New Route, New Bums

With a move comes new bus routes. Unfortunately I now have to transfer buses to get to work. Less convenient, more interesting.

I now walk 5 minutes to a bus stop, ride that bus for 5 minutes, transfer buses and continue to work. Might I add that 5 minute bus ride amounts to a 20 minute walk. I did try driving to a retail parking lot, then just taking one bus, but decided that wasn't a safe long term solution for my car.

Here is the thing about transfers on the Sun Tran, it isn't a perfect science, so you have to either become a patient person, go for long walks when you think you can get home on foot before the bus would get you there, or sprint across busy intersections in oncoming traffic. Or possibly all of the above.

On the way home, my transfer gives me 2 minutes to cross the intersection North and then cross West. This assumes both buses are on time. Never the case. Usually what happens is bus 1 drops me off and I see bus 2 approaching. I successfully cross North and then wave my arms at the driver as I wait for the light to turn so I can make it. The driver looks over at me and then makes the decision. Hmm, to drive off, or to wait another 20 seconds. Can you guess what usually happens??? Which is why I always gratuitously thank the ones that wait.

In any case, I don't often make the tight "connection." This particular corner seems to be a hangout for all the bums around. And luckily for me, I often get a solid 15 minutes with them. The great thing about summer in Tucson is the smell of homeless people soars to new levels.

Recently a man was sitting at the bus stop and drunkenly yelling repeatedly, "where the fuck is my kid it!? Where the fuck is he!? Where the fuck is my kid at!? This went on the whole time I was waiting. At one point a guy got up and went in the CVS to get away from any possible violence outbreak. I lasted another 30 seconds before I started getting nervous too, then had to walk away. He got louder as a mother, her teenage daughter and a 3 year old boy walked right in front of him. He seemed to be asking them, or blaming almost, as he yelled at them about his "kid." The serious terror on that little boy's face was scary. I thought I might witness an abduction.

Today at the same bus stop, a drunk guy came sprinting toward me and crashed on the bench next to me. He said to me, "that bastard didn't think I could beat him. Do I look out of shape to you??" I replied that he didn't and he said "well, I am!" About that time, his buddy came stumbling up. There was no urgency in his drunk gait. I thought I was going to watch him stumble into traffic. His crash to the bench was a little more intense as he landed in between us but barely not in my lap. "Don't sit there! I'm trying to get intelligence on this lady." I was wondering how I could inconspicuously get up and tried to use the force to make the bus come faster. Luckily, the first drunk guy yelled at a 3rd man in the CVS parking lot, "you owe me money!" Then proceeded to go "beat up that bastard."

My new favorite smelly guy though probably takes the cake as most smelly and biggest mystery. I call him "Bee Keeper." Each time I seen him, he gets on the bus wearing this hat that has a mesh screen masking his face. As soon as he sits down, he opens the window. His next move is to grab the bee keeper screen and drape it over his head as if unveiling his face. But before you can see what he is hiding, he immediately pulls his shirt over his face so there is no space between his hat and his shirt. At the next stop, you see anyone near him get up and move to another part of the bus because the smell is unbearable.

Hey, at least Bee Keeper is actually getting on the bus. This means somehow he is a step up from the usual bums at the bus stop that never actually get on the bus. Somehow a step up...

I chose this primitive bee keeper mask because it was more sinister than modern ones.