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  • Tuesday, October 04, 2005

    Weirdness in the park

    Across from our house, there is a park where I walk our dog. It is the side of a hill that has winding paths leading to the top. At the top there is a little mound that is raised. (The mound reminds me of a hobbit hovel, minus the front door and windows.) There are apartments on 2 sides of the mound, but the view out the other direction is across the valley.

    Each morning I walk the dog to the top of the hill and I've come to know a couple of the other dog owners in the area. It seems that most people let their dogs run free through the park (though there is a rule that you have to keep your dogs on a leash), and no one seems to clean up after their dog (though there is a rule that everyone has to clean up after their dog). Many rules seem to be disregarded. For example, just driving through town you see cars parked everywhere that doesn't directly block other traffic. If there is a sidewalk that someone can drive up on, there is a car parked there. When I go to pick up the kids at school there is a traffic circle that is 2 lanes. About once every 4 days there is a policeman standing there to call a tow truck if anyone parks in the circle. If the policeman is not there, everyone parks in the outer lane of the circle. The biggest danger to parking there is that the Spanish policeman doesn't seem to have a good sense of time, so sometimes he's late (at which point the tow truck actually gets someone).

    But, back to the point about the weirdness. On Sunday morning I go to walk my dog in the park. On Sunday mornings almost nobody seems to be awake. The normally busy street in front of the house is completely quiet. I get to the top of the hill and there are 2 shinny new BMWs parked in front of the hobbit hovel. There are 5 well dressed men that look to be in there late 20s talking between the cars and drinking a few beers. This is odd for several reasons. First, you don't see shinny cars anywhere. Nobody seems to clean their cars here and fancy cars like BMWs are relatively rare. Second, why would anyone drive to the middle of the field. There is usually parking around the front of the surrounding apartments a short walk away from the park. Third, why are they drinking beer at 7:30 in the morning? Forth, what are they even doing up, it's 7:30 in the morning. My wife thought they were just continuing parting from the night before, but I don't think she is right. They looked freshly showered and wide awake. I might have gone over and asked, but my Spanish just isn't good enough, and even if it was, I'm not sure it would have been such a good idea. If I solve the mystery, I'll put up another post, but I think this is just going to be one of those unanswered questions.



    1 Comments:

    Blogger Frank said...

    How about weirdness in the blogosphere? I commented on this YESTERDAY but it is now lost.

    Anyway, what I said was this: I think you were wise to avoid talking to them...at least until you get a dog that weighs more than a loaf of bread!

    4:48 AM  

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