There is a lot I could do with that line. Doesn't sound like a bad day at all if you ended with six figures in sales. Pretty darn good I'd say.
Well that was the good part.
I expect it to get even better. There was a Imperial oil refinery fire that took place a little while agao, and there is a shortage of fuel. Coupled with the CN railroad strike, they can't get any fuel here, so there are gas stations all of Ontario without gas. This isn't limited to Esso stations either, ...now it appears Petro Canada is upping it's prices as well. We're quickly approaching the record highs we experienced last spring, ...and all the other oil companies are raising their prices to follow suit. Increases of close to 83 ¢ a gallon overnight.
This is just the beginning too. Wait til Bush invades Iran, and Saudi Arabia starts providing support to the Sunnis, you're going to see the world's 3 largest oil producers Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia engulfed in War. This leaves North America's supply at the kindness and mercy of Venezuela and Nigeria. we all know how much Hugo Chavez loves Bush. Thank Goodness he doesn't have the same animosity for the American people. Nigeria is also experiencing it's own challenges as well, due to militants who want to nationalize Nigerian oil. Last spring will seem like a picnic in comparison... and it's only the beginning.
And you better be careful confronting people in public. There are crazy folks walking among us. Cool that hot blood sista.
Ya I know. I considered that, ...especially since this woman looked like she could seriously kick my ass without breaking a sweat. She could just as easily been mistaken for a man, ...but I just couldn't help it. When I see a child being abused I have to speak up. I kept quiet for as long as I could...but couldn't take it anymore.
This troglodyte looking woman gets on the bus with a double baby carriage, you know the kind that hold 2 babies, a toddler below and a newborn above. I call her a troglodyte because she literally looked like those drawings of Cro-magnon man. The low hairline, long stringy hair, the overly protruding brow-bone... massive incisors... I swear she looked like a pre-historic cave woman. She was carrying the toddler in her arms, who was crying his eyes out. His poor little foot was frozen. He wasn't wearing one of his shoes, and I could see his little sock was all wet. His mom had the shoe in her hand. She couldn't be bothered to put it back on his foot. It was below zero out, ...my feet were unbearably cold, but mine were covered and weren't wet. He was in pain, and she couldn't be bothered to put his little shoe back on his foot. She just ignored his cries. Then this guy got up and offered her his seat. She ignored him like he wasn't even there, and hadn't even spoken a word at all. She was either deaf or zoned out, ...and she obviously wasn't deaf because she kept hitting her son and telling him to shut up. Then 2 women got up, and she took the seat in front of me, and placed her son next to her. Throughout this time, it was like the only thing she heard was her son's crying, because she would occassionally smack him and tell him to shush or to shut up. Anyway, she finally get's around to putting his shoe back on his little foot again. Then she zoned out. He continued to cry, she slapped him, and handed him his bottle. still he continued to cry. Every time few minutes she would smack the child and tell him to shut up. Finally I couldn't take it any longer. I said
"He's crying for a reason! You'd get far better results if you found out what he needed and gave it to him rather than simply hitting him and telling him to shut up!" She completely ignored me, like I wasn't even there, and hadn't even spoken. Then all of a sudden, a thin wiry looking guy from the back of the bus appeared in front of the kid... and said "There's nothing wrong with him ... he's always like that." I was beyond amazed because for the second time in one day I saw what appeared to be another prehistoric Cro magnon in front of my eyes. No joke. This guy also looked like a cave man, ...only he was a Black cave man. The woman was white, ...and her kids were so light skinned they looked white too, but upon closer inspection, i could see the little boy was the spitting image of his father, ...except with caucasian looking skin. The little boy reached out to him, and he picked the baby up and walked back to his seat. The father started hugging him, rocking him, speaking lovingly to him and gave him his bottle... and the little guy calmed down, stopped crying and drank away at his bottle, contentedly in his Daddy's arms.
20 minutes of tranquil quiet goes by, and all of a sudden out of the blue, the father starts screaming at me, calling me a nosy bitch and I should mind my own business. You don't know me, you don't know my son, you don't know my wife,... how dare you talk about my kid... blah blah blah... The whole bus including myself knew this was a guilty conscience talking...but I just ignored him. He was screamy bloody murder... and at one point... I simply turned to him, smiled and asked? Do you have a problem? That seemed to irritate him even more. It was at that point, I spotted the third child who was sitting with his father completely oblivious to the ruckkus going on and the screaming of his father. Even the toddler in his arms was oblivious and contendtedly sucking away at his bottle unfazed. Those kids were obviously used to it. I looked in front of me to his wife... and the woman was zoned out. It was almost as if she was heavily tranquilized, but I could tell by her movements and how she checked on the newborn in the top of the carriage that she was not tranquilized, just deliberately zoned out. I put it all together at that point. This woman's life was a living hell, and she zoned out as a coping mechanism. I began to feel very sorry for her, because I remember when they got on the bus, I had no idea this guy was her husband and that they were even together, because he didn't help her with the carriage at all. she struggled to get it on by herself, and when he got on, he found a seat immediately, while she stood for a while.
Well wouldn't you know... as luck would have it, they were getting off at the same stop as me. The bus comes to a stop, hubby gets off through the back doors, and is halfway across the parking lot before the wife is even able to get near the front exit door. Everyone jumped in front of her because they didn't want to be held up as she tried to maneuver the carriage off. I was one of the last people to exit because I was trying to find out from the driver where the stop was to get the bus westbound for my return trip. It was my first time at this location. Anyway...everyone is rushing to get off the bus, and no one offers to help her... except me. I asked her if she needed a hand with the carriage. She ignored me like I wasn't even there and hadn't even spoken. This woman was in sooo much pain. I decided I was going to help her anyway. I helped her get the carriage off the bus, and when we got it off, I looked up at her and gave her an empathetic smile and added, ...it must be very stressful raising 3 kids. Big uh-oh. That's when she broke down in tears. Her life is a living hell. She's got 3 kids all under 5, and she's married to an absolute asshole. She spends so much energy protecting herself emotionally, she has nothing left for her kids. While I feel sorry for her, ...the kid is the #1 priority. I hope she gets the help she needs, and learns to deal with her situation, cause if she doesn't, I can see her abusing those kids in the future.
As for the woman at the Express Check-Out, ...she started it. All I wanted to do was check out and leave. She shows up with more than 8 items and starts berating the cashier into checking her out. I couldn't give a poop if the cashier chose to do it, ...I just wanted to finish my transaction so I could go and catch the bus. So I asked the cashier to please continue checking me out and deal with her after you're done with me. That's when she tells me to mind my own business. As far as I was concerned, I wasn't talking to her I was talking to the cashier who had interrupted my check out to argue with her. she wanted to get all into it with me, despite my not saying a thing to her, and her husband telling her to be quiet. finally her husband decided it wasn't worth it, he walked away from the express check-out since the cashier had stopped ringing in items, and there was a line forming behind him with other people extremely irate that this woman expected to check out a cartful of groceries at the 8 items or less counter. Then she started getting all racial on me. There were a few good comments I could have made to shut her up, ...but the cashier as well as a few other customers shared the same ethnicity, and i didn't feel it would have been right to sink to her level, and in the process offend all of them as well. So I just looked her straight in the face focused the energy, and called her bitch. That did it... it was like I had punched her in the gut. She literally took a step back and started to tremble... then she got pretty quiet after that. Oh well.... I knew I was letting the energy go as I did it, ...but as far as I was concerned, she was not worth the effort to keep it inside, ...so I let it go. It met it's target dead centre. Oh well... That's life and I'm not perfect... although I'm pretty darned close.