Weirdo, annoyed animals, and heat

[vilakins]

Encounter of the weird kind
Today was so hot and sticky, the fan was just moving hot air around the office which was bad enough, but a strange guy came in while I was alone. He just wandered in with a plastic bag and said he wanted to sit down and chat for a while. Mystified, I tried to be polite. He was a school teacher, he said, at a loss for anything to do till February (when schools go back) and teaches English, arithmetic, and geometry. "You even look like Euclid," I said, to be friendly (he was bald and bearded and resembled the picture in my Molesworth books) but he had no idea who that was, which was my first clue All Was Not Right. When he said he liked Gershwin and broke into "Anything goes!" I suspected this was the guy I'd been warned about last year but never seen. I had to look admiringly at the photos and Christmas cards he had in his plastic bag, and nod, impressed, every time he said he was a teacher and could speak five languages, and smile every time he decided to treat me to another rendition of "Anything Goes". Oh yes, he is also one of the twelve people on the planet who understand the true nature of God, the universe, and possibly life as well.

It was just my luck that one of my colleagues was on holiday, another not at work today, and the only other one I could call was in a meeting. He wandered off finally, one arm out as if to fend off attackers. Apparently he's an alcoholic who has killed off so many brain cells he doesn't make sense even when sober: self-inflicted Alzheimer's. :-( Eh, at least he was less disturbing than the random--and large--welder who came in last year begging for his fare to Whangarei so he could find his wife.

The pissed off animal in literature
Then on my way home, I went into the book shop and was puzzled briefly to see a book on "Angered Animals". Why would anyone want to read about annoyed creatures, I wondered, and had a second look. Yep, another book was obscuring part of the title. They were endangered. :-P

Delta under a hot tin roof
I'm finally cooling down with the aid of a fan on full aimed right at me. Time for bed; it should be cooler up there because I've had it closed all day. Sigh. My toe is finally well enough to go on walks with me and it gets too hot for me to want to.

Comments

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Why does the weirdo always choose me!
I get that sometimes in bus queues, mind you I do have the habit of actually talking to people, especially if the bus is late!
He sounds desperately lonely and so well and truly lost from reality. It's harder to feel pity though if you know its self inflicted.

I like "Angered animals" - well they have every right to be angry, so too would you be if someone is trying to wipe you out!

Hope the night brings some relief!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The guy was pretty harmless which is why they let him wander in, but I was worried he'd stay there for the rest of the day, and talking to him was hard once I realised he kept forgetting what we'd both said. I suppose he is lonely, not being able to sustain a real conversation.

Yes, the animals should get angry!

It's just as hot this morning, and it's rained overnight raising the humidity further. Oh, well. Long weekend and Cirque de Soleil coming up.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Commiserations - I'd love to send you what's outside, it's below freezing here!

Enjoy the Cirque de Soleil!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Below freezing means dry air, which we don't get. This is the mould capital of the world. I used to live in Germany and I loved the climate.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Hot you were, you say. Hmm, refreshing! These days we have winter back and in full flow together with a transpor collapse due enormous snowdrifts. The heating in our library went on strike as well - thank you, I have just used my imagination to be hot with you. About this weirs person - I am afraid teachers tend to end like this. I know, being a recent teacher myself:-)But left relatively in time and having my TOS, B7 and LJ, I feel safe!.-)However, hmm, I often feel like singing at work - do you think it is THE symptom? Hahaha, teachers here in CR call this kind of weird behaviour "non-reversal change".
Still, you were very lucky you didn´t have to face an angry terrorist or so...

[shimere277.livejournal.com]

I think some of them are still teaching at my college. We really need a retirement incentive.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I love snow! I used to live in Germany and the air is cold, but dry and crisp. That's lots better than the cold damp we get here in winter that seeps through any layer of clothing, or the humid heat in summer.

I know lots of teachers (and accountants for some reason) and they're all very sane--so far, ha ha. No, I think singing at work is only a sign of happiness in most people. I talk to myself about my work sometimes, but so does the accountant; I've heard him.

Stay away from B7 season 4 and you'll be all right. ;-)

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

We have TV shows here called 'Animal Attacks' and 'When Good Pets Go Bad', so I suspect I'd have taken 'Angered Animals' as a matter of course.

Glad your weirdo wasn't the dangerous kind.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Those shows are on here but I don't watch them; I loathe almost all reality TV. Hee; their titles remind me of the Farside cartoon "When potato salad goes bad" where the bowl of potato salad is pulling a gun on several frightened items of fruit and veg.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathy, libraries attract the strange so I'm more or less used to things like that now. But I do remember my first as the person in charge. We had a group of flats used as half way houses for a drink and drugs rehabilitation center and I got one on my lone lunch duty once. He walked into the library and informed me he was going to live there as the devil that was waiting for him at home wouldn't come in to the library. All those books contained knowledge and the devil hated and feared knowledge. I had to call the police to get him out eventually and it took two very big men to get him through th door. It's being alone that makes it more scary rather than the incident itself. As I've said many times in meetings, no branch (or office)should be single manned, you need two people, one to keep the weird person occupied and one to sneak of and phone the police. Or worst case scenario , one to be attacked and one to run and get help.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Since it's holiday time for most people here, I've been left on my own a few times recently and I'm not comfortable with it. This guy is friendly enough though; just really hard to talk to when you realise he forgets almost everything you've both said. I'm glad the two others wandered in when others were there; they're sometimes out for a while visiting clients.

The local library is small but seems to have at least two, usually three people on duty (if not always visible).

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Eep!

Drunken/mental people are scary, yes. Although I suspect I've been taken for one a few times. *guilt* Sometimes I've managed to shut them up by outweirding them. That almost always works...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when this guy went on about how clever he was (five languages, maths etc) I spoke to him in Yiddish and got onto the subjects of calculus, entropy, and the size of the universe (in English though) which threw him a bit.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

BWHAHAHA! I've spoken in Finnish to British nutters, that's always good. And I heard of one American fan woman who answers telemarketers and other annoying phonecalls in Klingon.

[kerravonsen]

And I heard of one American fan woman who answers telemarketers and other annoying phonecalls in Klingon.

Priceless!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ha! Love it! I'll do that next time; not many people here speak German.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to make up a placard with the slogan "End angered animals now!" :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

:-D Stopping endangering the poor bastards would do it!

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's humid, isn't it. *fans face*

It sounds like it was your lucky day to deal with the public, wasn't it. :-\

The only time I've had the mental alarm bells go off with a visitor, was when a bald, half-blind chap (with BO) turned up once at reception in a job of mine and aggressively asked to see the manager. Luckily I was able to encourage him to leave...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It was a baby today. Someone let it loose and it made a beeline for the server keyboard. I was not impressed, esp since we'd already lost our network services just before that, and the mother could see just how I felt. Grrrr.

I have had a really, really crap day. The internet connection died (which happens a lot) but this time nothing I did would bring it back, and both IT people are on holiday. Of course. Then when I got home, I had a voice mail message to say my hair appt tomorrow is 30 minutes later than I 1) have on my card and 2) confirmed earlier this week. I'd already rung to make sure I'd be out in time to go home and eat etc before the circus, so they're getting an angry call tomorrow. They can find me another one next week.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Poor you - it sounds like you really had a bad day! There's nothing worse than when crap happens all at once. I hope you can get a hair appointment you're happy with. *offers chocolate*

My day was far too busy today - if I could have cloned myself I would have jumped at the chance...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's a long weekend. I'll feel a lot better after a night's sleep.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you will. Thank goodness for the long weekend... :D