Tonight we had dinner at Lombardo’s on Commercial Drive. Two women and a man were sitting near us, and one woman was telling the other two about Lombardo’s, and recommending certain dishes. A little later I heard her saying, “Now I don’t really know how to explain artichokes.”

Today I was running on the track at the park near our apartment. Two little girls, about ten, were playing this game for almost the whole time I was there (45 minutes), until they put one doll in a doll car seat and the other in a doll stroller and left. There was no adult to be seen.

On the way home from work today, I saw the weirdest billboard. It was one of those changing ones, and it was alternating between an ad that said (approximately), on a plain black background, “Child Sexual Abuse: Learn to Recognize the Signs” and another one with a huge photo of a screaming child’s face that said “Time to Find a New Apartment” (ie your neighbour’s kid is screaming).

Hello?

Skytrain cops–are they the saddest thing in Vancouver or the grossest? This morning two of them were strutting around the platform at Main and Terminal, going up to people who looked poor and asking for their tickets. Thanks for saving the taxpayers $5, boys. Does it feel good to watch people shuffle away, staring at a ticket for a fine they can’t pay?

The other day a young South Asian woman told me that she was stopped by a cop as she was getting off a train. He demanded to see her baguette and broke off a piece. Wow. I’m so dumb I never thought of looking in bread for a weapon! Young South Asian woman with baguette. Hmmm. Racism? Boredom? Stupidity? All of the above?

And why is it that some bus drivers have no problem giving people a ride and
others act like the person is tearing money out of their own pockets? What
kind of world do we live in when a tottering skinny old man with holes in
his clothes can’t get a ride worth $2.25?

One afternoon these two women got on the bus and pretended to look for their tickets until we got to the next stop where they got off. As they walked away the driver called, “Users of the system!” God, what is wrong with these guys?

Some drivers go out of their way to talk politely with people who are high
or crazy or old or smelly. It sets the tone for the whole bus and the whole
day for everyone on the bus. It makes you proud to be human.

One day a driver kicked this guy off the bus because his transfer was too
old. The guy was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase and could not
believe that anyone would deny him anything. That is the only time I loved
seeing someone kicked off.

Sigh.