Ride the PUJ and Watch out for this Guy!

Since I was on the brink of bankruptcy, I decided to take the public utility jeepney or the PUJ for short. I stay in Labangon so I have to take two jeepney rides and 1 pedicab ride, if I really wanted to, to get home.

So I was just minding my own business when the PUJ stopped at Capitol and took in a few more passengers in its already full capacity. I’ve always wondered when in the heck do these jeepney makers measure the width of their “standard” passengers buttocks – they always come up with crazy numbers for their full capacity. Well, this PUJ I was in can “ideally” carry up to 22 passengers, not including the front seat and the driver – according to our driver’s assistant, or the Konduktor as we call them in vernacular.

Back to Capitol. There came in this bulky guy, a bit old for normal men who’d look a bit bulging. I think he liked to go to the gym in his younger days, I estimated he was between 38 - 43 years old, just about 5 feet 6 inches in height. Or something. He slumped to his seat, forcing his bum on other passengers, mind you, and all the while complaining for the lack of space. Good thing one of the early passengers went down on the next turn, so he got a few more inches to stretch in.

The crazy thing was that he sat with his legs wide open – as if he had enough balls to fill in the space. He sat leaning forward, I didn’t know why he did. He just did. And he was clutching something, an envelop or a roll of paper. He was wearing glasses and a baseball cap, I was thinking he was a bit bald.

He talked aloud, asking other people to move their butts a bit so he can squeeze farther into the seat, parting his legs more, muttering things to himself, as if he owned the darn vehicle. I, on the other hand watched him mumble away. He looked at me, maybe he wanted to ask why I was staring, it was just that he was too annoyingly amusing not to watch.

A few more meters and almost half of the full PUJ capacity went off. So he got more space for himself. And it was my turn to snap a picture of him. Sorry I couldn’t get a clearer image but nonetheless, you can make out his face just the same. He was decently dressed too, a nice watch, clean shirt, baseball cap, glasses. You’d be convinced he was in his right mind.