The Geezer Mobile

I typically ride the bus to work. And at 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning, the bus I ride is usually filled with commuters on their way to work or school, who ride the bus twice a day, nearly every day, and have the ritual down. They get on and get off quickly, and spend their time on the bus isolating themselves in their tiny bubbles, trying to occupy as little space as possible and interact with the people around them not all.

In other words, my kind of bus riders.

Today, however, I had an eye appointment (more on that later). As a result, instead of my usual 7:00-something bus I was on the 9:30 bus -- or as I've come to think of it, The Geezer Mobile.

Aside from me, the driver and a woman who got off at the stop by the community college, I would swear no one on the bus this morning was under sixty. And... oh... my... god... 

To a person, they all seemed to be confused about where they were, where they were going, and how they were planning to get there. Except for the last third of the route, there's no other bus that follows the same route as mine, and yet the bus would stop, the door would open, and these folks would look in and ask the driver, "Does this bus go downtown?" They'd get on, and wouldn't know how much, or how, to pay. At one point, four very old Chinese ladies got on board, each dragging a very full, and apparently heavy, rolly cart. And to a one, each woman tried to lift her cart onto the bus. I thought the driver was going to lose his mind. He kept saying, "Don't try to lift it. You don't need to lift it. Just roll it up into the bus behind you. No, don't lift it. Don't try to lift it." But they just ignored him and kept trying to squat lift their carts onto the bus deck. 

Once aboard, they each decided they needed a window seat for some reason, and then proceeded to have an animated (and loud) conversation in a mix of Chinese and English down the side of the bus as it continued on its route.

And as I sat there observing all this and contemplating the impact the cancer treatment is having on my body and mind, I just kept thinking...

Please don't let this be my future...

Please don't let this be my future...

Please don't...