Friendly Vancouver, Engineer, Curmudgeon

I met a man in the elevator the other day. He was carrying some suit bags so I asked if he was going on a trip. He replied that he was going home to Alberta and had been here visiting his daughter. He told me that he liked Vancouver - he felt the people were friendly.

I have to agree with that. I often carry on conversations with complete strangers. I hardly ever took the bus in Winnipeg - didn't need to - had a car. But it's quite common for complete strangers to engage others in conversation while riding the bus here. I quite enjoy that. My daughter doesn't agree with me that it's fun to travel on the bus. She is busy being nice to people all day in her job, so she doesn't want gratuitous conversation with strangers. I, on the other hand, have very little social life, so a chat with a friendly stranger can be the height of my social life for that day.

Here's an example. On a long bus ride out to Richmond I sat beside a young man wearing a construction helmet and work boots. He was wearing a little silver ring on the smallest finger of his right hand. I wondered if he were an engineer. He kept nodding off and falling asleep against the window. All of a sudden, he awoke with a jerk and asked where we were. I told him the name of the last street I had noticed. He said he was afraid he would miss the airport as he had to get off there. I took out a package of gum and offered him one. As he took it I told him I thought he needed something to keep him awake.

So he told me he was working shift work and was experiencing insomnia and of course, sleepiness at inconvenient times. I commiserated with him about insomnia (boy, do I know about that) so he started to tell me about his fellow workers who used alcohol to put themselves to sleep when they were going on a different shift. He said he chose not to do that, so that meant he had to put up with the sleep disturbances. Then he talked about his days as a student. He was an engineer! I mentally gave myself an "A" for being observant. This little exchange with a fellow human being made my day.

Not that all friendliness is appreciated. The old curmudgeon who mutters about how rude some people are, the people whose first language is not English, asking for directions incomprehensibly, the children who run up and down the bus aisles screeching - unfortunately, I am also familiar with them. Nevertheless, I am forced to agree with the man in the elevator. Vancouverites are friendly. Now if I can just get someone my own age that isn't related to me to go for coffee, I might be on my way to a less superficial friendship. But that's another blog posting.

Good-bye for now. Peace.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. ~George Bernard Shaw