Wheelchair

I took the bus into work yesterday. It was particularly cold this morning, the sun mitigating the bite of the Minnesota wind. People seem in their own world on my morning bus, but no one is blatantly offensive. Sometimes you see smiles and hear "Good morning" being muttered. Sometimes it's a glance and a nod of acknowledgment cutting through the iPod shuffle.

It's not like my busmates and I are BFF, but it's nice to have a positive and set routine, and friendly folks help with the stability.

We're about 5 blocks from that stop where just about everyone gets off. There's woman in a wheelchair outside the bus. The bus driver opens the door and begins lowering the wheelchair ramp.

I don't think I've seen as shocking a reaction "the wheelchair." People gristled, grumbled, let out these hisses, sighs of annoyance, grunts. And shaking their heads they sprinted to the back door, unwilling to wait the 60 seconds for someone to get on the bus. You'd have thought a mobster with a machine gun boarded the bus.

The woman in the wheelchair seemed in her own world on my morning bus, not blatantly offensive. Just like everyone else. I arrived to work at 8:17, just 2 minutes late than usual, but with a bit less respect for my busmates.