What have you seen in your neighborhood recently that made you say WTF?

[twickster]

Yesterday I headed out to run a few errands, and passed a couple walking their dogs -- two standard poodles, one white, one black, each with the pom-pom haircut I've never seen except in '50s magazines before.

[NoClueBoy]

All week last week, I saw this one nicely cute blonde girl excerwalking along the road I was taking thru the neighbourhood where my latest project was. Okay, not odd yet, right?

She has HUGE tits. Nice, natural shape. Pointy nipples. Ponderous masses of lovely woman flesh. And totally unsupported. Just a bouncin, swayin, jigglin... Underneath virtually sheer, tiny, skimpy tops.

Maybe not so weird afteral, eh? She likes to show off maybe. And DAMN has she got something to show off! Every morning last week, I saw her. Walking towards me in one direction as I drove the other. Smile and wave. She smiles back. I drive real slow...

She's got a great ass, too. And her choice of shorts shows that asset nicely.





What was the question?

[Tuco]

I saw a pheasant sat down on the pavement (sidewalk) the other day. Normally they're stood up or walking about, but this one was just sat down. Looked really odd and I took a double take.

[ftg]

Canadian Geese have established a presence nearby. Driving along and then you gotta slow down to wait for them to cross the road. It's a 25MPH zone that people go 50 in. This is not going to go well.

[AuntiePam]

You know that wireless commercial with all the things that are supposed to look like bars on your phone? A flight of birds, tractors in a field, etc.?

There's a set of four grain bins on my route to work that look just like that. I always WTF -- why they didn't put up two tall ones instead of four different sizes.

[Zebra]

What was the question?



The 'W' stands for What, not Who.


I didn't see it but I heard gunshots a few nights ago.

[Savannah]

A white peacock (okay, peahen) has been hanging around our neighbourhood since July. She really liked the one kind of birdseed I got, but I haven't stumbled on the same brand again, and she stalks around, looking mightily displeased with the substandard stuff I have now.

It's quite odd to see a white peacock wandering around one's driveway, backyard and roof.

[Spongemom]

Coming home about a week ago, around 9:30 pm, I came upon two guys under a car, the way guys get down on their backs and scootch under a car to work on it, that's the way they were laying. There was no one coming from the other direction, so I drove all the way over to the left curb to pass them. After I got around them and back in my lane, I looked in the rearview mirror and realized there was no light under the car. No spotlight, no flashlights, no lamp, no nothing. Weird.

[Zsofia]

I think I was the thing you see in your neighborhood that makes somebody go WTF. I'm just moving into this house with these dreadful compacted gravel infested flower beds that line the walkway, and I'm trying this lasagna bed thing where you don't have to dig. So you start out with newspaper or cardboard which you get good and wet and put down as your first layer to kill the grass or the weeds. And these two kids walk by with a basketball, on the way to the park I guess, and I overhear, "That white lady's watering her cardboard!"

So evidently I'm already established as the neighborhood crazy.

[delphica]

In Manhattan about a week ago, I was walking down W. 12th Street and saw a guy walking toward me and I swear I thought he was walking next to a pony. Not even a Shetland pony, this was too big to be a Shetland, it was more like a Highland pony. When I got closer, I realized it was a Great Dane. Now I know that Great Danes are large dogs, but this was the single largest Great Dane I have ever seen, either in person or in photos. It was Guinness Record kind of large.

So, as I passed the guy, I said (I'm very non-threatening looking, and I said this pleasantly) "My gosh, from the other end of the street, I thought you were walking a pony!" and he gave me this very confused, puzzled look.

I think that was the real "WTF?" moment -- it's one thing to see a very large dog, but the guy didn't seem to realize that his dog was very large. What, like he hasn't noticed?

[kittenblue]

Not my exact neighborhood, but on my way to work in downtown Cleveland one morning we saw this attractive woman, dressed in a full skirt, heels, sitting at a table on the sidewalk drinking coffee and holding on to two leashes, at the ends of which were two little fluffy dogs. The whole scene looked so....French, or Italian...but definitely not Cleveland! Sidewalk tables? Someone looking like that actually living downtown? And the weather being nice at the same time? Too bizarre for words! My daughter and I both looked at each other at the same time and said, "where are we?"

[smaft]

Passing by the local Fred Meyer's garden center the other day, I saw they had a large display of mums for sale. Eight-inch or so pots filled with blooms and wrapped in foil for display/giving. Sticking up from the center of each one, bundled with white tape, were three or four stalks of wheat.

The sign said, "Mums w/Wheat." I said, "WTF?"

[Brynda]

Next to our house, the builders left a lot houseless, and left the trees on it. It is low, so I presume they left it for drainage. Between the trees and the street, there is a bare lot the size of a small front yard. It was filled with tall weeds and had stakes around it, but a few weeks ago, the builders tilled it, took down the stakes, and planted grass. The idea is that there will be a small, flat place filled with grass in front of the trees--think tiny park. Ok, here's the WTF--one of our neighbors parks on it. Drives over the curb in his honking truck and parks on it. It is across from his house, and he has too many cars for his short drive, but still!!!!!

[twickster]

So evidently I'm already established as the neighborhood crazy.

Begin as you mean to go on -- that's my motto. ;)

[DiosaBellissima]

... So, as I passed the guy, I said (I'm very non-threatening looking, and I said this pleasantly) "My gosh, from the other end of the street, I thought you were walking a pony!" and he gave me this very confused, puzzled look.

I think that was the real "WTF?" moment -- it's one thing to see a very large dog, but the guy didn't seem to realize that his dog was very large. What, like he hasn't noticed?

Speaking as a dane owner: you get so many "OMIGAWDDDD is that a HORSE?!?" that it stops being funny after a short while. It's nothing personal, I assure you. Sometimes all the comments are funny, nice, etc- most of the time I am just trying to walk my Scooby in peace. And I realize Mr. Scooby is quite large, so large we have to drive him in the SUV because he can't fit in the regular car ;) .

The weirdest thing that I've seen? The other day, I looked up in the trees in my neighbors yard to see a flock of birds. Normally, this would be no issue, but these weren't wild looking birds. (I know nothing about birds, so forgive me).

These birds were green with red bellies, pretty big, singing and vocalizing. I think they may have had some yellow on their head or tails. Seems to me like these birds were the kind that people keep as pets.

I just have no idea where they came from. I can understand one or two pet birds getting loose, but 12?

[Pixisis]

I can understand one or two pet birds getting loose, but 12?


after they get loose, they do ... erm ... what comes naturally. :D

there are now flocks of wild parakeets in CT all from escaped pets and their offspring.

[Batsinma Belfry]

Yesterday, my neighbor had her mini- blinds open and I noticed she was using an American flag as a curtain.

[fishbicycle]

Last Thursday, it was the big, black dog that bolted off the front porch of his house and tore after me at full gallop, barking and growling and snarling, as I rode my bike up to the bus stop. I had to pedal so hard, the chain came off my bike and I coasted at top speed into a blind intersection - you can't see anything coming on the left due to a curve, or on the right due to overgrowth. The only reason I'm still here is because there were no cars coming at that moment.

I am filing an affadavit of complaint and a petition to have that dog declared dangerous. What if that had been a little kid riding by?

[DiosaBellissima]

after they get loose, they do ... erm ... what comes naturally. :D

there are now flocks of wild parakeets in CT all from escaped pets and their offspring.

Heh, well I know that ;) but the birds were all about the same size. Actually, it was sorta eerie- like a bad horror movie.

[Giant_Spongess]

Well, right now I'm on a college campus--so there's so much weird shit all the time that it's commonplace, if that makes sense--but last month when I was still at home, there was a weird disturbance at 5 in the morning. It sounded like a cross between a snivelling child and screeching tires, and kept travelling up and down the block. I figure it must have been an owl, but it was mighty confusing.

[Shoeless]

There is a house a few blocks away from us where you can see a phone booth sticking up from behind the corner of their privacy fence. Seriously, every time I see it, I think "WTF are they doing with a phone booth in the back yard?"

[Sine Nomine]

A little while back I was waiting at a bus stop when one of the other passengers-to-be suddenly exclaimed, "What is that guy doing?" I followed her gaze and saw a car stopped in the road. The driver had opened his door and reached down to place a glass bottle (very neatly, right-side up) at the beginning of the white line where the single lane split into a left-turn lane and a straight lane. I'd turned in time to see him pull his hand back and drive off. Even odder, as I noticed after the driver was gone -- it was a beer bottle, about two-thirds full. He was drinking and driving and had a change of heart? Or what?

Another recent incident happened as I was walking up to my friend's apartment building one morning a few weeks ago. She lives in Minneapolis, in a neighborhood that is not remotely rural. I happened to glance in the front yard of the building next to hers and saw a pair of live chickens! I've never seen them before or since.

[Queen Bruin]

I have had so many WTF moments at my house that they all seem normal now.

[ladyfoxfyre]

I was sitting outside talking on the phone one night. Nothing really weird, I live in a pretty nice neighborhood. Some guy randomly walking down the street. I'm sitting near my truck. Guy walks past me, says "Hey,what's up" and looks like he's going to keep going. Then he stops and goes "Do you need any weed?" "No." "Okay cool."
Keeps walking.

:confused:

-foxy

[Catfood Purrito]

Apparently I was the weirdo once. I like to take my cats outside on leashes sometimes. They enjoy playing in the grass and sniffing the air and pouncing on bugs and all that. So one early morning, about 2 a.m., I'm sitting outside with George on his leash, and there was a car full of teenage kids parked in front of my apartment building. Suddenly, I hear one of them yell, "oh my GOD! That girl has a CAT on a LEASH!"

I didn't think it was THAT weird...

[soulmurk]

Every morning on my drive to work I pass a house in one of those neighborhoods where all the houses look about the same (except that one with the midnight blue/black border paint job that just looks so cool), and one of the houses has a large, pink piece of cardboard or something blocking out the big bay window. And every morning I catch it out of the corner of my eye and do a double take and wonder what they heck it's there for.

The complex I live in has specific areas dedicated as dog walking areas, generally consisting of a 20'x15' stretch of grass along the fence the keeps all the weirdos out. They even have a little station with bags and a trash can so you can clean up after your pet and toss the result of the walk. The other day I was letting my dog sniff around as he's wont to do, and noticed he was taking an interest in one area in particular. No big deal I thought, he's a hound, he lives to sniff. As it was beginning to rain, I gave his leash a gentle tug to move him along before we got soaked and I noticed what it was he was sniffing at. As you might have guessed, it was poop someone hadn't cleaned up. But it wasn't dog poop. It was human.

And my first thought was, "WTF?! The baggies and trash are right there!"

[Larry Mudd]

The day before yesterday I was coming back from the bank and found a man lying on the sidewalk. His eyes were closed, but he was responsive, if dazed. He said he couldn't get up because he weighed 400 pounds. No WTF for that-- but a huge WTF for everybody who was studiously pretending he didn't exist. Half-a-dozen people waiting for the bus about seven feet away -- a shopkeeper standing at his door who acknowledged the man's existence by scowling -- people going from A to B and stepping around him.

I called an ambulance and held it together while I waited for the few minutes it took for them to show up. The guy was diabetic but wasn't sure how his blood sugar was. He was also wearing a nitroglycerin patch for his heart. He was on his way to a doctor's appointment and just went over.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I know the score: He was native, so everyone was just ignoring the "dirty drunk."

I think my emotional stress level was pretty far up there from watching CNN constantly for the past two days, but it pushed me over the edge and I just about lost it when I got home.

WTF?

[C3]

In the neighborhood we used to live in, we had a neighbor who put a huge guillotine out on his driveway. It looked like it could work. Shortly after, he was arrested for hiring a hitman to kill his business partner, having a forged passport (he was English), and having illegal guns.

[thirdname]

I sometimes go on walks after dark. It's a safe neighborhood, but I still don't use a flashlight for the same reason that you don't use active sonar, and so I can see the stars better. I usually see a lot more deer than people. One night a large animal was walking straight towards me in the middle of the street and making grunting sounds. I retreated and put a mailbox between myself and the creature.

As he walked past, I said to the old man "I thought you were a deer for a second there." He didn't reply. I was embarassed, thinking I might have looked like a cartoon character hiding behind a narrow tree.

I also saw a guy ride a bicycle at a fair clip past me with no lights, on the darkest part of the path. It seemed rather dangerous.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Early this morning, I went out to the elevated boardwalk over the wetlands at our local children's science museum. A nifty place, for I've seen everything from foxes to river otters there.

And I was stunned to find somebody sleeping there. On the ground.

He was a young man, 20-ish. Very pale, shaven, with a goatee. Looked like a fairly well-groomed college kid. He had a backpack (used as a pillow), a gallon jug of water (or some clear liquid), and a bicycle.

What's odd is that trail has cameras all long it, & the cops don't let anybody there after dark.

He was so pale that I walked to the local police station, & asked them to do a welfare check on the kid.

I didn't approach the kid, as it is a very lonely & isolated spot.

He's just not like the local homeless/vagrant population. I simply can't account for him. :confused: :confused: :confused:

[rocking chair]

in the big city you see many things, you start to get over the "huh" moment.

this summer i've seen thomas jefferson (yes, the red headed president) twice. one time he was walking down the street listening to his ipod. the next time he was getting out of his car going into a restaurant.

both times i did a " did i just see...." double take.

i also enjoy the corner bagpiper. he has heads swiveling blocks away, trying to figure out where "that sound" is. people look around, and at each other, but seem to be very reluctant to ask if anyone else is hearing bagpipes.

[carlotta]

Ooo, I've been waiting for this thread.

So, close to my immediate neighborhood is a busy 4 way stop sign intersection with houses on each corner.

One day, one of the houses has A WHOLE OTHER HOUSE sitting in the front yard with it's back to the intersection. The oddest thing about this whole other house is that it does not look like the kind of house you can just pick up and move. It appears to have several randomly added additions of different colors and sidings on the back. It is two stories (in parts) and has a two story front porch.

So, there it sits for a month or more and then is one day in a different spot, next to the first house, facing front to the street and now several weeks later a brick footing (don't know the right word) is being built around it's base.

[NinjaChick]

Well, I too am living on a college campus, so weird is sort of the status quo. However:

Overheard between two guys leaving the laundry room this morning: "Oh, so that's probably why I can't knock the wall down!"

A guy came into the cafeteria for dinner tonight with a saucepan on his head like a hat. He proceeded to ask the utterly-bewildered server to scoop some meat and potatos into it.

All-time favorite: Last winter on a Wednesday night. I'm lying on my bed, reading for class. I hear the door to the building open and the unmistakable stamped of several college guys entering. They pound on someones door, and the next thing I hear is a truly ecstatic "Whoo-hoo! More Jello!!!"

[Scott Plaid]

A guy came into the cafeteria for dinner tonight with a saucepan on his head like a hat. He proceeded to ask the utterly-bewildered server to scoop some meat and potatos into it.As he was a small man, his bartered clothing usually fit him poorly. This led to some of the humorous descriptions of his appearance in those early years. Like many of the settlers, he went barefooted a great deal because shoes were hard to come by and seldom fit his tough gnarled feet. As he ate no meat, he carried a stewpot or kettle with him. In this he could gather nuts or berries in season, carry water, get milk from a settler's cow, boil potatoes, or drop a handful of coarse-ground meal into the boiling water to make an unpalatable but nourishing meal. He has been pictured wearing such a pot on his head, but more likely he kept it tied to his pack rather than let it bounce on his head.Linky (http://www.millville.org/Workshops_f/Dich_FOLKLORE/WACKED/story.html) .

So, on top of all that, he was a time traveler too?

[delphica]

Speaking as a dane owner: you get so many "OMIGAWDDDD is that a HORSE?!?" that it stops being funny after a short while. It's nothing personal, I assure you. Sometimes all the comments are funny, nice, etc- most of the time I am just trying to walk my Scooby in peace. And I realize Mr. Scooby is quite large, so large we have to drive him in the SUV because he can't fit in the regular car ;) .

Heh, you know, as the words were coming out of mouth, I was thinking to myself "Sheesh, this poor guy probably gets this all the time." so I was expecting maybe an eye roll or maybe even just ignoring me, but he seriously looked completely perplexed ... maybe more like he didn't speak English? (this possibility is just occurring to me now) Always possible in New York!

In Brooklyn, we've got a wild herd (yeah, I guess that should be flock) of parrots, presumably escaped parrots that have found each other. The first time I saw them, my jaw dropped!

[Larry Mudd]

Other WTF things around my neighborhood: There's the Pho place that has a big crudely-painted mural of a skyline, with the legend: "The City Where Dreams Come True." The skyline's most prominent features are the CN Tower and the Skydome. (It's a Toronto skyline.) WTF?

Not recent, but: Ladder Guy (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5103047). He's still at it. He had a fall earlier this year that kept him off the ladder for a while -- instead he stayed at the base of the ladder and sent his teenaged son up in his stead. I can only imagine what his wife thought of that.

[ZipperJJ]

There is a house a few blocks away from us where you can see a phone booth sticking up from behind the corner of their privacy fence. Seriously, every time I see it, I think "WTF are they doing with a phone booth in the back yard?"

Your neighbor is Superman, obviously.



A week ago I was on my way to karate - a short route that takes me past the local rec center. When i passed the rec center, I saw a dude lying in the ditch next to the enterance with his bike. The bike looked neatly placed on the ditch incline, and dude looked like he was also neatly placed with his legs jackknifed and his arms at his side.

On first glance, noting all the gear on his bike and the fact that he had a big beard and big bushy hair, i thought maybe he was just a hippie biker who'd been using the bike lane and found this to be a good shady spot to take a nap. Then I thought maybe he had been hurt. OR maybe there was a bus stop there at the rec center (now that I think of it, i think the stop is IN the parking lot, not on the road.)

I didn't want to call 911 since I only had a cell and wasn't sure there'd been an accident (wasn't sure who i'd be connected with). Then I couldn't remember our police's regular number. xxx-1234 - but we have 2 local area codes. And do they answer that phone at 5:30?

I decided to take a look to see if he was still there at my return at 6:30 but it slipped my mind. I am such a bad citizen :(

[robardin]

A little while back I was waiting at a bus stop when one of the other passengers-to-be suddenly exclaimed, "What is that guy doing?" I followed her gaze and saw a car stopped in the road. The driver had opened his door and reached down to place a glass bottle (very neatly, right-side up) at the beginning of the white line where the single lane split into a left-turn lane and a straight lane. I'd turned in time to see him pull his hand back and drive off. Even odder, as I noticed after the driver was gone -- it was a beer bottle, about two-thirds full. He was drinking and driving and had a change of heart? Or what?
What makes you think the beer bottle was 2/3rds full of beer?

[Laughing Lagomorph]

...

The weirdest thing that I've seen? The other day, I looked up in the trees in my neighbors yard to see a flock of birds. Normally, this would be no issue, but these weren't wild looking birds. (I know nothing about birds, so forgive me).

These birds were green with red bellies, pretty big, singing and vocalizing. I think they may have had some yellow on their head or tails. Seems to me like these birds were the kind that people keep as pets.

I just have no idea where they came from. I can understand one or two pet birds getting loose, but 12?

California is one of the states that is known to have large populations of several types of introduced parrots. Florida does as well.

It's generally accepted in the birdwatching community that some introductions of exotic birds into North America have happened when entire flocks of birds were accidentally released from damaged shipping containers at airports and such. Also, the conventional wisdom on the introduction of the House Finch to eastern North America is that some of them were released en masse by unscrupulous pet dealers when authorities started cracking down on them (it wasn't legal to sell them as pets). This type of thing has probably happened more than once and could explain how you might see an entire flock of exotic birds of the same type and size.

[interface2x]

Last week I saw a Hummer drive down the street with one of those Dominoes Pizza delivery lights on top of it. That was a serious WTF.

[gfloyd]

So I'm relatively new in town, so I assume that the quaint little building in downtown that says "City Hall" in big letters is well, the city hall. There were work crews there, so I figured they were revamping it, as the cornerstore says 1938 on it. Then one day, there was a big banner stretched across it annoucing the opening of a new resturant. I could not figure this out. A resturant sharing office space with the mayor and clerk, WTF?

Then someone politely explained to me that city hall moved several years ago to the ugly municple building and that the old city hall had been various things, including a hallowen store, since then.

[Penchan]

As I was driving home from work last night, I saw a deer nonchalantly walking along the sidewalk, admiring the area. A few people were behind and in front of the deer and didn't seem disturbed to see a deer walking around at 11pm at night. I suppose it's expected since we're at the base of the Berkeley hills but dude, there's a deer walking around the neighborhood that's not disturbed by people or vehicles. :dubious: I guess I'm too much of a city girl to not be shocked by seeing wildlife hanging around my house.

[Shirley Ujest]

We have our token crazy guy that rides a bicycle year round around here.

His head protection? A goalie's mask.

Oh, and for some bizarre reason, someone put a rubber pigs head on the end of an address post. It's very odd and funny at the same time.

[SolGrundy]

The other morning I went outside at about 1:30 am to have a cigarette, and there was a guy hiding behind the steps to the neighboring apartment, wearing only a T-shirt, boxer shorts, and socks, and holding a baseball bat. When he heard me come out, he started giggling and skipped away a couple doors down the block. He came back a few minutes later and hid behind the same steps, then snuck over to stand behind a van, all the time holding the bat.

I eventually realized he was waiting for one of his buddies to come out so he could jump out and surprise him, so I stood around waiting for the payoff. But a few minutes later, a guy came down the block holding a beer bottle, then looked at hiding bat guy and just pointed at him. And bat guy didn't jump out or anything, he just came out from behind the van and followed his friend back to the apartment. What a let-down.

[DMark]

I live in Las Vegas. Kind of hard to pick that special WTF moment. Just walk The Strip a few minutes and you will have your own moment.

However, the other day this (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.arizonensis.org/images/vertibrata/HarrisGS.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.arizonensis.org/sonoran/places/lookout.html&h=565&w=678&sz=75&tbnid=tDEZXnT1tfsJ:&tbnh=114&tbnw=137&hl=en&start=7&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddesert%2Bsquirrels%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN) was on my back patio, on it's hind legs, using it's front legs to shield the sun and was looking in the glass door. Imagine a person peering through a window. Just as calm as could be, I watch as it "cased out the joint".

[DMark]

My link above is not as good as I hoped, but click on the picture of the squirrel like animal in the box at the top of the screen. That was my little voyeur.

[Beware of Doug]

A few people were behind and in front of the deer and didn't seem disturbed to see a deer walking around at 11pm at night. I suppose it's expected since we're at the base of the Berkeley hills but dude, there's a deer walking around the neighborhood that's not disturbed by people or vehicles.Deer can make inroads into populated areas. As unpopulated ones get built over, I guess it becomes all the same to them (either that or NY State just has a lot more deer).

I was a little put off by seeing a doe in broad daylight here recently - like, was she sick? - but maybe that's just the next step in their eventual taming. They do carry the Lyme tick here, however, so it's a real concern to people.

[DMark]

I forgot to mention - when I was living in West Hollywood, CA I saw a guy hitchhiking on Santa Monica Boulevard.
No big deal?
It was about 2 in the afternoon and he was wearing a jeans jacket, sneakers and a jock strap. Nothing else.

That was odd, even for West Hollywood.

[Sarah Woodruff]

Several things I've noticed on my way to work:

There is a strange, 80's type moss-covered building with reflective windows near the City end of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. One of the windows has had its reflective coating scraped off and someone has stuck a "ONE WAY" traffic sign there instead - and modified it by putting the word JESUS underneath thusly:

ONE
WAY
JESUS

Also, the roof of another building nearby has a permanently lit TAXI sign perched on the edge nearest the Bridge exit. It's like a modern art installation or something.

[stpauler]

We've got the "beauty queen" downtown here. A woman in her 50s-60s, wearing a sparkling gown (she has many), done up to the nines, and wearing a sash with no lettering. She wanders the streets.

[Greywolf73]

A few years ago my dad found a man lying in the road in front of my parents' driveway. He only had his head out of the road and the rest of his body was stretched across the highway lane. My dad stopped and got out, think the guy was dead. But no, he was just extremely drunk and said he'd laid down "to take a nap". On the highway. :confused: :eek: Seems that his friends had dumped him out of the car a few miles from home.

My dad got him up, put him in the truck and drove him to the nearest gas station so the man could call someone to pick him up.

A few days later my parents saw the same guy walking along the side of the highway. Luckily, he was walking and not taking a nap this time.

[marque elf]

Not long ago I saw a car sitting at a traffic light. It's hubcaps/wheel covers were rotating backwards even though the car was not moving. As a side effect of a medicine that I take, I do get visual hallucinations, stuffing flashing by the corner of my eye or floating upward out of my field of vision. I thought for a moment that I'd graduated to the big leagues of hallucinations. I've always kind of wanted to see pink elephants but I realized this was future shock instead. Darn!

[bittersweet]

My "WTF" moment was when my next door neighbor decided to mow her lawn at 8:00am Saturday morning. And yeah, her lawn is right next to my bedroom window.

Bitch.

[pinkfreud]

On Saturday afternoon I heard some loud, booming music outside. I opened the front door to see what was going on. As I expected, it was a "boom car," one of those cars with a huge, powerful stereo blasting music that rattles the chandeliers and blows the birds outta the trees. But this boom car was playing grand opera. Instead of the usual rap or rock, Mozart's Don Giovanni was pulsing out of the car.

[plnnr]

I live in Central Virginia, so you can imagine my surprise when my daughter came inside and said, "Daddy, there's an ostrich in our yard."

A neigbhoring farm is a sort of animal shelter (the people take in abused or unwanted animals) and they had recently obtained an emu. I went outside and the damn thing was wandering across the yard. They have some pretty nasty looking feet and I didn't want to get kicked, so I called the neighbors and asked if they had misplaced their emu.

[Anaamika]

The weirdest thing I had was we had a (small) fire in the office last week. As we were being evacuated, we overheard a snippet of conversation, "It's a fire! Just like in Larry's office, last year!"

Which led us to wonder:

1) Who was Larry?
2) Why did he set his office on fire?
3) Why was there another fire just like it?
4) Spontaneous combustion?

[Q.N. Jones]

In the new housing development they're erecting down the road from us, the developer commissioned an artist to make a piece of sculpture to put on the "island" at the center of a traffic circle. The art was "pornographic," according to the residents, because it had pictures of naked women on it. I said WTF for two reasons: one, naked women in art doesn't automatically make it pornography, and two, why would a developer of a neighborhood meant for families with small children commission such a sculpture, when the result was so predictable?

Upon hearing of this, my mom and I immediately went over to see the "pornographic" sculpture. When we got there, we found a worker there sanding the images off the (otherwise ugly) sculpture.

My mom (a 60 year old librarian) rolled down the window and yelled, "Hey, I'm here to see the porno! Where's the porno?!?"

The worker laughed so hard I thought he'd wet himself.

[Mr. Goob]

A neighbor of mine (chronicly underemployed and habitually drunk) collected colored bowling balls for years. Originally they were spaced out under the bushes along the front of his house.

Eventually he had enough and built a three foot tall pyramid of bowling balls on his front lawn. Odd, but not as tacky as it could have been.

The WTF moment was the morning this summer when they were gone. Somebody in the middle of the night carted off a couple dozen bowling balls.

Poor guy was heartbroken and still tears up whenever somebody mentions it.

[Tiggrkitty]

I saw a pair of Mallard ducks (one male, one female) sitting in a neighbors yard. The odd thing is, there isn't a pond, lake, creek or river within 6 miles of our house.

I guess they got tired of flying and just landed there for a break? Who knows.

[cher3]

I walk along a scenic coastal route in the mornings and there is a big rock right off the cliffs where cormorants and pelicans like to roost. Some time ago, someone took to putting large sculptures of random objects on the top of it from time to time. We've had a giant crab, an Easter Island head, a festive Christmas tree, among other things. Eventually they fall apart or get taken down. I'm not sure how they get out there. The rock is very tall and steep.


Yesterday was the debut of a large orange-winged pterodactyl. The birds were avoiding the place, for some reason.

[cowgirl]

Ah, so many ... I love my neighbourhood. Hilights include:

A fellow in a wheelchair (a 3-wheeler of some sort) who gets pulled around in it (at high speeds) by his three beautiful huskies. The first time I WTF-ed, but I've grown accustomed to him now.

A man holding a ball of crack the size of a softball.

A fellow in a McDonald's parking lot, chasing the manager around with his cane and yelling obscenities.

A real life racoon family drama, cumulating in a Winnie-the-Pooh situation involving a fat-assed outsider and the stovepipe entrance to the family home.

An oppossum. (Yes, in Toronto.) I didn't actually see the coyote that was in my neighbourhood a few years ago, so that one doesn't count.

Rex Murphy (http://cbccountrycanada.ca/images/photo_checkup.jpg). Twice.

[zoid]

I forgot to mention - when I was living in West Hollywood, CA I saw a guy hitchhiking on Santa Monica Boulevard.
No big deal?
It was about 2 in the afternoon and he was wearing a jeans jacket, sneakers and a jock strap. Nothing else.

That was odd, even for West Hollywood.

OMG/LOL - this is SOOOO my halloween costume this year!

[MagicEyes]

Rex Murphy (http://cbccountrycanada.ca/images/photo_checkup.jpg). Twice.Thanks. I'm gonna have nightmares tonight, for sure.

The weirdest thing I've seen in my neighborhood is a rabid housebreaking raccoon. There's a reason why they wear those little bandit masks.

[Future Londonite]

All of last month has been a wtf moment............5 of the 11 houses on our street sold the day the "For Sale" sign went up!!! And housing doesn't go cheap around here, sale prices ranged from $470K to $600K.......

While waiting for the bus each day at 8am sharp this 70yo transvestite walks his/her dog wearing nothing but a black miniskirt (more microskirt) and a black tight top (when it's winter he/she wears still wears the skirt with a huge mink over it) - the number of doubletakes people in cars make is worth it

[Tamryne]

Squirrels and birds. Everywhere.

I usually eat outside after class on t/th, and as I sat down on my usual bench I noticed a few birds behind me. I started eating and they inched up on me, twittering and eyeing my food. So, I tore up a waffle fry and began tossing pieces at them. Within minutes, the group of birds and squirrels grew from no more than five to twenty or so. And they JUST KEPT COMING!
It was like a bad remake of The Birds, just including squirrels. As I was woofing down what was left of my food one of the squirrels became impatient/bold. Bold as in he jumped on the bench beside me and sat there less than a foot from my leg; staring, not moving, at my food. A second squirreld was also crawling around under the bench, popping out to look at me then darting back under again. I eventually just tossed what was left of my food at the mob and beat a hasty retreat. I really pity the guy that sat down on the bench a few moments after I left...

I knew that the animals here were bold, but that was a serious WTF moment today.

[Wallet]

In Brooklyn, we've got a wild herd (yeah, I guess that should be flock) of parrots, presumably escaped parrots that have found each other. The first time I saw them, my jaw dropped!

Delphica, sorry to bother, but have you seen any parrots lately? I haven't seen any since last April - really weird! The giant eagle-sized nests are still all over, but not a monk's head parrot in sight. Please let me know - I'm worried about those noisy guys!

Keeping to the thread, a few weeks ago I saw Jesus walking in East New York. It was about 8 in the morning, and he was crossing a busy intersection - robe, sandals, crown of thorns, etc.
Didn't notice anyone experiencing the Rapture, so I continued on to work....
-Wallet-

[Yorikke]

A little while back I was waiting at a bus stop when one of the other passengers-to-be suddenly exclaimed, "What is that guy doing?" I followed her gaze and saw a car stopped in the road. The driver had opened his door and reached down to place a glass bottle (very neatly, right-side up) at the beginning of the white line where the single lane split into a left-turn lane and a straight lane. I'd turned in time to see him pull his hand back and drive off. Even odder, as I noticed after the driver was gone -- it was a beer bottle, about two-thirds full. He was drinking and driving and had a change of heart? Or what?



Umm.. perhaps he had to pee, and didn't want to spill it in his car?

Someone who knows...

G

[Synthetic Reality]

I've lived in my neighboorhood for over a year now, and I like to think that I know most of my immediate neighbors. The couple across the street, an elderly couple, was that strange type that keeps the lights down low and doesn't come out much except to pay the landscapers. The type that goes to bed at 6 or 7 and what not.

A couple weeks ago I started noticing that a front room light on behind a red vieled curtin and the wife of said couple skulking around in the shadows, this occured for about a week. Nothing to big there, maybe just insomnia or something...the WTF part was the day after the last time i noticed the lights on, an ambulence was parked in front of their house. Aparently the husband had died in his sleep from "unknown" reasons. At least thats what the neighbors were told. That weeked all the "old" funriture in their house was either sold, given away, or trashed and then new furniture, paint, etc, was put in its place.

I can only hope otherwise but am I living across the street from a murderer or a sweet old lady.....WTF....

[Yorikke]

About 3 months ago, I was driving down a fairly low-income yet normal street in Visalia, CA, and saw a guy on a lawn chair, in the middle of a nice lawn, taking a monster hit off a crack pipe. Somewhat out of place.

George

[Tower Dweller]

When I first moved here, I used to like to walk down this alley to my apartment. I stopped dead in my tracks the first time I saw the Silver Bus.

It looked like an old CTA bus, coated in flat silver paint, with all the windows covered with wire mesh or peices of sheet metal. It was layered in crazy grafiti, and there was an old air-conditioner installed in the side. The doorway was protected with one of those drag-accross metal doors you see on pawn shops and such. A thick bundle of wires ran from the roof to the L tracks above. It looked like somebody had dropped it there on the street straight from some Mad Max movie.

Months later I was walking down the street and saw it being dragged away by a giant tow truck. A very sad day.

[First Lady of Infinity]

I spent several years living "in-town" in a funky little southern city, and got over the "WTF?!" moments pretty quickly... Not only does this city tolerate eccentricity, it encourages it! Between my divorce and remarriage, I moved into a cute little bungalow in a pretty mixed neighborhood: about an equal mix of older homeowners (who mostly took care of their homes,) and renters (who mostly didn't do much lawn care, trash pick-up, etc.) A few days after moving in, I went next door to introduce myself to the retired couple who lived there. They were as gracious as could be, invited me in for tea, and spent about half-an-hour detailing the neighborhood eccentrics, including the retiree down the block who had taken up full-time nudism. (Which really didn't bother me that much, except when he cut grass in his front yard or painted the eaves.) After living there for awhile, I learned to warn new neighbors not to let their kids go knock on Mr. Nudist's door when they were selling Girl Scout cookies or giftwrap for their school band fundraisers. Poor old Mr. Nudist got arrested about once per year, but he still refused to wear clothes. I missed his funeral, but I hope that he was buried au naturel.

Now, I've been priced out of safe-but-funky intown neighborhoods, so I live in the cookie cutter suburbs. The weirdest thing I generally see is overgrown lawns, and I'm probably the worst offender on that! (Well, actually, the couple across the road gets their excercise on a bicycle built for two, and the next-door neighbors are seriously fundie home-schoolers with about eleventy-dozen children. But they're really, really well-behaved children! Sadly, their mom won't let her kids play with mine, even in our adjoining front yards. I guess she's afraid that they'll catch a bad case of no-specific-religion theism from me.)

[DiosaBellissima]

About 3 months ago, I was driving down a fairly low-income yet normal street in Visalia, CA, and saw a guy on a lawn chair, in the middle of a nice lawn, taking a monster hit off a crack pipe. Somewhat out of place.

George

Darling, darling. Are you from around here? Surely you know that this is the crack/meth capital of like, the entire friggin' world. Sadly, the sight you saw really isn't that uncommon in low income, white neighborhoods (we have an area of town where all the white, racist, crack heads live-- it's a place to avoid if you have a tan).

[Large Marge]

Oh, wow, where to begin?

1. A homeless person got on the city bus last week with his cat. Though I know he couldn't help it, he smelled like ass. Thankfully, he sat several seats away from me.

2. I watched a drug deal go down in broad daylight on a busy intersection in plain view of at least 50 people.

3. An oblivious mother brought her five unruly boys into Jack in the Box, but apparently wasn't paying enough attention to realize that her 5-year-old had to pee. He peed right there on the floor while standing in line. There was a puddle on the floor. The week before that, there were giant blood stains all over the floor. No one noticed them.

4. Six homeless people slept in Fort DeRussey Park last night.

5. A man ran naked across Ward Avenue at 7:30 a.m.

6. I had a conversation with an intelligent crazy person who was talking to himself quite loudly. He spoke at least three languages that I could identify.

7. I have seen SIX pigeons with only one foot this week. Could it be the same one?


Truly, the list is just too long, and I add to it daily ...

[zoogirl]

One quick one -

A few Halloweens ago, my friend Linda and me and our kids were out. We also had along Bruiser, their huge Great Dane X. A guy walking toward us stopped dead in his tracks and said,

"Is that a real dog?!"
:smack:

Naw, we dressed up a really skinny kid... :rolleyes:

[twickster]

About 3 months ago, I was driving down a fairly low-income yet normal street in Visalia, CA, and saw a guy on a lawn chair, in the middle of a nice lawn, taking a monster hit off a crack pipe. Somewhat out of place.

George

My college bf was from Visalia -- I used to call him the Viscount of Visalia.

[Mycroft Holmes]

We have our token crazy guy that rides a bicycle year round around here.

His head protection? A goalie's mask.

The town I used to live in has this crazy guy (http://www.stadt-bielefeld.de/bielefeld/bielefelder/bekannt.html) that rides a bicycle year round also. His head protection: none at all. That's because he walks and bikes around town completely naked all year round. Yes, even in the dead of winter. :eek:

[CalMeacham]

Well not recently (several months ago) and not in the neighborhood where I live (it was in the neighborhood where I worked), but very weird and noteworthy:



There's a large and interesting-looking rock outcropping. I went past it and noticed a lot of work going on.


Someone was cleaning the Rock and taking a Casting of it.


The work took a week or so. They cleaned all around it, then set up epoxy sections with dividers between them so they could get a good and separable casting of the rock. Then they took it all down and went home.



One of these days I'll see that distinctive tiered rock outcropping rendered in fiberglas in the background of some movie, or in someone's Garden.