Smoakville - where everybody is woefully stupid

from:		Michael
to:		"Cindy (Cj) Smith"
date:		Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 6:33 PM
subject:		Smoakville Chronicles

Making the transfer today in Oakville - city of German Imported Cars and Super Inflated Entitlement.
Let the pics tell some of the story:

Smoakville 1 - A nicely composed shot - note the young smoking couple under the two conveniently placed no smoking signs. Nothing new here, really. Approached to a safe distance (not easy since they were upwind) and asked if the signs meant something different to them.
They had the good grace to leave right away - though snickering.
Smoakville 2 As they passed I noticed the other two - Mr. Big Boy Pants, and a guy who looks like he still thinks he could land a spot with the 1990's Bare Naked Ladies.
I ask them to please comply with the GO no smoking policy. Mr. Bare Naked Manque responds that the law says that he has to be more than 15 feet away from the doors. This is wrong. 
He's on GO property, and if it were adequately explained by the signage (it isn't - and why is that?) he'd know (or have no way of denying) that he has no right to smoke on GO property.
He's also closer than 15 feet to the entrance, but hey, he can only be so wrong before he's over 100% wrong - am I right?
Smoakville 3: So I'm snapping pics and his little friend (they're in Blue Jays matching outfits! SQUEE!), Mr. Big Boy Pants, offers to break my "fucking camera". So I turn on the video feature and ask him to approach and repeat. Strangely enough, he demurs.
As my local bus is leaving I note that several more smokers have taken up the perch between the no-smoking signs and the PRESTO machine.
For the 1,250th time - howzabout a sign that clearly explains that there is no smoking on GO property and what that means in terms of geography and possible penalties?
When they're smoking right under your signs as they are now, and right by the PRESTO machine, I 'd say its safe to conclude that the GO safety and comfort of passengers commitment beyond being a travesty and is in the neighbourhood of being a willful lie.

Addendum: GO YANKEES!

And the crazy just got speed dialed up at Smoakville

by MM

Special to ThisCrazyTrain.com

So I'm at Oakville GO this aft, when the crazy gets suddenly dialed up past 11.

The worthy young man you see in these photos, skateboarding and smoking in the bus right of way just by the Oakville Transit platform, had just purposely placed himself in front of an incoming bus (in the frame). He played chicken until the bus stopped, then rolled up to the front bumper.

I missed those shots, but the guy obliged me by then continuing to skate around the lane as other incoming buses passed, smoking up a storm.

He then noticed me and yelled that what I was doing was illegal.

Yes, he said that.

I pointed out that the sign didn't say "no cameras".

He then offered to pull down his pants and pose.

And did just that.

Stay classy Oakville.

So I go back to the front of the station to wait. An old pensioner is tehre and he asks what the hell the young guy was doing. We chat and chuckle about it.

The short red head with piercings comes over and asks what I was doing. I start to explain, but she proceeds into a cascade of questions and challenges. Her "man" (Steve I find out later) comes over, smoke in hand, and joins the fun. They accuse me of taking their picture. Actually, neither of them is in the pix. Steve says he was on the bus that the skateboarder played chicken with and he "saw everything" and the kid wasn't doing "nothing wrong.". Logic with extra added double negaitives for affirmative evidence.

So?

We are joined by another volunteer, young lady with bad dye job,  who proceeds to claim that I can't take pictures legally. I ask her what law she is quoting, and she says "Ontario law! You can google it!". So I ask her to. She gets kinda abusive. Its at this time that Steve offers to punch me. So I ask him to back up and  I open the station door and yell for someone to call security.

The nice ticket agent comes out and tries to defuse the situation and actually does a masterful job. Little Miss Redhead goes off on a Gish Gallop of questions and challenges. "Steve" claims I am lying about everything. I ask when security is going to arrive.

Its around this point, after yelling at me for 15 to 20 minutes, Steve and his little friend allow as how they have other more important places to be (Meth sale down at the Lab I guess).

So I wait for the security. And wait. And wait.

Young man playing chicken with buses. Check.

Exposing himself also. Check.

People (including yours truly) yelling at each other in front of the station entrance. Check.

By my count, in twenty to thirty minutes of crisis and waiting... and still no security, but around 10 to 15 smokers.

Doesn't GO EVER provide enforcement? Can they? Why do they promise safety? Why do we let them get away with promising something they do so little to enforce?

I went in and apologized to the ticket taker for the stress.

I'm going to have to make other arrangements for transit.

And the contest ends at Smoakville

from:		MM
to:		cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date:		Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 7:48 AM
subject:		Friday (last one)

Contest is closed and the results are in.

So I get to the station this morning and - surprise! - there is an enforcement car parked out by the taxis. In Smoakville a sighting like this is as rare and unlikely as rocking horse crap.

No sign of the officer though.

Natch.

I'm on the clock with only twenty minutes to go, according to my own self imposed rules for this contest.

From sight and smell there wqs  no shortage of smokers this morning. There is that ashtray miasma in the air, scatterred butss all around,  and two or three of the regulars are back behind the station puffing away (out of sight of the empty enforcement car, they may be ignorant but they ain't stupid).

Just I can't take their pictures.

Again, for my purposes this week I can't count them in the contest since I already have taken their pictures in the past months (and months) that this has been going on.

(Remember when we had hope, CJ?)

After about ten minutes the Enforcement Officer comes out of the driver's clubhouse/rest area on the side of the building. He looks like the cliche of an American Highway Patrol Man with every crease ironed to a razors edge, buttons all gleaming. I am proud to have such an Enforcement Officer working for me. I'd gladly pay extra on Presto! He looks like a rock hard recruiting poster for manly men.

I figure I'm in for the equivalent of a flying rainbow coloured zebra unicorn spotting... I may actually see anti smoking enforcement (or even parking enforcement!) in action!!!!!

But, sadly  no.

He just gets in the car, turns on the engine, idles it for five minutes or so with the headlights on, then leaves.

So I spent five minutes waiting to see some action, only to have all the wheels fall off my pathetic clown car of dreams.

I'm down to five minutes left. Looks like the mission will fail on the ultimate day. No GO trains are due in for another couple of minutes, all the Oakville Transit buses are in for a while, and the smokers that are present are all th eold hacks/hacking coughers.

I have less than 2 minutes on the clock when this guy crosses directly in front of the station, puffing away. I raise the camera and pop off two frames.

Its only when I'm on the way to work that I start thinking that maybe - just maybe - this guy didn't qualify. In the dark dimness he _could have_ been wearing a transit uniform (I don't take pics of transit employees).

So I get to work and run the pic through adobe, breathlessly wait while the brightness is adjusted (also breathless from allergic reaction to the buttsmoke this morning) and...

Success! Not a driver, just some suited jerk.

Cue triumphal music... Or I would if it wasn't that I'm very sure that when it comes to smoking and smoking enforcement next week will be just as bad at SMoakville... and all the other stations on the line.

Again - for the umpteenth time:

Where is the enforcement?
Where are the clearly written signs that would empower non-smokers and tell smokers that they can not smoke?
Why does GO make commitments to safety and health of their passengers that, from the evidence, they are not even prepared to pretend to meet?

Next week (apropo of this morning's encounter) perhaps a new contest - a list of GO enforcement spottings.
Perhaps your readers would like to join in?

MM

Gather round kids! It's time for another tale of the Oakville aka "Smokeville" Smokers Club!

from:		MM
to:		cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date:		Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 7:11 AM
subject:		Oakville Smoker's club - Click for previous posts

Hey CJ - new developments...

http://www.hark.com/clips/yvmhbxxtjm-my-left-hand

I have decided to change the rules - it is the only way I can be satisfied.

I mean - Enforcement and Signage are not acting any time soon - right?

So I've added three new rules - a week's challenge.

1) I will take pictures only of *NEW* members of the Smoakville Fraternity of Fumeurs - buttsuckers not previously photographed.
2) I will take my shots ONLY near the station building where the signs (such as they are) are most prominent.
3) I will spot and snap for only a twenty minute window - a time limit.
4) I will get one useable shot per weekday for a week

Those go along with my previous rules -

1) No shooting of GO employees (the point is to shame  GO into enforcing of public bylaws, not help IA Narcs)
2) Smoking has to be apparent in the shot
3) No shots of clearly mentally ill people

Monday was a morceau de gateau.
The guy actually stopped and posed for me - big smile on his face. Entitlement overflows.
Tuesday I got sworn at - par for the course.
This morning was different.

There were lots of smokers. But they were covered by the rules.

Like the guy I call "Moose" - big and hulking and quite obviously developmentally challenged. He smokes cigarillos out in front of the station. I've never seen him get on a bus or train - he just hangs around.
Then the guy from Tuesday comes around, sees me and the camera, swears and throws away his cigarette. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was a protected species today... Waste of a good coffin nail.
Then around 5:57, a GO bus driver walks out of the station with a coffee and cig in hand.

My time was running low when this guy strolled up and lit up.
I got about three or four shots, but the one I sent - though a touch out of focus - is a classic. Smoke wafting out like a carcinogenic and allergenic rainbow effluent into the pristine predawn air...

He told me he didn't like his picture taken, so I stowed the cam and answered that maybe he shouldn't be out in public breaking no smoking bylaws then...

Two more days...

Won't you show you care?

from:		MM
to:		"cj@thiscrazytrain.com"
date:		Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 9:16 PM
subject:		Won't you show you care?

I was back on the regular commute today for the first time this fall... and it started out irregularly. The Oakville Transit Bus was 10  minutes late so I missed the connection to my usual GO bus at Oakville station.

It was there that I came on this tragic case - or rather, he and his cigarette smoke flowed into my life.

I was sitting by the entrance doors and this guy walked up, sat down, and pulled out a pack of coffin nails. I pointed out that this was a posted no smoking area and asked him to please not smoke. His heart breaking reply?

"I don't care"

Imagine that people - sucking on burning butts has cauterized this man of all feeling. A pathetic apathetic smoke sucker.

So people, I put it to you, until either he or the Bylaw Enforcement people at GO Transit show a sign that THEY care, I'm going to show how much I care by taking as many pictures of these apathetic addicts as I can - and I ask that yo do the same.

Maybe if enough pics pile up we'll get some caring going somewheres...

Oakville GO - We now knight thee "Smokeville" ... or Deep Stench Nine

from:		MM
to:		cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date:		Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 7:31 AM
subject:		Smokeville: The Next Generation - or - Deep Stench Nine

Got another few pics this morning - they're not that good - tried stepping the fstop and going without flash, but the darn smokers move around just a tad too much.

There are three that stand out these days on the 6:00-6:30 shift: a really big and tall guy who seems developmentally handicapped who smokes fragrant cigars and stands either right up under a no smoking sign by the main doors, or ambles back and forth in front of them. I call him The Smelly Giant. This morning he was puffing away and chatting with a uniformed Oakville Transit employee (one of my rules is that I don't take pics that would get transit workers in trouble - hence no try for a pic) I'll get him some other time, he's always there between 6:15 and 6:30.

There used to be a hardcore smoker at the east doors right by where the GO buses stop to let passengers off. He was an Eastern-European guy, Polish maybe, judging by his accent. He would stand about half a metre in front of the doors and actually and obviously blow smoke INTO the doors each time they opened. He would scream at anyone who asked him to stop or move away. He has disappeared and has been replaced by two new guys.

There's a guy who resembles Patrick Stewart, if Patrick had his cheekbones removed and was drug through an ashtray and hit with a weasel stick. He stands where the old hard-case used to stand. I've taken his pic a few times. One good point for Captain Nictard is that he doesn't try to engage. Just stands there puffing away as I take his pic. Maybe he's just oblivious. Maybe he is waiting for the doors to give whistle so he can bark out "COME!"

Then there's a South Asian gentleman who I encountered last week. I didn't have my camera with me, and he kind of surprised me. He came up behind my shoulder as I was walking to the bus and he wafted a smoky exhalation my way. I had to walk through the unexpected cloud and I turned to him and just said, "Get out. This is a no smoking area - GET OUT!" He didn't even argue, just turned around and walked away. This morning he was by the doors though, joining ersatz Jean-Luc  in a five-cig mission to annoy strange new people. Haven't made up my mind, but I think I'll call him Doctor Ash-eer.

I'm calling the enforcement people back again today. They left a message last week, but what with sickness, absence, and labour problems, I haven't had a chance to reply. 

Gather round, kiddies. It's time for another tale of the Oakville Smokers Club

Submitted by MM 

I haven't been using the camera much the last week or two. Mornings, my bus connection has been tighter so I don't get to do much besides grab a coffee and a paper and run. There aren't too many smokers visible, but you sure can smell them.

Evenings are another story. They congregate around the exits and no smoking areas like zombies at a shopping mall. They even have their own staked-out turfs and routines.

The first two pics were taken two or three days apart this week. I only noticed it was the same guy when I ran through my contact view and wondered why there were 100 or 120 other non-smoker pics between two almost identical shots. Same guy, same spot, same smoke reeking clothes. He stands right by the exit, and right under the sign. The only way you can tell that it's different days is that the papers are different in some of the newsboxes.

The other reason why I noticed that guy was because of the very next shot I took. On the other side of the station, right beside the main doors, were two guys who were just throwing away their smokes. I wasn't going to take their pic - no cigarettes in hand, so it doesn't fit my criteria - but then a third buttsucker walked up and asked to bum a stinkstick. Something one of the guys said caught my attention.

"Hey - ya, only in Oakville would a smoker give ya his last cigarette!" The smarmy misplaced self congratulating and erroneous sense of grandiose and magnanimous generosity and city boosterism almost made me upchuck. 

So I took a pic of the generous gent lighting up the charity case's butt (now THERE'S an image!) and sharing the smoke with one and all.

When the two guys looked up I added - "And only in Oakville would you light up right by a main exit and between two clearly marked no smoking signs." Should have left well enough alone I guess... but I felt good.

So I walk out to the express bus platform, and of course, the two smoke-mook fashion plates follow me.

One of them had a few open sores on his face, the kind you see on people who have more, shall we say, exotic, smoking habits. He also seemed to show some of the intellectual deficits common to people who chase crystal.

He walked up and said, "I'm going to ask you to delete my picture."

I replied "Okay - go ahead."

I somehow don't think he pays too much thought to things that come out of or go into his blistered pie hole. His natural flummoxed look got a tad more flummoxed. I had to connect the dots.

"You said you were going to ask something, go ahead and ask."

"Okay - uh, delete my picture."

I paused. "And I'm going to say, no..... No."

The other guy, who seemed to have more axioms and dendrites in play, then started in with the whole, "You have no right to take my picture without asking..." It was the usual appeal to invented legalism that most all these people who smoke under no smoking signs seem to fall back on. 

I tried to point out that a) there is no law against photographing in a public place and b) there is a law against smoking in the place where they were smoking and c) if he is so big on enforcing the etiquette of asking permission - when did he ask me if he could smoke?

All of this was lost on them, of course. I don't think they would have grasped it even if we hadn't been interrupted by this very sad young lady.

She was furiously puffing on her own coffin nail and screeched her way into the convo. I think that must be a habit in her poor sad life - thrusting herself in where she can only make things worse. Her face had that pretty brittleness that you know will soon shatter into a web of smokewrinkles, and the sort of vapid expression of the type of person who has never had to rely on any organ from the breastbone up.

I was just explaining to the more reasonable seeming of the two guys that I had an allergy to their smoke, and a reasonable expectation that the area around the station would be smoke-free, when blonde, stereotype girl stepped up and blew smoke in my face. She then tottered off to what's left of her miserable time here on earth.

That kinda put quit to either side making any effort at all. I asked a waiting bus driver to call bylaw enforcement, and he did. He also told me that the bus I was waiting on would take ten minutes, so I decided to go catch a local.

Meth-acne guy then offered to break my camera - but his heart wasn't really in it. I smiled at him, would have even patted the poor over-stimulated guy on the top of his pointy head. He then offered how the Montreal Canadiens suck (I had a raggy, old Canadiens cap on). It had gotten down to that sad level of non sequitur. He just wanted to hurt my poor feelings. Too bad. 

His smoke-sister had already started an allergic reaction for me... I'm sure knowing this would make him feel better, so I didn't tell him - does that make me a bad person?

I smiled again and ambled off.

(Insert soft strings of opening theme music for The Friendly Giant) Gather round kids, it's time for another tale of the Oakville Smokers Club

MM writes:

Last week I worked late and didn't get out till around eight. Luck was with me and I didn't wait more than five minutes for the bus.

We pulled up to the platform at Smokeville GO station and as I got off I noticed that there was a guy in the process of lighting up right in front of the doors (pictured above). He at least had the presence of mind to desist while he came up to the open doorway to ask the driver a question. Then he turned and started lighting up again.

I told him that the area was no smoking, and to please move away. He seemed to have a hearing problem because he asked me to repeat three times. In any case, he shrugged and walked off, smoking.

I figured that this was one of those rare easy cases and settled back under the awning to wait for my bus. It was raining and the rancid butts littering the station were giving off their particular charming perfume of eau de wet ashtray.

Then the guy came back around the side of the station building - having made the full smoking tour - and settled in ostentatiously beside me.

So I pulled out the canon and snapped his pic.

Meltdown ensued. No stages of mounting anger - straight to screaming rage. Veins popping in his neck, eyes bulbous, spittle flying. He apparently had thought ahead (as far as was possible) to this confrontation and had been stewing since I'd asked him to move away.

Offered to break my face, break my camera etc etc. Kept shouting "DELETE MY PICTURE! DELETE MY PICTURE! DELETE MY PICTURE!". Then every once in a while he would cup his cell phone to his ear (consulting with his brain trust, I figure) and come back with an attempt at an argument. Like:

"Its ill-egal to take my pitch-er widdout my say-so!"

When I tried to point out that the sign doesn't say "no pictures" but clearly communicates "no smoking" he'd cut me off with another round of "DELETE MY PICTURE! DELETE MY PICTURE! DELETE MY PICTURE!"

I told him to get away from me with his stink-stick, and that I had a perfect right to take his picture and put it anywhere, even online, as long as I didn't make money off it.

This seemed to give him pause. He then tossed his butt and told me that since he was no longer smoking I should delete his picture. Bargaining with me to delete a legal picture, since he'd finished his illegal butt...

He wouldn't leave me alone, but after the first rage I figured he wouldn't get too violent, or at least not more violent than I could handle (see pic for reference). But it was getting annoying. I went into the station, guy screaming right behind and beside me, (like a little yipping smelly dog) and asked the ticket taker to call 911.

In the best tradition of customer relations that I've come to expect, the GO Customer SERVICE Representative pointed me to the bank of pay phones and told me to call for myself. I did.

Johnny Smoke continued to scream at me, so much so that the 911 operator couldn't make me out at times. She told me not to engage with the guy (kinda hard since he was within a quarter metre of the receiver screaming), and she took my details and told me the cops would be there.

Buddy went out to wait for the cops out front, I stayed inside.

Two cars pulled up. Nicotine Boy got to talk to one officer, I talked to the other. From the sounds of his interview the actual law on photographing in a public place came as a shock and crushing disappointment to him. The cops had a talk with him and asked him to be a good boy and got him all calmed down. They asked me what I wanted to do and I replied that I only wanted to wait for my bus in peace and (relatively) clean air. In retrospect I should have also asked to press charges... I had proof after all... but considering that the officer seemed a bit fuzzy on the bylaw (he thought Halton's 9 metre policy applied, and I had to tell him about the GO Provincial bylaw, he also asked why I hadn't (snerk!) called the (chortle!) GO Safety Weebles. (LOL). They told Mookie to leave me alone. He seemed to get it.

In any case, here is the shot of buddy, see if you can blur his features enough.

Also, as a bonus, a pic from Friday. This one could be better. I was in a hurry to get to the bus, but two or three smokers were clustered between the two signs in the alcove by the doors (photo below), it made such a great shot- it would have made a much better shot if I had gotten the other sign into the frame, but it is what it is...

One thing the cops said has stuck with me. They said that this crazy guy was a cream puff, but there were other crazier guys out there...They asked if there was some other way I could approach this. I told them the "Oakville Smoking Club Massacree in Four Part Harmony" (abridged) and that all I wanted was smoke free air so that I don't get allergic reactions with complications and wind up in the hospital again... and with the lack of enforcement I was left to my own devices... But that if I DID wind up in the hospital, I wanted to at least know that I fought in the most effective way what was bringing me down...

But I am re-evaluating my tactics, and maybe I'll come up with something less risky. I'll let you know ASAP.

Gather 'round children, it's time for another tale of the Oakville Smokers Club

Photoshopped by Yours Truly
Photo credit: MM

from:		MM
to:		cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date:		Sat, Oct 27, 2012 at 7:27 PM
subject:		Oakville Smokers Club

I seem to have been jinxed. Ever since I promised you new smoker pics I've run into a dry spell. If I have my camera, there are no smokers; if I leave it at home, they are everywhere.

But sometimes the fish come to you when you least expect it.

Last Friday I missed my connection for the early GO bus, so I had to wait around for the later one. I use either one regularly, depending on my energy level, but this was the first time I had such an extended layover. So I got a coffee and a paper and settled in to wait the 15 or so minutes till my bus rolled in.

It's a different vibe at the station when buses are not rolling in and out. Since Oakville Transit times their buses to coincide with GO train and bus departures, the times in between seem kind of empty. Fewer people, less bustle.

There were no smokers though, at least at first, and I was kind of enjoying the fresh air.

Then, when  I went out towards the bus platform, I saw this guy. (See pic). He was standing directly in front of the side door, maybe two feet in front of it, facing the door and blocking it,  and only  a metre or two from the no-smoking sign. My rule is that I don't shoot unless I can get the no-smoking sign in, or unless I have already asked the smoker to desist.

This guy was gold. So I took his picture.

He then walks towards me and says that I have no right to take his picture, that it is illegal. He has a thick Eastern-European accent, so I give him the benefit of the doubt and I start the spiel about the law saying that I can take a picture in any public place.

He keeps at it. So I point to the sign and tell him that it means "no smoking" in English, Polish, Russian and whatever other language he might speak... but there are no posted signs for photography. He walks off and goes down the steps to the underpass to the trains - still smoking.

I get on the bus and mention all this to the bus driver, an old acquaintance. He laughs.

It seems that this guy has a morning routine - he stands in front of the doors and blows smoke at people entering and leaving and scowls at anyone who even looks at him crosseyed. Every goddamn day for the last few weeks.

I guess my photographing him took him up short.

Life is good.

Missed out on previous Oakville GO Station smoking shenanigans? Catch up here

Friday reading: the ongoing saga of the Oakville Smokers Club

from: MM
to: cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date: Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 8:16 PM
subject: Oakville smoker update

Been off GO for a while - since the good weather started I've been mostly biking to work (8 to 12 klicks, depending on the route) or catching a lift in the morning with the wife and then rolling home on the bike, but the weather these last few days has forced me back onto the buses.

Today, as I was exiting the GO bus I spotted an old photo subject. The last time I saw him, about two months or so ago, he was dressed in some matching dayglo puffy basketball-uniform-hiphop-circus-is-in-town getup. I took some pics from the bus island of him sucking a sick-stick. He saw me and actually came out to the bus island to try to give me a hard time. I mostly just kept taking his pic as he continued to posture and swear and threaten me. Nothing much came of it. Wish I could find the pics. He was a sight.

So today I whip out th ecanon and take his pic again. He recognizes me (no flies on our boy! - apparently the oxygen deprivation/carbon monoxide poisoning has yet to have full effect). He starts in on the threats again, so I go right up to the side door of the station, open it, and ask him to speak up so the CSR's at the ticket booth can hear him. He stays outside.

So I go back out, and buddy has buttonholed a bus driver of my acquainatnce and is asking him to stop me from taking his pic.

Its for these moments I live.

Bus driver buddy points out that the sign says no smoking, and that I have a perfect right to take photos in a public place.

I took full advantage of the moment to hoot loudly as I walked away. So I'm a bad person.

So smoking buddy starts following me. Meh. So I've got a new friend.

Then, just around the corner I spot two more smokers. These two suave and debonaire men about town are ensconced on the bench right by the main doors and right under the apparently hard to decipher no-smoking pictogram. They can't read - blame the teachers, natch.

I am that kind of O-C type who can't stop when I've started. Hey - what's two more baggy-pants skank hounds after you, more or less?

These two misspelled tatts, relaxed-waistband and lowered crotch types do indeed take offence to the picture taking. So seemingly sensitive, except when it comes to other peoples' needs, the social niceties, and their own aroma of wet ashtray and dog hair...

Anyhoo - they too follow, with kind and loud and simian-like offers to renovate my camera and my face.

I get to the Oakville Number 1 Bus and climb aboard. The two belt-below-bums stop at the doors and make threatening noises, but I think they were intimidated by the fact that everyone at the front of the bus was staring at us.

The original clueless Bozo gets on and goes to the back of the bus. I blow him a kiss and smile.

He's still there - trying hard to look like he somehow gained from the encounter - when I get off.

The upshot? Rude and idiotic sociopathic smokers at Oakville station, like herpes, crabs, crabgrass, malaria and Conservative administrations, keep turning up despite the wonders of modern antibiotics, pesticides, and dawning common sense...

In a week or so I will have no need of GO for a whole two months, but come September I'm going to go back. I might even bring friends. Given the lack of enforcement by GO the crop of puffers should be really photo worthy by then...

Illiterate Oakville smokers.

Prayers to Christmas baby Jesus pull through! Access to blog restored!

It was mentioned I should switch the Crazy Train to a WordPress platform ... I've been blogging since '97. I've tried all kinds of platforms and currently maintain a site on WordPress and it has its benefits. Blogger has its benefits. Nothing's perfect.


But here we are. Back to our regularly scheduled program and you know what's best to come back to? A good ol' Oakville Smokers Club update courtesy of Michael M.:

A gentle breeze wafts by the station - sadly lacking in the familiar cozy aroma of cigarette tar. There is not a scintilla of carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, acrolein, or nitrogen oxides in the air. Nothing much smells of the inviting aroma of wet ashtray.. The ground is mostly unlittered by those cute and friendly cigarette butts that just seem to call out "Hi Neighbour!"
 

The ol' Hangout of the Oakville GO Smoking Club, which was conveniently located by what used to be (in the "Good Ol' Days") the only non-smoking sign evident at the station, is unstaffed by familiar sight and smell of that sick-stick-sucking coterie of cigarette camaraderie. Gone is "Finger Guy", the "Lunch Pail Swinger", "Mr. Overdressed", and all the other Nicotine Nice Guys 'n' Gals who would gladly and generously share to the last gram all of the 60+ aireborne carcinogens they produced with anyone, even if they were not not asked...especially if they were asked not to....

I took these snaps on a recent morning after a week or two of (relatively) smoke free air around the station. The clubhouse area, as you can see, is abandoned. "El Presidente" and "Safety Guy" have taken up smoking on the fringes of a legal smoking area (the parking lot) far away from where I have to walk. Technically, they are still defying the bylaw, but since I don't have to smell them I can make every welcome effort to forget them.

The GO bus driver on the bus from which I took these pictures remarked that thses guys were standing pretty close to the door of the OT bus, so their smoke was probably wafting into the open door of the bus. I guess this is how they get their jollies for being "rebels". A bit of a bring down from posing and smoking in front of a no smoking sign...

I feel terrible for breaking up that ol'gang and interrupting such a fine tradition... really I do... LOL

Enforcement arrives at Oakville GO Station

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Sure, go ahead and disobey the sign but littering too?!

And the smokers keep "winning" at the Oakville GO Station ...

Michael's latest email to GO Transit and elected MPPs and Ministers:

Mxxxxxxx, Michael	7:29 AM (1 hour ago)
to Customer, kflynn.mpp.co, dmatthews.mpp.., bob, me

It has been a week since I last heard from your office. I would like to know if there is any progress in the investigation. If it is any help, I note that last week I observed, among others scattered on the platforms and property, smokers in front of the only large non-smoking sign on the GO Station property, four days out of five. This took no effort on my part - they were where they can usually be found at 6:10.

On Friday last I took these photos (attached) to document that the no smoking on GO station properety policy that GO transit has in place, is manifestly not enforced.

Yesterday, Monday, a gentleman was smoking right by the other side of the doors to the station. When I asked him to please desist he replied that there were no signs, so he had no way of knowing if it was legal to smoke or not. This is a quite reasonable response.

I ask again - where are the signs? Where is the enforcement? Where is anything that would amount to evidence to a detached and reasonable observer that GO transit takes its no smoking policy as anything but lip service?

I look forward to a reply, soonest.