Stupid bird

I am on my third week of walking to and from work. Believe it or not, I really like walking. I like it so much that I’m going to sell the trusty Shadow. I need to get the tire replaced first.

I’ve been kicking around the idea of selling the bike for some time now. Now I’m going to do it. I’m going to go to the store this week and buy a For Sale sign and create some fliers. Elise and I could really use the extra cash.

Most people think I’m crazy for having a motorcycle as my only means of personal transportation. A lot of people think that I’m even more crazy for walking to work. Everyone at work has extended an invitation to either pick me up or take me home from work. I have to explain to them that I seriously enjoy the walk. It’s nice to know that I can ask someone for a lift if it’s raining and I forgot my umbrella.

Walking to work is very humbling. It literally keeps my feet on the ground. A few years back had I been in this very situation, I would have thought to myself: “Thats it… I’m going to sell my motorcycle with a flat tire and go deep into debt by buying a car that I can’t afford.”

Now I walk the 45 minutes [I don’t know how far that is in conventional distance measurement] and take comfort in knowing that I don’t have write a large check for a car note at the end of the month.

I also make it a point to say hello to at least one bird. Without fail, some bird always manages to fly by or land nearby and chirp at me. There have been a couple times where I have seen a bird do something that I think is stupid – like flying off of a lamp mounted above one of the loading docks behind the department stores by which I walk. The bird will fly off and turn around, without having gone anywhere, and land back onto the same lamp.

I’ll say: “What did you do that for, stupid bird?”

I’m learning the way of the walk as well. During my first week of walking, I was almost embarrassed to look at oncoming cars. I don’t know why. I’m just stupid like that. I guess I thought that the people inside their cars would pity me or point fingers. There aren’t many pedestrians where I walk. Now I just don’t care. I like to look at people in there cars and see how long it takes before they look away. I’ve thought about stopping and picking my nose or doing something else absurd for my own humerous benefit.

Temple is too small for that. Soon enough I would probably be recognized around town as the guy who stares at oncoming traffic with his finger up his nose.

My most recent lesson in the way of the walk was given today. I learned to look up before walking under power lines.

This morning was quite cold. Cold enough to warrant wearing my motorcycle jacket. I also wore my Lakers cap so as to contain the heat that escapes from one’s head. I was halfway to work, walking underneath the powerlines behind the department stores when I saw something fall quickly just before the brim of my hat. At first I thought it was a drop of rain. I looked up. I didn’t see any rain. I looked down. No drops on the ground. While looking down, my right foot moved out in front of me and there I saw it, in all its glory, a nice white splatter that covered the tip of my ozzy.

I looked up again and back. There were two birds sitting on the top power line. I didn’t say anything to those birds. I took off my hat and inspected my brim. Nothing there. Miraculously, the heaven-sent dob of cottage cheese hit only my foot.

I’ve never been pood on by a bird before. I’m glad it didn’t hit me anywhere else. Should it have, I couldn’t have walked back home because I had a meeting at 8 a.m. It was funny though. I couldn’t get mad. I just kept on walking to work with bird poo on my foot.

Now I know to look up every once in a while.

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