To all you lazy people on the bus, yes we all love when we get a seat on a packed bus but when disabled people cannot get a seat because able bodied people just won’t move it is just a mere example of how rude people are in our community. I was on the bus with a disabled person who moved to a seat back so another disabled person could sit near the door while everyone in the handicapped seats just looked away. Was a person in a walker suppose to stand the entire bus ride? Also, yes my companion with both intellectual disabilities and mobility problems did fall because no one would move for HIM! As he moved for another disabled person—WAKE UP people and find some manners. —A very pregnant lady who will move for anyone who needs it
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2011.
Another bus bitch! Geez, been a while… we’ve been dealing with smelly people for too long. Time to get back to basics.
Sorry about your friend OP. I move when I need to as well, but I’m never on the bus when it’s busy anyway.
This is why I don’t sit at the front (unless I’m on a bus that I’m on for only a few minutes like the 4 from my place to the terminal). Other people need those seats!
My mom’s injured and can’t stand up on the bus, and I know she would never say anything to anyone (though she DID tell someone to gtfo of the shelter with their smoke this morning, heh), but if I was with her and no one gave up their seat, I’d start telling people to move. You gain a WHOLE new perspective on people who are mobile when you deal with someone who isn’t — people in general are so rude to people in wheelchairs and walkers. Everyone’s in a rush these days and will either cut you off or hum and haw when you’re in front of them somewhere. It’s PATHETIC.
So, I always move to the back if I can.
Very valid bitch, OP. One thing I’d add though is, drivers should be WAY more proactive in telling people to move when someone with mobility issues gets on the bus. Some are great, but others aren’t so great. There should be some general procedure all drivers have to follow.
Oh boy, do I know where you’re coming from, OB – my Hub-Unit uses a walker full time and he’s had people push him or knock him down without a blink, just scuttled away because they were in a big fucking hurry. The irony of it is that when we were in London a couple of years ago – that huge city of 7 million showed him more compassion and patience (especially when taking public transit)than Halifax ever had. There are too many people who think the disabled are a fucking pain in the arse. Like it’s their fault they’re disabled.
EXACTLY, TTFN.
FUCKING. EXACTLY.
My mom’s stint in a wheelchair really fucked up my faith in humanity.
I’m so sorry to hear this OP and TTFN I can’t imagine someone knocking into your hub-unit without you knocking their f’n head off! which you should. People need to learn respect and compassion. Those people should be ashamed of themselves!
You get what you pay for. $2.25 doesn’t guarantee anyone a seat. If you dislike the service and rudeness of the bus-folk, it’s time to invest in a set of your own wheels.
Hub-Unit used to go off by himself on Saturday afternoon to shop (since I hatehatehate the crowds)but not anymore. If I had been there, somebody would have ended up with four small wheels for front teeth.
At the Paul McC a few years ago, this fucking woman knocked him down to get a better view. I goddamn lost it. I screamed at her: You just knocked down someone using a walker and she retorted something like: too fucking bad – he shouldn’t come to concerts then. If Hub-Unit hadn’t pulled me back, I would have cut that bitch a new vagina.
Your post is SO deleted already, PK.
Because it’s homophobic?
NGF! She beat ya to it 😀
No PK – because The Asshole Anti-Defamation League has already filed a class action lawsuit against you. Seems they didn’t like being compared. >; )
What kind of able-bodied people sit in bus seats set aside for folks with disabilities?
Are we becoming a nation of baboons?
Maybe that’s an insult to baboons.
I fucking LOVE you, Ivan!
I might have to come check you out (in disguise, of course) one of these Saturdays!
You BETTER introduce yourself. I’m the clean-shaven curmudgeon.
http://images.literaryguild.com/content/fi…
I can assure you, PK, that Ivan doesn’t bite. 😛
Only cuz I’m old and have no teeth left
http://users.skynet.be/vaha-ma-planete/jac…
It’s true. I AM that cute little old guy from the Benny Hill Show. Please don’t slap the back of my head.
There goes another blast of ‘Yakity Sax’ while Ivan runs along the ceiling.
http://content.ytmnd.com/content/4/7/7/477…
THis isn’t at TTFN’s hubby or anyone else with a disability. But supposedly having a set of pins in your tibia & fibula. A completely missing ligament in you knee (which means sometimes it bends sideways …try accepting that pain without moaning sometime) & the leg now being a 1/2 inch shorter than the other one. Means you can get a wheelchair plate or hangy thing for your mirror.
But I haven’t bothered.
I limp…I’m not dead or on crutches or a walker/wheelchair.
THe reason I’m writing this is for all the ASSHOLES who have these vehicles with this ‘handicapped’ parking permit & they’re not handicapped at all !
I asked this young guy at the Grocery store one day at the check out, who had dashed past me on the way in, what his handicap was. He said Oh, I’m using my dads truck, so I take advantage of the plate to get a ‘close’ parking spot.
I fucking Kid You Not !
his answer floored me. thinking about it & reading your posts, About people caring more for themselves than those who need a bit of help. Shows me this is a society problem. A problem that should be addressed in a MORE IN YOUR FACE WAY. Perhaps start with teaching consideration for those less fortunate at the lowest grade levels & keep it up all through school.
Make it a bus poster campaign, the same thing in Public places …get it in everyone’s face & maybe enough people will realise there are many who they can help by simply being a tiny bit more considerate. I know it’ll never impress itself on everyone, but even a 10 % increase would be better than it is now.
heh, heh, like it could never happen to them, right o.p., love those assholes, someone has to.
kitty, ivan, painy, et al. i’m still wondering about a feb. 14 meet and greet at scotia square. i can be there around 12 noon at the food court area, by the first kiosk. what you guys think???????
i can’t manage that but i will be at the hkc show on feb 12 and at the doggie expo on the 20th and a couple of other animal fundraisers this month. it’s a bleak month so i love to spend time with the dogs^^
I’m afeared I can’t make it Lifer. Monday to Friday I’m up in the woods back of Dartmouth Crossing. Weekends are my only time to get to Halifax. I’ll have to send my valentine card in absentia. >: (
Hey, we should pick a coffee house on a Sunday afternoon and have the The Bitch Round Table, moderated by Ivan’s egg timer.
well, i have two down and i have given enough info for anyone to find me. the mask is half off but i still have my spear and magic helmet
I work in the South End, suckers so I don’t think I could get down to SS and back in time 🙁
It’d have to be a weekend!
Also, More: THAT SHIT PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF. My dad has a good friend who has a permit (plate and decal for when he’s with someone else in their car) and once he left it in the car and we never even once thought of using it.
…though. I’m not gonna lie, on a crowded wicked busy Sat/Sun I have thought of using the preggo parking and pretending I was pregnant…then I realized there’s probably someone with a small child or someone ACTUALLY pregnant who needs the space. That and it pisses me the fuck off when people park in the seniors parking at Walmart. I saw this guy and his wife (they were HUGE — easily 3-400lbs each — not like parking farther down the parking lot would be a tragedy for either of them) parking in one of those spots. They were MAYBE 30? So I yelled “YOU’RE THE YOUNGEST LOOKING 65 YEAR OLDS I’VE EVER SEEN!”…now that my dad’s 65 and can enjoy such privileges it PISSES me off when people take advantage of them. My dad never uses those spots though — he said he’s quite capable of walking, and there are seniors in much worse shape than his healthy ass is in and could use the space more than him.
People who park in the preggo/senior/handicapped spaces that shouldn’t are asstards.
…I’ll bet Sebastard parks in those spaces.
yelling is fun
My mom had two metro transit related yellings today. She yelled at this one chick for smoking in the shelter, then she yelled at a bunch of 15 year olds at the back of the bus on the 52 who were playing their music on their stupid iphones without earphones.
My mom’s feisty today!
I agree. You see all these “young people” sitting at the front of the bus. They don’t make eye contact. They just sit there, entitled, and let the old folks try to make their way to the back of the bus for an empty seat.
I always try to sit away from the front so that the seats can be used by an elderly or a person with mobility challenges. It’s much easier for me to move to the back of the bus, or stand if need be, than it is for them.
Some people are selfish and have a sense of entitlement. It’s a really bad attribute of the current generation.
PK: Your mom sounds amazing!! I am a smoker but I always move away from people.. usually away from the terminal.. never, ever in the shelter. Did the smoker or the kids say anything to your Mom? Or were they too scared to think of a comeback? 🙂
When my ol’ mum was in her 70s, she used to hobble around on a cane, crippled up with arthritic knees. Every night for years she practised her karate chop before she went to bed just in case someone tried to fuck her around while she was waiting for the bus. Her motto: Never underestimate the power of the handicapped. Or silent farts.
TTFN, your Mom sounds like a hoot!
Rosie, my old lady was a classic. We didn’t call her Attila the Bun for nothin’. Now she’s in care, a 96 year old pale shadow of the powerhouse me and the sibs remember. She had a fractured french accent and, even after 65 years in Hfx., never lost it – we used to howl over some of the stuff that would come out of her: like calling my taxidermist cousin an ‘animal upholsterer’.
I’m always at SS at lunch on weekdays.
really? I pop down a couple times every day ….but rarely ever stay to eat.
Yeah, I do the Square every day meself – sometimes I’ll go the the NSLC and wonder if the people sitting in the chairs nearby are my fellow bitchers…
I hate people who use the handicapped spaces who don’t need to!. I hate people who use the preggo spaces who don’t need to! I hate lazy F’n people! And I`m not a fan of punk kids!
Miss Pain…I searched for you this past Saturday – I brought the little man to the T-rex exhibit then went to the Joe Howe SS…I’m really terrible at clues because I drove around that area and couldn’t figure out where you are. I`d like to drop by with a tea and sweets if I can figure it out eventually. Are you on the same side as SS. The wheels clue through me off…
I’m in South end and never make it to SS.
One of my co-workers was an Albanian Kosovar who came here in ’99. He told me of being in SS and seeing a quartet of Russian merchant sailors coming out of the LC , sitting at a table and cracking open the bottle of vodka they had just purchased.
The Paulblarts nearly shit themselves. LOLZ
Hey TTFN-
I was at the DMason Bluesfest a couple years ago. All was cool until the last act, when I had a guy literally jump onto me like I was his personal crowd surfboard. I told him “guy in a chair with a broken back down here, arsehole”. He said if I didn’t like it I shouldn’t go to concerts, since that was what I should expect.
I’m a big strong motherfucker, but having a full grown guy hop on me almost caused me injury.
I’ve had good experiences on the few times I’ve taken the bus. The drivers have been very accomodating etc. But yes, people need to move the hell out of the front spots. The bus pitches around like crazy, and though I’m locked to the floor, that spot is the only safe place on the bus. Standing with a walker has to stink on the bus.
Peace.
WheelieP
RC: so close and yet… wrong stupidstore! Keep trying! 😀
Dutchie Mason – one fucking awesome guy – knew him and most of the band – Hub-Unit used to do sound for him waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy back when there was a place in Halifax called the Misty Moon.
fyi: they’re cleaning out the house of treasures/horrors on gottingen^^
hey wheelie
young st. s/s mamabear
What? There used to be a place called Misty Moon? Oh, I so want that to return… I could be the bartender… wicked!
Saw Steve Earle, Gary U.S. Bonds, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. All at the Moon on Barrington. Good Effin’ Times. It was like drinking at Zellers >; )
Awesome Ivan! I’d go see all of those guys– AT Zellers if I had to! Bring back The Misty Moon!
Hey Painey.
I drove by the Gottingen St Horrorstore yesterday. Would love to glimps inside…
I didn’t realize you were near *that* superstore, PG. That makes finding you a lot easier. 😛
LOL Rosie -before it was the Moon, it was a Zellers.
Ah, the Moon – I’ve seen it through 3 transformations – Gottigen St., Kempt Road and the old Zellers on Barrington. Man, that’s one big load of musical memories.
Ah! Okay that makes sense. Misty Moon is my fave name for a gin joint… closely followed by The Dew Drop Inn.
Everybody go see PG… just don’t call The Bear The Bear to his face– he will give you such an eyeroll! oy!
Misty Moon, two concerts stand out. Blue Oyster Cult, frickin awesome live.
Asia, Steve Howe started with a 20 minute guitar solo, the whole place went quiet while he played.
YES – bring back the Moon.
Besides Monty’s, is there another similar venue?
prudent advice rosie me love^^i lived here for a year when i was eighteen, saw long john baldry at the moon
Monty’s? My puppy didn’t know he was a bar owner!
I worked with Long John a few years ago on a cartoon called Toad Patrol…. super nice man!
you’re just full of surprises sweet thang^^
LOL! Oh, yes I am. LJB played ‘Mistletoad’ the wise teacher to the toadlets. When I wrote scripts and did the voice work we’d do a sattelite link with Vancouver. LJB would always cry in his deep, lusty voice: ‘Helllooo Ottawa! Helllooo Miss Trisha! What trouble are we getting into today?’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxuw64I8VYk
Yay…I’m not completely clueless! Just directionally challenged. I will see you sometime then Miss Pain. You must be close to a certain market I use to enjoy eating at….uuuummm they have good desserts.
also don’t assume, just because you can’t identify someone’s disability doesn’t mean it isn’t there…for instance my hands, arms and legs work just fine, however my wrists and one of my knees do not; for me to stand and hold onto anything during a bus ride, i have to pay for it up to a week afterward… i also don’t sit in the front either to avoid these sorts of misunderstanding…on a side note what is so hard about the concept of “enter the front door, leave by the side door”…this is the only city I’ve been to where people don’t get it. its written on the windows …do it
THANK YOU. Thank you thank you thank you. As a person who has chronic pain due to a really shitty condition.. it’s just good to hear that at least some people get it. It’s really bad in this city, actually. And i’m not from here originally so this is what i see as your famous ‘east coast hospitality”
they call it the loser cruiser for many reasons.
um… epicccollision ? If you don’t look disabled, how is it you expect people to recognize that you are unless you ask for a seat??
I’m disabled and i give up my seat for people worse off than me. But i’m not a doctor and am not going to sit there and analyze every person who gets on in case they might have a disability i can’t see.
Entitled much?
Clinical analysis of fellow bus riders is not necessary a la iso-kay. If occupying the convenience seats up front it isn’t so difficult to pay attention to bus riders who are seeking those seats when they board and offer up one’s seat if one’s butt is unecessarily in one. Being conscious of more than just one’s own needs is apparently the key.
Many people who need the convenience seats also need to exit from the front of the bus. Time and time again, the bus pulls up to a stop and before the person can exit from the front doors there are people trying to board. What is wrong with waiting a few seconds while people exit the bus before boarding? Standing to the side of the door instead of blocking it would ensure that people can actually get off the bus safely and more efficiently. Common sense and courtesy. Get with it.