Score one for “the little guy”

I’m not sure if I’ve ever really discussed parking in Kyiv before. All you need to know is that it’s a free-for-all. Pretty much any place will do as a parking space - the sidewalk…the local park…partially blocking traffic… You get the idea. Today seems to be particularly bad in our neighborhood. Laika and I had trouble getting out of our building because of a car parked on the sidewalk directly in front of our door. Then we had to squeeze by two cars that had left just enough room on the sidewalk for me to pass by sideways (there’s a fenced lot next to our building). And when we got to the grassy area where Laika usually “does her business,” there was a huge black SUV parked in the middle of it.

So on the way back in, I suddenly heard a ruckus in front of our building. The blind guy that lives in our neighborhood was trying to walk down our street.

(Aside: Sometimes I see people in Kyiv, like our blind neighbor, and I just want to go up to them and ask, “how?” How do you live here where just being slightly different is enough to get you glared down in the street? And then deal with all the craziness that is Kyiv while also dealing with being who you are? But I don’t stop and ask. I just wonder about it. Mostly because I can’t say any of that in Russian.)

So anyway, he’s walking down the street swinging his white cane from side to side, as usual, and hitting a car every few feet. So it’s all CLUNK (building). CLUNK (car). CLUNK (fence). CLUNK (car). He finally gets to the end of the third car in a row and totally loses it. I watch (silently cheering in my head) as he raises his cane above his head and starts violently beating the hood of the third car. CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK! CLUNK! Car alarm. Then he puts his cane back to the sidewalk, and calmly continues on.

Score one for “the little guy.”