![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phosfateSo there's an oldish disabled woman who rides my bus route, and I have always been terrified of her because she shouts, pokes VERY hard, and will scream the same question at you over and over even though you don't know the answer. My little voice/Ironside siren goes apeshit when she gets on, and I've always felt kind of terrible about it because she's old and small and disabled and what can she do to me? If she touches me I can move away or get the driver.
Well. Monday she's waiting for the 5:10, and starts yelling at Bus Deb (my friend who is not Work Deb, the woman I work with) about how the building closed at 5:00 and SHE'S MAD BECAUSE SHE REALLY NEEDS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM AND NOW SHE HAS TO WAIT BUT SHE REALLY NEEDS TO GO. Bus Deb manages to quietly get her to stop shouting. Bus Deb used to be in the Air Force. I mention to Deb that I've had issues with her before and to take care around her, the same way you warn someone about anybody on the bus who's a harasser, or a racist, or a haracist.
Tuesday she's there again. We all see our bus pulling up and go to line up at the curb with our passes like polite little humans. Angry Lady comes plowing through, and pokes Deb very hard in the shoulder with her cane. Angry Lady says I HAVE TO GET ON MY BUS! Deb then tells her that she has just committed assault. Which she has. The A-word for some reason actually has a visible effect. I'M SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO GET MY BUS. Deb tells her never, ever to touch her again or she will call the police, and to stop yelling at her. When Angry Lady gets off, she is silent, but walks very slowly to the door and SLAMS her cane on the floor with each step and pointedly says "Excuse me" to Deb. Deb is not paying her a lick of attention because we are talking, and when I tell her this afterward she laughs like a hyena. Deb apologizes to the driver for shouting when she leaves, and the driver tells her not to worry about it. Then he mysteriously adds, "Believe me, she had it coming." Well okay.
This is the most Goofus and Gallant shit I've ever seen in my life.
Wednesday I have my cane with me because my knee was being a jerk in the morning. Deb and not-Deb (I blank on the poor woman's name because medication, but she is lovely) bust up laughing, because I look like I'm ready for a fight. I explain my knee's acting up, but yes, I am ready for a fight and my cane is bigger. Angry Lady is not at the stop. I am upset and fuck up my meds that night and take a whole one of the thing I should take half of.
This means that Thursday morning I am stoned off my nut. I write a mostly comprehensible apologetic email to work, even though the phone weighs about 20 pounds and I can't see the screen. ("I CAN'T SEE THE SCREEN I HOPE YOU GUYS CAN READ THIS!") I crawl out of bed eventually and force liquids to try to get the stuff out of my system and stand. I take an Uber down at 2:00 because I am not sure I can get to the bus stop alive. We drive past Angry Lady at one point. She is using a walker that day but my brain still plays the Ironside alarm noise. She is not at the stop on Thursday night, BUT not-Deb has some goods. She was out with friends on Wednesday night and mentions the story of Deb and Angry Lady. One of the women she's out with is an ex-cop, knows exactly who she is (she does not give out personal info or specific circumstances), and says they have taken her in many times because she gets physical a LOT. Deb and I are O_O and laughing, and I feel much less like an idiot and remind myself that the Ironside siren has always been there for a reason. So now we have a plan that if Angry Lady gets violent again, Deb will whip out her phone with "I AM CALLING THE POLICE IF YOU DO NOT STOP IMMEDIATELY," in Air Force voice, while not-Deb and I pretend to video her (I do not know how phone video works except for quite a lot of accidental footage of the inside of my pocket), and that will make her back off. I do not want to call the fuzz on a fellow crip, because yes I absolutely know the risk to her, but we also want to ride the bus without being assaulted, and the cops (and apparently the transit system) have demonstrated repeatedly that they know her and can handle her without firearms. Mostly I wish she would get help, but I don't know her life and she is boss of herself. People often have very good reasons for avoiding the care system in America.
I get home and get a text from Pam up the block that her husband, who had a stroke last fall, passed away that morning. I've known them since we moved in and they had a ton of little red-headed kids that you had to be careful not to run over because they liked to fling themselves into the street. (They all made it to adulthood alive and have kids of their own now.) So FUCK YOU, DEATH. YOU SUCK.
Anyway, let's see how Friday plays out.
Well. Monday she's waiting for the 5:10, and starts yelling at Bus Deb (my friend who is not Work Deb, the woman I work with) about how the building closed at 5:00 and SHE'S MAD BECAUSE SHE REALLY NEEDS TO GO TO THE BATHROOM AND NOW SHE HAS TO WAIT BUT SHE REALLY NEEDS TO GO. Bus Deb manages to quietly get her to stop shouting. Bus Deb used to be in the Air Force. I mention to Deb that I've had issues with her before and to take care around her, the same way you warn someone about anybody on the bus who's a harasser, or a racist, or a haracist.
Tuesday she's there again. We all see our bus pulling up and go to line up at the curb with our passes like polite little humans. Angry Lady comes plowing through, and pokes Deb very hard in the shoulder with her cane. Angry Lady says I HAVE TO GET ON MY BUS! Deb then tells her that she has just committed assault. Which she has. The A-word for some reason actually has a visible effect. I'M SORRY, BUT I HAVE TO GET MY BUS. Deb tells her never, ever to touch her again or she will call the police, and to stop yelling at her. When Angry Lady gets off, she is silent, but walks very slowly to the door and SLAMS her cane on the floor with each step and pointedly says "Excuse me" to Deb. Deb is not paying her a lick of attention because we are talking, and when I tell her this afterward she laughs like a hyena. Deb apologizes to the driver for shouting when she leaves, and the driver tells her not to worry about it. Then he mysteriously adds, "Believe me, she had it coming." Well okay.
This is the most Goofus and Gallant shit I've ever seen in my life.
Wednesday I have my cane with me because my knee was being a jerk in the morning. Deb and not-Deb (I blank on the poor woman's name because medication, but she is lovely) bust up laughing, because I look like I'm ready for a fight. I explain my knee's acting up, but yes, I am ready for a fight and my cane is bigger. Angry Lady is not at the stop. I am upset and fuck up my meds that night and take a whole one of the thing I should take half of.
This means that Thursday morning I am stoned off my nut. I write a mostly comprehensible apologetic email to work, even though the phone weighs about 20 pounds and I can't see the screen. ("I CAN'T SEE THE SCREEN I HOPE YOU GUYS CAN READ THIS!") I crawl out of bed eventually and force liquids to try to get the stuff out of my system and stand. I take an Uber down at 2:00 because I am not sure I can get to the bus stop alive. We drive past Angry Lady at one point. She is using a walker that day but my brain still plays the Ironside alarm noise. She is not at the stop on Thursday night, BUT not-Deb has some goods. She was out with friends on Wednesday night and mentions the story of Deb and Angry Lady. One of the women she's out with is an ex-cop, knows exactly who she is (she does not give out personal info or specific circumstances), and says they have taken her in many times because she gets physical a LOT. Deb and I are O_O and laughing, and I feel much less like an idiot and remind myself that the Ironside siren has always been there for a reason. So now we have a plan that if Angry Lady gets violent again, Deb will whip out her phone with "I AM CALLING THE POLICE IF YOU DO NOT STOP IMMEDIATELY," in Air Force voice, while not-Deb and I pretend to video her (I do not know how phone video works except for quite a lot of accidental footage of the inside of my pocket), and that will make her back off. I do not want to call the fuzz on a fellow crip, because yes I absolutely know the risk to her, but we also want to ride the bus without being assaulted, and the cops (and apparently the transit system) have demonstrated repeatedly that they know her and can handle her without firearms. Mostly I wish she would get help, but I don't know her life and she is boss of herself. People often have very good reasons for avoiding the care system in America.
I get home and get a text from Pam up the block that her husband, who had a stroke last fall, passed away that morning. I've known them since we moved in and they had a ton of little red-headed kids that you had to be careful not to run over because they liked to fling themselves into the street. (They all made it to adulthood alive and have kids of their own now.) So FUCK YOU, DEATH. YOU SUCK.
Anyway, let's see how Friday plays out.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-19 07:23 am (UTC)I'm sorry about Pam husband neighbor guy.
I never realized that you English speaking people have one kind of accident-sounding season until I misread that as "he had a fall last stroke" and only the last word told me that something had gone wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-06-21 07:05 pm (UTC)I assume it's called that because the leaves, y'know, fall. On the ground.