Interesting situation indeed. If the person didn't realize your situation that can a factor, however, even if you were sighted this person appeared to be an aggressive pedestrian, probably an aggressive driver too. That is inexcusable. Common courtesy on the sidewalk is just the same when a person is in their vehicle. Seattle lacks drivers with common sense. Aggressive drivers cause more accidents than passive drivers. Just slow down, listen to your meditation tape, or just quit your job and quit driving!

Probably another drunk "hipster" that has infested the city like the rats and cockroaches. They really dont have much going for them unless you like the waif-look and like your pant cuffs rolled up mid-calf so the one can go clam digging at a moments notice from any Seattle watering hole. Feel sorry for them, I do.

Did anyone else read that title as "Even the blind can see YOUR butthole"?

@1 longwayhome: Amen.

But why couldn't your boyfriend pay attention? He let some woman ram into you on the street and didn't even defend you!

I bet she did not see that coming.

Very dark glasses on Capitol Hill are supposed to indicate that you are blind? Really? Nope, usually a fashion statement. And how come your boyfriend didn't say anything to her, steer you around her, steer her around you? Good sidewalk manners go both ways: groups of men or women or men and women spread out five and six abreast on a Pike or Pine sidewalk so that anyone coming the other way has to run head-on into a tree or step into the street are just rude, and usually deserve a "watch where you're going." Perhaps you wandered into her path, not the other way around. Why are you expecting her to be psychic? You probably looked like just any other asshole who expected everyone to step aside for them. Goes both ways. Who ran into who?

Easy solution, don't fold up the white cane, use it as a visual beacon for the rest of us.

Sunglasses alone aren't enough, most of the blind folks I've encountered have had sunglasses and either a cane or a dog.

Still not an excuse for a rude and nasty sidewalk witch, though, hopefully your boyfriend had a few choice words for her. "She's blind, you fucking moron!" comes to mind.

@3: Yes, I did.

@3, @9: Not me, but that's funny as hell.



Also, I kinda like the cuffed pant leg look! Not on me, though, unfortunately.

Butthole bumps into someone on a Capitol Hill sidewalk and that sets off a stream of profanity? How do you make it 3 blocks without losing your voice?

How is that an acceptable human reaction? Anonymous being blind is irrelevant.

Basic Capitol Hill walking demands head up observation...anything less and you might as well just drop your phone and wallet on the ground and leave them.

I would write this off as a GOOD encounter with Butthole. If their first reaction is screaming and anger...their PLANNED actions have to be much worse.

My neighbor is almost totally blind. He carries a white cane and gets around quite well if he sticks to his usual routes and habits. He is frustrated with his disability but it doesn't stop him from doing the things he wants to do. I give him rides to town and he goes about his merry way and when he's done he calls me and I go pick him up at a pre- arranged corner. If anonymous can't handle being blind and live in downtown Seattle then Anon should move to a suburb where they are more accepting of persons with disabilities.

Hipster number one bumps into hipster number two, hilarity ensues. Go have some fucking PBR, it's owned by Russia now, which should make it WAY more hip up there on The Hill.

$100 says the angry bitch was texting or Facebooking on her stupid smartphone. Probably the cause of 90% of accidents these days.

$100 says the angry bitch was texting or Facebooking on her stupid smartphone. Probably the cause of 90% of accidents these days.

$100 says the self-ritious blind lady expects the seas to part and people do kow tow before her. Pair of sun glasses tell people you're blind? What an entitled bitch.

@7: THIS.

@2 What an ugly world you inhabit.

@19, and the blind person is going to know you are talking to her…how exactly? Get off your entitlements and learn a little tolerance -- which includes your affirmative obligation to get out of the way of a blind person.

THE PROPER THING FOR ALL PARTIES TO DO, WHETHER THEY THINK THEY'RE AT FAULT OR NOT, IS TO SIMPLY SAY "EXCUSE ME" AND MOVE ON.

I'M COMMENTING IN CALL CAPS SO THAT THE ANONYMOUS POSTER CAN UNDERSTAND ME.

So you don't bother to use your white cane when walking with a sighted person but prefer to depend on him or her to stop you from running into things. Then you get angry when your companion fails at that job, not at your companion but at the person you run into. How about learning (or at least displaying) decent mobility skills?

@8 That does require using up more sidewalk space just to be more informative. Is it that hard for a sighted person to see a folded cane? Even folded, the segments should be long enough for the distinctive either all white or all white until the red tip to be visible. Having a cane unfolded does require some care to ensure it doesn't swing out anywhere you don't want it to go, and more coordination if you suddenly need to use your hand for anything like to scratch an itch. (And if both hands are occupied you will be itchy if you simply think about how annoying it would be to get an itch.)

@12 That's the stupidest comment in the thread. Sure, living in the suburbs is fine for people who can't drive if they have a personal chauffeur, but it turns out that you can't just move into the suburbs and draft people to drive you everywhere you need to go. Most blind people need to live in places with good public transit, which means cities. Or are you volunteering to drive all blind people to all errands and outings they want to go on if they move to the suburbs?

@7 Seattledyke "Good sidewalk manners go both ways"
Not true.
When a person CAN SEE, they have NO EXCUSE for not evading. A blind person, on the other hand, at least have a valid excuse.

BUT... NO ONE has an excuse for being a TOTAL CUNT.
Even if it IS par for the neighborhood...

@25
*has

Damn, what's with all the hate on the blind person? Accidents happen, but for a person with sight, who clearly bares responsibility for the run-in here, to react with anger toward a stranger? Fucking miserable.

If anyone should be banished to a less crowded space, it's the sighted, angry, shitty-at-walking, blame-everyone-else-for-her-fuck-up woman.

I am a sighted person with no mobility issues and good peripheral vision, and I still get people running into me sometimes because they are just that clueless.



A common scenario is that I will be walking straight on a sidewalk, on a perfectly predictable trajectory, when someone nearby staring at a phone will stop -- suddenly -- then dart -- suddenly -- in a totally new direction which happens to be into me. Then, when we collide, they'll glare like it's my fault.



I'm with Anonymous here.

Yeah, so maybe don't run into blind people. However, I will shoulder-ram people walking three abreast if none of them make room for me on the sidewalk. As a petite woman, dudes tend to think I'll walk into the street to avoid them. I won't, I will run into them. It's not because I'm not paying attention to where I'm going, it's because others don't see me as a valid enough human being to be given a fraction of sidewalk. Perhaps this lady's boyfriend should have helped make room for the passing pedestrian, rather than let his girlfriend get rammed by someone who has been shoved off the sidewalk too many times herself.

Yeah, I don't get the victim blaming here, either: "Hey, blind person, watch where you're going, bitch!"



Wow, really really awful, fucked up people in this world.

Someone with eyesight can see a folded-up white cane,dark glasses and the person is holding the arm of the person besides them, and maybe figure it out! Unless they are going too quickly.

As bad at driving as they are, Seattlites might actually be worse at walking and jogging. They act as though they are difficult to do, and people should clear out of their way.

Unless someone is clearly texting or taking a selfy when they bump into you the only thing you should say is, "Oh my, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened are you okay?" It's as hard as opening your mouth, breathing, and talking less loudly then angrily shouting.

Now if someone IS texting or taking a selfy and bumps into you, you laugh at them and shake your head while walking away.

Lastly, if the person taking the selfy somehow times the photo so perfectly that it coincides with the bump and actually records the entire incident, you stop, ask if you can see it, and laugh at how awesome something so random and annoying worked out so funnily. Then you share the story with all your friends and remind them not to text and walk on a busy street.

:-)

I don't normally keep a running tally of what other people are holding onto, carrying, or wearing when I'm out and about. The onus is on Anon's (SIGHTED) boyfriend to keep others from running into them if they're going to be using him as the mobility device rather than the cane.

@32 What are you talking about? Isn't it the people that are in the way the ones that don't know what they're doing?

I, too, am mystified by blind people's inability to watch where they're going as well as everyone else. What are they, blind?