Sunday, July 24, 2005
Strange Encounters
Observing Juli Meanwhile's recent success in generating discussion through her posts on mystery chickens and the history of TV dinners, I thought I' d give it a try by sharing some recent encounters on my walk to the library and back last Friday.
Everything started out normal as we exited the path through the woods into town, until we passed Tony's Shoe Repair where a woman came out and accosted me saying, "What's a person got to do in this town? I've been drugged and raped and now I've been served with legal papers. Something's gotta change. I mean, my karma's good."
I told her to hang in there; my dog wagged his tail.
Further on, a bicycling traveller living out of his backpack asked me if I knew of any good campsites in town, specifically in the city park behind the public library. I told him there were some old redwood stumps that might serve as a shelter from police patrols, and that the restrooms weren't too far off. He then asked if there were any electrical outlets nearby. I replied that since this was not a campground there were no hookups (for what I could only guess), and that it would probably be best to maintain a low profile.
Out of curiosity, I asked where he'd come from, and to my surprise he told me he'd rode a thousand miles from the same university town I used to live in near the Canadian border. Astonished by this coincidence, he asked, "I used to tow a lawnmower behind my bike there doing yard work. Maybe you remember seeing me. I also worked part-time at the comics store." Alas, I could not recall either, but wished him well on his journey.
After exchanging my supply of books for some new ones, Cosmo and I wandered through town and back into the woods to play in the creek before going home. And there on the trail where we'd passed an hour earlier was a duck, plucked and washed and ready for the oven, were it not for the fact it was frozen solid--in July--and not in any kind of wrapper or bag. A curiosity that puzzled us both.
Everything started out normal as we exited the path through the woods into town, until we passed Tony's Shoe Repair where a woman came out and accosted me saying, "What's a person got to do in this town? I've been drugged and raped and now I've been served with legal papers. Something's gotta change. I mean, my karma's good."
I told her to hang in there; my dog wagged his tail.
Further on, a bicycling traveller living out of his backpack asked me if I knew of any good campsites in town, specifically in the city park behind the public library. I told him there were some old redwood stumps that might serve as a shelter from police patrols, and that the restrooms weren't too far off. He then asked if there were any electrical outlets nearby. I replied that since this was not a campground there were no hookups (for what I could only guess), and that it would probably be best to maintain a low profile.
Out of curiosity, I asked where he'd come from, and to my surprise he told me he'd rode a thousand miles from the same university town I used to live in near the Canadian border. Astonished by this coincidence, he asked, "I used to tow a lawnmower behind my bike there doing yard work. Maybe you remember seeing me. I also worked part-time at the comics store." Alas, I could not recall either, but wished him well on his journey.
After exchanging my supply of books for some new ones, Cosmo and I wandered through town and back into the woods to play in the creek before going home. And there on the trail where we'd passed an hour earlier was a duck, plucked and washed and ready for the oven, were it not for the fact it was frozen solid--in July--and not in any kind of wrapper or bag. A curiosity that puzzled us both.
