An Encounter I Walked Away From...

The bus service in Boulder is very different on the weekend, as opposed to weekdays.  Saturday services begin two hours later, ans Sunday service begins three hours later.  Early and late, both days, there is only service once an hour; service ends much earlier on the weekend, and on Sunday, some routes don't run at all.  Route times also change quarterly, according to ridership levels, so when I start working at a place where I haven't been in six months, and I need to travel to the client's home twice I day, I have to try and gauge my first weekend travels carefully.
  Yesterday was my first Saturday in six months traveling to a specific home.  In he morning, I feed the fish in the back yard pond; release the hens from their coop, gather eggs, spread chicken scratch in various places, and clean the coop of overnight droppings; then I feed and water the cats inside, let the cats out for the day, and fill their water bowls.  In the evening, I put the hens into the coop, check for eggs hidden around the yard, and get the cats in for the night.
   Knowing the regular buses wouldn't run early enough for me to do morning chores, I walked to the Hop stop, which started running at 7 a.m.  I figured if I caught the first Hop bus, I could then make the connection with the first Skip bus at 7:09.  Nope.  The Hop picked me up at 7:05, we stopped at the next stop and another woman boarded with her service dog; it took her 3 minutes to get settled into her seat so the bus could start moving again.  She walked past me to find a seat (I was the only person on the bus, other than the driver).  This woman reeked of musty, sour sweat and both cigarette and marijuana smoke.  I almost gagged as she walked by.  Her service dog looked like a Yorkshire terrier cross, and was wearing a little red coat, but without any other identifying info.  As we traveled along, her odor permeated the entire bus.  I saw the bus driver glance at the woman a few times in the mirror, but she didn't say anything.
   I was very happy when my stop at Broadway and Spruce came.  I cheerfully hopped off the bus and called, "Thank you!" to the driver.  Then I realized the driver was lowering the bus so the other woman could disembark, too.   The woman and her dog followed me to the Skip bus stop.  By that time, it was 7:15, and the next Skip wouldn't come until 7:43.  I sat on the bench, and the woman sat beside me.  I got up and moved to sit on a raised flower bed.  After a few minutes, the dog started tugging at it's leash, and the woman got up, and allowed the male dog to mark everything nearby.  Then she allowed the dog to jump up onto the flower bed and approach me.  When the dog lifted it's leg to urinate on me, I pushed it away and stood up.  She laughed and said, "He likes you."  I said, "Well, that's fine, but that doesn't give him the right to pee on me," and I moved several feet away.  She asked if I was afraid of strangers.  I told her that I have COPD and that smoke will make me have an asthma attack, and that, because she smelled of smoke, I needed to stay a distance away from her.  I pulled out my book, and tried to read, but she kept talking to me and inching closer.
  I looked up when I started to cough and choke, and discovered that she had lit up a doobie the size of a cigar - then she offered me a few hits, telling me it would make me feel better and relax.  I literally ran several feet away from her and told her, "No.  Thank you."  In between puffs, she told me she, too, had COPD, and named five prescriptions that she takes to help her breathe.  She finally ground the roach out on her thumbnail, put it back into a box, then pulled out a filtered cigarette, lit it up, and inhaled deeply, twice. Then she started hacking horribly and coughing up and spitting out phlegm.  I started to gag from her spitting sputum everywhere.  Then she wanted me to "slap" her "back for five minutes" to help her clear her congestion.
   I was a coward.  I didn't reply.  I couldn't because I was retching so much and so hard.  I was lucky not to lose my breakfast.  I walked away and walked the rest of the way to the hens, fish, and cats.   -  In all honesty, I hope I never see this particular person ever again....