hoofing it

The world is a very strange place on foot.

Earlier this week, my car had to have emergency repairs, leaving me with four hours to wait for it to be fixed. I live about two miles away, so I walked back to my house to wait.

A few minutes into my walk, a car full of people drove by really slowly and screamed "LOSER" at me. I just started cracking up, which I don't think was quite the response they wanted, but the thought of these jackasses driving around screaming loser at strangers was just so bizarre to me, I couldn't help it.

While watching people drive, I saw no less than five people honk at each other, and one set of people nearly came to blows. One guy actually drove around another guy, cut him off, hopped out of his car, and then started screaming that the guy should get out and fight him.

Next, I ran into a guy standing on the side of a busy six lane road, cock out, pissing in a plastic bottle. He wasn't even trying to find a bush or any privacy at all.

I was also passed by about four people pushing shopping carts with what was probably everything they owned, and another handful of dudes who were either talking to themselves or mumbling something about me as they passed. This is in a two mile stretch of El Camino, not exactly near any sort of urban centers, or shopping centers that have carts.

It's funny, I used to walk all the time in Pittsburgh, but I've been a car citizen for about seven years now, only walking around when I head up to San Fran, or go out in nature and take a hike. I need to get back out on the streets more often, it feels like fucking thunderdome out there. Not to mention I saw about twenty little tiny shops with either no signs, or signs in languages I couldn't understand, I want to wander into them and see what the hell they do.