An Interesting Day

The fire alarm in the new building at the “old folks home” in Waikiki activated at 4am this morning. The evacuation via the stairway was chaotic with many senior citizens struggling to descend with their walkers. Other residents were assisting them, but the bottleneck would have assured a tragedy if fire had engulfed the entire mausoleum. The fire department responded, and about 30 minutes elapsed before residents were allowed back into the building. The cause? One of the senior citizens was cooking (read: burning food on the stove) with the door open again. Incidentally, there are a lot of “kooks” residing at the mausoleum ... errr, “old folks home.”

There was no way to return to a deep sleep, so the morning commenced with intense drowsiness. Upon arrival in town, the walk to the gym seemed much longer. While waiting at the Bishop Street traffic signal, a little old lady asked for assistance to cross the street. That’s the first time ever in this lifetime that the proverbial “helping a little old lady cross the street” scenario has ever occurred!

Coffee time was eagerly anticipated at the fast food joint in town. Lack of sleep induced a strong craving for coffee. Later, coffee time was extended to the outdoor sitting area by the Starbucks® shop just around the corner from the gym. A young guy was observed walking out of the coffee shop with a cup of coffee. His mannerism was quite shaky. Catheter tubes were observed protruding from under his right sleeve. A decision was made to observe him. He sat down at one of the tables and pulled out a notebook computer from his satchel. Then, he slumped over and fell out of the chair. A security guard was quickly located and notified. Then, an ambulance was called. Within a minute or so, the guy had come to. An account of what was witnessed was given to the paramedics when they arrived. What is most astounding is that no one else even bothered to get involved. People who had clearly witnessed what happened just didn’t bother to do much but gawk.

Being a pariah, a loner, a misanthrope does not preclude intervention in human affairs when necessary. There are definitely times that the “kindness of strangers” can be accomplished without any further thought. Of course, the latter does not apply to arrogant and narcissistic dickheads.

Addendum: There appears to be several grubby looking characters residing at the “old folks home” as of late. They look like they just came from the Sand Island homeless shelter. Could this be the source of the “kooky” nonsense recently? The cargo van camper conversion option is really sounding attractive now!