The Emporium. And Blums. And Edies Pink and Edies White. Sigh. I really miss the beauty of Oakland right around Lake Merritt, but wow, I don't miss the crap of high density living and scanty street parking.

[protege]

Lots of lovely little 100 year old homes, falling into disrepair and decay.

Sounds like many Pittsburgh-area neighborhoods. A lot of the more interesting (at least architecturally speaking) homes are in now-undesirable areas. They've been chopped up into apartments, or simply left to fall apart, as nobody really wants to live in the area. Considering how dangerous those areas are, I can't say I blame them.