The apartment building I live in is senior housing. One major plus is the van that we can take, for free, to dozens of events, shops, places, every month. While I do a lot of local shopping, I've relied on the van to take me to mseums, performances, and shops. Yesterday, I planned on going to Uwajimaya, Seattle's huge Asian specialty market (and food court).

The van driver is new. He showed up at 10 after 10 for a trip that was to leave at 10. We got to Uwajimaya at 11. I sat on the van for another 15 minutes. He was dreadful and I want him fired. Yeah. I really really don't say such things. I'm about to go write up the whole damn day for the new manager. She says he was carefully vetted. He is an ignorant person who cannot learn, will not or does not ask for help or advice, did not ask for my advice despite my being an expert. He had a day's training. Apparently he came to the job with no training in dealing with folks who use wheelchairs. None. Nada. Zip. Apparently it is not considered necessary. This is not a building for only people with disabilities but for people over a certain age. Many of us have disabilities. Several of us use wheelchairs. I sign up for things well in advance because I take up the space of four individuals on the van.

I'm not an omen-type person but I joked yesterday morning about not going because I kept dropping things in the kitchen and maybe it was a sign. I should have read the signs better when it turned out that the lift for the van was not responding to the electronic thingy. The guy had to call another staffer (who had had that job and boy did we want him back) and the other staffer showed him how to operate the lift manually. His job was to remember what Mike showed him and do it three more times - to get me OFF the van at the store, then back on and back home. He failed in every way.

One day's training should have stuck enough that he would remember to raise the seats on the van before using the lift, so there would be a space where the wheelchair goes. His training should have stuck enough to remember where the stick goes to raise and lower the lift manually (I saw him try to put it in five yes, five different slots on the lift. I asked him to fetch me a shopping cart that I could use and leave my wheelchair on the van. He came back with a regular shopping cart, claiming there were no scooters (which of course is what I meant) in the store. I mean fer crissakes, I use a power wheelchair. That tends to hint that I do not, cannot walk. He might have asked. If it were not for my friend Linda, who was on the trip with me, I would have probably had a breakdown of crying or screaming and been stuck on the van for two hours. Yes, there was a scooter. He never asked. When it came time to return it, he spent close to five minutes trying to remember how it worked - something he had learned two hours before. And he would not stick his head back in the van to ask me, or Linda or any other passenger.

At all times he apologized, thanking me for being patient. I was not. There is so much that he did wrong and I was enraged. I do not see that he can learn the job, with his appalling attitude and ignorance. I returned to the building and told management that as long as he was driving, I would never take another trip on the van. I cannot, will not, shall not, should not deal with that level of anger and frustration.