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.
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
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.
[hijack]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! [/hijack]
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-
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…
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.
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.
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.)
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).
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.
I watched a drug deal go down in broad daylight on a busy intersection in plain view of at least 50 people.
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.
Six homeless people slept in Fort DeRussey Park last night.
A man ran naked across Ward Avenue at 7:30 a.m.
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.
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 …
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:
The town I used to live in has this crazy guy 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:
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.
