I was driving through the city last night and noticed what I assumed was a blind guy, given he was swinging a cane in front of him. What seemed odd was that I saw him stop and adjust earbuds in his ears.
That seemed odd.
Then today I saw what looked like a really crazy guy walking down the street. It was kind of funny in that he’d stop, pretend to hit a golf ball (swing his arms wide), then put his hand to his eyes like he was scoping out where the ball went, then go after it.
A were in dog form. A large dog, shepard size, and as powerfully built, but shaggier. It was walking down the middle of the sidewalk with purpose. This dog never slowed, nor did it pause to sniff anything. People actually seemed to shy away.This was a creature with a mission.
There are canes now that incorporate sonar and give audible warnings if they sense objects in the way. Perhaps he had one with earbuds, so only he could hear the alerts?
A month ago we were at a 4 way stop in Madison and a blind guy crossed the 4 lanes of traffic. He had problems getting onto the sidewalk, because they put in one of those crappy ramps that are aligned to the corner and not the crosswalk. For anybody to use it they are in the intersection and not the crosswalk. Good luck if your using a wheelchair and not a blind guy that can eventually get over the curb using the white cane.
About a year ago I spotted an unusual guy walking along a semi-rural road. He had kind of a Merlin/Pope vibe going on, sporting long white hair and beard, layered robes, a tall stiff hat, and a long wooden staff.
Not strange, but not something I see everyday: Just now I was in the car at an intersection waiting to turn right. The speed limit on the main street there is 30mph, and this one-legged woman bicyclist came flying past, easily keeping up with car traffic. Her right leg was a prosthesis of some kind, and she didn’t appear to be using it. Her left leg however, was seriously hauling ass.
She’s far braver than me. I wouldn’t ride a bike on that street. It’s a fairly busy business street with lots of cars parked along the side, lots of driveways with people pulling out, etc. You see a lot of cyclists zipping along that street though.
I can’t speak for MunkaMike, but I have an odd story that could explain things. One day last spring I went down to the fresh fish market on the mainland. I live on a barrier island in the southeast U.S., but we don’t have an actual fish market on the island - not even next to the pier. There’s good fishing on the pier, but to buy anything you have to drive across the causeway to the mainland. This is where it gets odd. I was talking to the guy behind the counter about a fish I was thinking of buying, but he had some thick accent that I couldn’t quite understand. Some Armenian fishmonger thing going on. We haggled and haggled over this one fish. It was a beautiful fish. The only one I wanted. He kept trying to sell me on sea bass, whiting (I am NOT going to buy freaking whiting), and grouper. But I didn’t want those, I wanted the fish I had already picked up. The odd thing was I realized I had forgotten my wallet back on the island. We had been haggling over fish for twenty minutes and now I realized I can’t even pay the guy. So I did the only thing I could. I handed him the fish back and told him, “Sir, I’m sorry to have wasted your time with this red herring”.
Wheelchair guy has to be in the intersection of two four lane roads and not in the crosswalk area to get onto the sidewalk. Wheelchair guy will be only as high as the hood of the cars that hit him in the intersection.
Think of the intersection as a Tic Tac Toe grid and the ramp is entered from the middle square to a corner square.
There are so many nut cases odd balls weird and wacky alternative this and thats and just plain ol’ fucked up in the heads in our downtown that a man playing invisible golf and a blind man adjusting his ear buds would barely make a blip on my radar. And they all stop by the library where I work. There is the guy who wears the full on wizard outfit (complete with hat, cape, and dragon-topped staff), a guy who wears a black wet suit, a guy who wears an incredibly well-made black leather witch’s outfit, another who wears some kind of metal spider web over his face – and these are just the ones who stand out from the general background clutter of weirdness.
Good story!