Seattle/Shoreline bus riding urban vignettes
Saturday 8 February 2025
Another winter day at the bus stop on Aurora Avenue in Shoreline, a northern suburb of Seattle. It’s even sunny instead of pouring rain or snowing. A White woman dressed against the cold sits in a wheelchair shooting pictures with a camera. Exhibits the passion of a photographer. She’s an artist. This wheelchair photographer person takes pictures of sunshine beaming thru the fractured glass of the bus stop shelter. Multiple cracks were spiderwebbed out but the glass still held. Winter sunshine thru all those cracks had a scintillating effect.
“Jesus Christ,” she murmured softly in awe and loud enough to hear even with hearing aids stuck in my ears like Frankenstein bolts.
She stopped to admire the beauty in what she saw.
“Jesus Christ,” she said again as she nodded in admiration.
Then she resumed composing and shooting pictures.
We had a short, pleasant conversation about cameras and dynamic photography as we waiting for the big red and yellow E-Line bus to roll in and stop.
Finally the Express bus showed up. I stepped aboard. The photographer stayed behind as she chose to continue shooting pictures.
Two bus stops later, an obviously homeless woman just got on the bus with a long dead plant straggling out the half-open zipper of one of her three backpacks.
I texted my wife about these characters. Faithlyn texted me back, “At least the ride will not be boring.”
Me: Nope. A scantily clad sex worker just got on wearing mostly mile-high platform shoes with a ratty wig fulla pink & blonde colors. She wore a teeny tiny bra about to burst apart. She’s a Black lady of maybe 40-45. Isn’t she cold? It’s freezing outside! Wonder what her story is?
Faithlyn:
🫣
Me: She’s someone’s daughter. Lover, maybe. Mother, perhaps. We all got stories. Some people just fall thru cracks so deep the rest of us can’t seem them anymore & just keep walking on. Like what I’m gonna do when I get off this here crazy bus. And that’s bad. Makes me feel guilty.
Darn, she got fake wire cat ears stuck up in her wig
Faithlyn: Yeah
Me: Made it off that bus. Chock full of wheelchair folks today & one poor fella kept getting his motorized chair stuck trying to turn around & back up this way & that & then almost turned himself over when the bus driver had to slam the brakes when an idiot in a car zipped over directly in front of us. Chubby Black man in a blue jacket. Looked 60. Trying to get to the Dollar Store. He grabbed a rail when the driver hit the brakes and blew the horn & grunted “I got it!” Then he yelled, “I’m OK” for the rest of us. Cuz I was about to go help. Wasn’t needed.
As I reflected later upon settling in at work, do not understand men who walk around with their goshdang, stanky ass britches bunched up around their ankles and belted tight above their knees. With several layers of ever longer or shorter underpants pulled up one over the other halfway up their bellies looking like they miraculously shoved their skinny ass into a huge, baggy ass grandma sock. So when they walk, they waddle like a fucking penguin in a straight jacket. Just don’t get it. Baffles me. Overlapping pee holes and what not. Jeeez! Sometimes they come into REI where they almost always end up stealing stuff in grab ’n’ waddles.
After describing this to my wife, she texts me back: “I don’t understand either. It doesn’t make sense because if gonna steal items, one would wear the pants properly in order to grab and run easily?”
Me: They waddle out the door. Ever see penguins go fast? 💨
William Dudley Bass
Saturday 8 February 2025
Monday 20 April 2026
Shoreline/Seattle, WA
USA
Copyright © 2026 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.