Not walking, but driving - I knew I was back in Tennessee when I passed a blue minivan on I-40. Blue minivans are not that uncommon, but I would venture to guess that most of them have not had all but the driver’s seat taken out in order to transport four (yes, four!) alpacas.
(I was not totally sure they were alpacas at first; after all, they might have been half-grown llamas or similar. I was confirmed in my original alpaca hypothesis by a little sign in the window that said Alpacas On Board.)
This isn’t strange but since folks are mentioning their local celebrities, there is a Pig and a Wolf chain saw sculpture at a house in Hanover (middle of the page) who get dressed up to reflect whatever season or local event is going on. At one point they went on a tour of Hanover and got pinched from the roof of the Co-op. The whole town worried and little kids drew cards begging the Pig and Wolf to come back. The artist committed to carving a replacement Pig and Wolf. Finally they were spotted out in a field by a grill, the pig eating a hot dog and wolf lounging in the grill.
They have been restored to their home and everyone has to slow to see what they’re wearing any given day.
When I lived in DC, walking to my local un-Safeway grocery, I spotted a man dressed all in red with full roller-blade gear: helmet, elbow and knee pads. He was moving slowly, but still leaning forward and stretching like he was really skating.
Early one Sunday morning I was having breakfast in the Tower district. Outdoor patio of a popular restaurant, beautiful morning. And a man walked by on the other side of the street carrying a sheep.
“Is that a dog?”
“No, it looks like a sheep.”
“Thought so.”
He carried it another block and then I lost sight of him.
When I lived in St. Louis, I drove past Baton Bob almost every morning (does everyone have a wiki page?). He is a large, muscular fellow who enjoys prancing around on city streets in various getups, twirling a baton. I’ve seen him in a pink tutu, a stipper-cop getup, a Spiderman suit, a glittery astronaut’s outfit, a Statue of Liberty costume, and more which I cannot now recall. Sadly, Bob was not always appreciated. After a few run-ins with the law, including a time when he stood in the middle of a swanky suburban restaurant and started hurling profanity at the patrons, Bob quietly moved on to a new city. You Atlantans are lucky. Bob is a treasure, and I miss him.
(Really, I think Bob is a little disturbed. He was a flight attendant for TWA who lost his job shortly after 9/11. As far as I can tell, he kind of wigged out. In any case, seeing him in the mornings really did make me happy. Best wishes, Bob!)
We went to a friends trailer at a campground for the weekend. I woke up at about three in the morning. I decided to go outside and sit on the deck and have a smoke before going back to sleep.
The trailer was set in front of lake and there was a mist coming off it. It was so peaceful and quiet. As I was sitting there enjoying the scene I heard someone in the distance playing Taps. I sat and listened to the entire song. It ended just as mysteriously as it began.
There is a cemetary on the far side of the road across from the campground. It was very eerie and is something that I will never forget. Why someone would play that at 3am has always remained a question in my mind.
I told my friends about it the next morning but I don’t think anyone believed me.
I’ve never understood the mentality behind companies that insist on giving themselves names that they seem to think are either clever or cute or otherwise unique. Particularly these days when you’re very likely to want or have to direct people to your website. Don’t they understand how many people are going to get confused by the name when they have to refer to it in some way? Or the difficulty they’re going to have explaining their name over the phone or in radio/television ads?
“Visit www.carterscustomcomputers.com. That’s Carter’s Custom Computers with three Ks, four Ts, Us where the Os should be, and a pair of Qs at either end, dot com with a K.”
I was driving down the freeway, overtaking a truck pulling a stakebed trailer with plywood sides. As I came up on it I noticed there were four knobby straight things sticking up out of the top of the trailer, but they were all in odd places and the trailer as a whole didn’t seem full enough to keep the straight things pointing up, especially as none of them seemed to be leaning against the sides of the trailer. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized the trailer had a dead horse in it with all four legs sticking straight up. That was a weirdie.
There’s this woman we pass every day on our way to school dressed in extremely colorful traditional Peruvian garb. Skirt, hat, etc. She just walks up and down a certain road.
Oh, that reminds me of one guy who always seems to be walking this particular road. He’s an older guy with a very full white beard and mustache. In the summer, he’ll powerwalk the road wearing just running shorts, sneakers, and the very full facial hair. Kind of a fun visual. In the winter he does manage to layer up and the beard fits in better.
So you’ll remember the name of the place, as evidenced by these posts.
When I was in Seattle for my cousin’s wedding (June 2004) we were in McDonald’s near the Space Needle. While we were there a group of nude bicyclists went past. I didn’t get a very good look at them myself, but others in my group did. The story was reported on the news that evening. Since nobody had complained, the bare bikers weren’t charged for indecent exposure.
