The rudest of the homeless...

Here in the city where I live there is a significant amount of homeless people. Some of them are homeless for valid reasons ie. injury without WCB or a rejected employment insurance claim, a mental disorder like schizophrenia or something of the like. However; there seems to be a mass majority of lazy jobless welfare using tax draining bums that want a steady hand out.

The free loading bums are the ones that can be the most vexing. The one way that I have generally dealt with it is to simply ignore, it keeps me from shouting and/or cursing and/or both for that matter. There have been many tactics discussed over various dinners and coffee outings with close friends and the leading method that is most recommended is to walk quickly while listening to music at volumes that may be harmful to the ears but also drowned out the cries of faults desperate. attention.

The most recent run in that I've had with a self destructive unfortunate went just as predicted, at least started off that way. While attempting to make my daily commute to the dismal place of my less then high paying or respectable place of employment, I encountered one of the homeless that was quite the exceptional attention seeker. I had my iPod as loud as it would go and was trekking at a more then regularly high pace as I was running a little late, when I glanced out of the corner of my eye and there he was. The abominable homeless man, standing at approximately 6' 6" tall, and roughly 190 LBS of cloaked danger was directly behind me and pacing along almost at my heals. I could tell he was attempting to get my attention for quite some distance, perhaps for a 3 block radius. I was keeping a solid composure when to my dismay, a red light at the cross walk, at that moment I know that there was going to be a direct confrontation. He makes his move, waving his hands in front of my face, I give a glance of extreme disapproval before removing one of the ear buds that I have jammed into my skull in an attempt at keeping my sanity when out comes, "Hey, do you have a smoke or some change?". I ponder the situation briefly before formulating a simple reply that I could only hope to have some kind of an impact. With courage in my thought, I open my mouth, chuckle and burst "With all the energy you've used while tailing me, you could have easily asked a few other people for some remedial employment that would give you an opportunity to earn the funds required to purchase a pack of cigarettes of your very own." The bum stands in shock, I add "Just get a fuckin' job!". To my astonishment, "Fuck you buddy, you don't know me!" emerges from the scruffy mans beard and mustache.

I'm quite unsure as to why there should be such an exchange of words like this. All that I could hope for is that the hint would be taken, but alas, I was hoping for to much.

This is a sad day now that I've even lost faith in the wit of the homeless.



Joshua FACT!
NNP!
www.factandfiction.ca coming soon