Possumblog

Items of Lunchtime Interest

You know, for there only to be a half-block walk to Sneaky Pete's, you sure do wind up seeing a lot.

Let's see (so to speak)--first, just as I walked down the steps, I noted one of the (increasingly prevalent) members of the Society of Park Bench Somnolence who urgently skulked behind some shrubbery and a bench alongside the sidewalk. A bench, it turns out, that was occupied by two women having a conversation and a smoke. One suddenly shot up and looked behind her as if she'd been goosed, and the fellow, who by then was on his knees directly behind the bench, stood up proudly and brandished a cigarette butt.

On then to my destination, passing by a squad car parked at the curb, which had a portion of bird soilage upon the roof that without reservation I can say looked as though it could have been dropped by a bewinged Great Dane. I say it's high time we started cutting down some trees to keep such beasts from killing us all under a hail of golfball-sized guano.

Next, on to the eating place, and as I walked up the sidewalk, I noticed three over-30 women walking ahead of me--two were wearing slight variations of the exact same mode of dress--short hair; light blue, short-sleeved knit tops; khaki clam digger pants; and leather flip-flops. Was there a memo distributed for "Beach Day Tuesday!" in their office? Sorry, but I just can't get past the idea that some women think this is appropriate office attire.

Anyway, on to the food joint, where I was pleased to see that the Lauren Hutton Lookalike Woman was at the register. As I stood there, I noticed a sign handwritten in pen taped to the cash register:

"Bottled"
Water
99 Cents
What? Was it not really bottled? Wink, wink, nudge nudge! "Bottled," eh!? Like to put your water in a "bottle," eh!? SAY NO MORE!

Ordered some food, paid, waited my turn. Lots of jury duty folks today. Mondays and Tuesdays are usually the biggest days, then it tapers off as folks either get excused or seated. I've never really understood why people walk around with their jury duty badges on, though. I have always taken mine off to go to lunch--don't really want people to know why I'm wandering around, you know. Anyway, one avuncular-looking fellow showed up with his badge on, and was wearing a backpack.

It wasn't until he paid and stood over beside me, though, that I got to study his satchel more closely. Clear plastic, and well-used--probably belonged to one of his school-age kids, and he brought it to hold all of his books to read while he waited. All two of them. All two thin ones of them.

Now, maybe I'm just not "with it" (as the kids say) when it comes to easily transporting two books back and forth the extreme distance between the courthouse parking deck to the jury room, or from the jury room across the park to Sneaky Pete's, but it does seem like the slightest bit of overkill to use a backpack to carry two small, thin (although admittedly hardbound) books. Then again, I never really understand the lure of fanny packs just to carry a set of keys, either.

Got my food, and now it's all eaten up, and it was very tasty.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at July 26, 2005 12:32 PM