I was talking to a friend of mine today, and he told me about an event that occurred on the bus this morning. Quite often on his route to SFU, there is a woman who brings a pet parrot with her. This parrot isn’t in a cage, and gets free run of the bus when she allows it. Once, when there were a lot of people on the bus, this parrot began a “beak and claw climb” right up the shirt sleeve of the person next to the woman. I’ll bet the parrot was having just one hell of a good time. The person who was acting as the ladder, however, might not have been as amused.
Today the story got a little more interesting. The bus driver would have none of all this “parrot on the bus” routine. He told the parrot lady to leave and to take the avian desperado with her. He cited (besides the no pet policy) that someone might be allergic to it. She refused to leave. My friend couldn’t hear the gist of the conversation, but it wasn’t getting too heated. After the driver had returned to his seat at the front of the bus, the parrot lady remained. The driver then called out that if she wasn’t getting off the bus, he wasn’t going to take the bus anywhere. She crossed her arms. Seems we had the beginnings of a first rate stalemate. The driver then repeated that he wasn’t going to drive anywhere with the parrot still on board. This sort of reminds me of when parents say things like : if you don’t stop that I am driving this car off the first cliff I come to young man! Ah, the memories…
Eventually, after a few minutes of this, the driver realized he wasn’t going to get her off the bus by asking nicely. So he called transit security, which met them about five minutes towards SFU. Though I wasn’t filled in on the details, the parrot lady was taken off of the bus in what was not described as any sort of vastly unpleasant incident. She had been promised by the transit rent-a-cops that they would drive her to her destination. I was secretly hoping that the incident would become ugly because it might make a better update. Sadly, no.
In what can now only be construed as a natural progression from this story, I raise again the question of people who wear too much perfume. Obviously having a parrot on a transit bus is cited as a transgression largely because of the fact that pets aren’t allowed, and that the parrot was not in a cage. However, the driver suggested that it was because people might be allergic to it. Would he have the gumption to try and throw off someone who was wearing too much perfume/cologne? I doubt it.
I used to have terrible allergies – everything was a potential allergen. Food especially, would cause all kinds of horrible repercussions. Thankfully, this isn’t the case anymore. As I have “matured” I have also lost the majority of my allergies. Thankfully. The point is, before this occurred, I would have all kinds of horrible reactions to someone who was wearing too much chemical scent. Its not necessarily that they have applied too much of it, its often just that the scent exists at all.
I should also point out that this does not preclude my potential interest in such scents. Recently I was around this young woman who had on a modicum of perfume. Despite the fact that one of the results of my close proximity was sneezing and a runny nose, I am not saying that it wasn’t worth it in some small way. Hmmmm…
So having examined all sides of the issue I have come to the conclusion that… Actually I haven’t made my mind up about it yet, but I aim to soon. Perhaps more research is needed.