Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 5 p.m.

It had been a while when I have ridden the train with someone causing a scene or panhandling. This ride I had both and the collision was interesting.

There was a man who when he walked by me smelled like the bar. He had obviously been drinking all day and drinking some of the strongest stuff around. He would stop anyone wearing a baseball cap and be like "Ah man, the Cubs are going all the way this year" or "Hey - the white sox are going to do it again!" Later his attention turned to a woman which he kept shouting "Excuse Me!", which she continued to ignore.

Through the far back door of the train entered a blind man. He had a cane, a cup with change and some ratty clothes. I gives him kudos for a new panhandling schpiel:

I am just a man who cannot see. I am asking for you to help see me. If you could see it to give me any spare change you may have. I am not trying to disturb you, I just want you to see me.

NOTE: I was not moved enough to give any change but thought it was an interesting take on it.

When the panhandling man started talking around the crazy, drunk guy - he was interrupted by some unintelligible yelling. He stopped his pitch and the drunk guy apologized for interrupting. The blind man said "it is allright - just trying to do my thing."

If only the rest of the world's problems could be solved with an apology and an acceptance of an apology.