2003-03-05 - 6:36 p.m.
Every so often I�ll be sitting on my bicycle at an intersection, waiting to cross the street, and a crazy old man who I�ve never seen before will earnestly shout �be careful!� or �watch out for cars!� as if he were actually giving me advice. Today this happened in front of the Austin Baptist Chapel � a church/soup kitchen and regular draw for Austin�s drunken, insane, and prone-to-public-pissing. I was just sitting there by the curbside on my bike, watching the cars vroom past, when a grizzled and gray old man with leathery skin and a few teeth missing walked over to me, standing about six feet away. From the corner of my left eye I could see him smiling at me as he shouted, �watch for the cars! Watch for the cars!� Since I�m somewhat used to this type of attention, I paid him no mind. Then a break in the traffic flow opened, and the man barked, �okay, go! Go!� That really was a mistake on his part. You just don�t tell me what to do like that. So turning toward him for the first time, I said, �Shut up,� and sat there for a few more seconds in silent nyah-nyah. As I began to peddle, the man started yelling obscenities. �Fuck you! Fuck you, bitch!� he crowed. Several blocks down the street, I could still hear him ��but I didn�t turn around. Doing so would have spoiled the image I had already formed of him: Mouth agape, head tilted back. Arms at the sides, fists clenched. Shouting at nobody, passersby looking confused. For some strange reason, I really enjoy moments like this. Wednesday Weirdness
Incident One: �Fuck You, Bitch�
Incident Two: The Neckless Boy
This afternoon, I visited a local nonprofit's headquarters in order to research a story. From the window of this office I spotted a boy who had no neck walking around in the parking lot. �Look at that boy,� I said to the office receptionist. �He�s neckless.�
The receptionist started to laugh. �I know, I know,� she said. �I see him all the time.� I wanted to tell her that one of Charles Bukowski�s wives � I believe his first � also lacked a neck. But I didn�t have time, because it was already 5pm and time to go.
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Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse. � Lily Tomlin |
