Back, and exhausted. It is not as clever as you’d think to have walls painted in your absence, because when you get back, you have to move all the furniture again. Which makes you think about rearranging it. Which makes you actually rearrange it, several different ways. Which makes you exhausted.
Anyway.
In the undisclosed location, we’d go for walks in the neighborhood, notable for its strip malls, chain restaurants, and Super Wal-Mart. And every time, at least one group of people would yell out of their car or truck windows some unintelligible yet obviously derisive/derogatory commentary, evidently just because we were walking.
What’s up with that? Have y’all experienced similar phenomena? Anyone want to hazard guesses about what makes walking a target for scorn?
capn_jil
June 4, 2006 at 3:26 pmPeople not in cars in the hometown seem to get their shit jacked up just on the basis of they’re not in cars. I do not know why, I do not know what is wrong with people for doing that, but uh. Yeah.
Then again: some people just like yelling shit. One or the other.
librarian
June 4, 2006 at 4:41 pmhappens to me too, I do not understand it.
kiramekihoshi
June 4, 2006 at 5:19 pmI can’t walk down the street without being hit on.. It’s kind of scary, actually..
sarazarr
June 4, 2006 at 5:45 pmThey’re in a car, you are walking. They can yell out stupid stuff and not have to hear your reply. You are small and slow-moving, they are in a powerful fast vehicle. You are normal, they are assholes.
nevikmoore
June 4, 2006 at 9:50 pmWalking is for communists and terrorists. Drive it or leave it, hippie.
But seriously, one of my top ten pet peeves about civilization east of 82nd Avenue is the near total lack of sidewalks. The further east you drive, the worse it gets. Sidewalks just end, but people still need to walk farther than they extend, so you see a lot of poor moms with baby carriages and barefoot children walking on the side of a busy street. If I were elected County Czar, my first program would be called Potholes and Sidewalks. Fill the former, pave the latter.
My second program would be a subtle and slow elimination of Starbucks, one store at a time, disappearing like sinful teens in a late 70s slasher flick.
lkeele
June 5, 2006 at 2:31 amShouting ugly things at pedestrians and bicyclists is the favorite local past-time, I think. We’ve actually had to boycott businesses due to excessive abuse coming from their direction as we bike by. Seriously.
erce
June 5, 2006 at 4:00 pmAh, here they not only yell at you, but occasionally throw things as my neighbor recently vented to me about. (No clue what they yelled as she was plugged into her ipod, but what they threw was a cup of soda) This problem even got a mention in the local free paper.
anonymous
July 21, 2006 at 11:11 amoh hi Sara will i would do you write this book to tell that you could love anyone even if a girl or a boy.