just this past monday (i guess that's yesterday), my job moved. no big deal. it's still the same job. the big change is the bus ride. crazy mike pretty well sums it all up. mike is in his 50's and rides the 6:30 am to downtown. yesterday, before i learned his name, mike sat in the seat in front of me, next to an attractive young lady in her early 20's. mike kept bending to fool with something on the floor, and every time he would sit back up, he would scoot a little bit closer to the young lady. after about ten minutes of this, the gal was tight up against the window. at this point, i began to smell urine, it grew progressively stronger until we all reached our location a few minutes later. when mike stood up, there was a very large wet stain on the seat of his pants.
today, i learned mike's name. it turns out that he has a couple of friends who ride the bus. they all work at different places, so i'm guessing that they all know each other from the same half way house. i didn't see the young lady back on the bus this morning. i did, however, discover why he keeps bending over. mike constantly readjusts his shoe laces. i must have watched him retie each shoe at least a dozen times.
now, lest you think that i don't know crazy, i spent ten years living in salem, oregon, the crazy capital of the world. word has it that salem has more mentally ill people per capita than any other city in the country. (due to policies of releasing patients directly onto the streets, and that two institutions have closed in the last 15 years, without sending thier patients on to other institutions.)
