We've got your crazy, right here.

One of the interesting things about where I work is that we get customers from all walks of life. On occaision this can be very entertaining, other times very annoying and frustrating. Andrew is one of our "regular" customers. My friend Todd who works at a bike shop in Beverly Hills likes to talk about the crazy people he interacts with there. Well, I'll put Andrew up next to anything Todd can describe and I think he'll hold his own. Andrew can be seen riding around town on a 24" wheel bike from Target. It's the only bike he'll ride. His bike, like most everything he owns, is covered in paint. Layers and layers of paint. He says it makes thing more beautiful. I'm fairly certain the pigments in the paint aren't the only colors Andrew is seeing. He likes to ride the wrong way down streets-into traffic-at night without lights. He wears vinyl track suits all the time, even on the hottest, muggiest days of the year. And he smells like a gas station bathroom with broken plumbing. Some of Andrew's observations about life and the people he meets are quite intriguing, but getting him to stop talking about them and actually leave your store can be very agonizing. Often we end up helping him just to get him on his way so he doesn't scare the other customers. Andrew kinda makes me sad. Here's this guy who wasn't able to deal with his problems or cope in society on a normal level and turned to drugs. Now he doesn't have much of a mind left and exists in the margins of society. I don't know much more about him, I've tried to pry info from him, but that's frustrating, too. As much of a pain he can be, I worry that I'm going to read about him getting smeared on his bike on O Street someday.