Get a Car!

It was a beautiful day, so I thought to myself, "Why not walk a couple of blocks to the pizza place in the plaza?" It seemed an ideal opportunity to get some fresh air and see somefresh faces.

The first thing I noticed was a minivan parked on a sharply inclined street. The van was pointed very slightly out, towards the middle of the street while its front wheels were perfectly straight. It was an accident waiting to happen, if something were to go amiss with the transmission and the parking break (how many people with automatic transmissions set the parking break?) that van was going to take out traffic going in both directions. How hard is it to remember to turn the wheels toward the curb?

A bit later in my sojourn I was distracted by a bunch of barbaric teenagers in a stopped schoolbus, you know, the kind that hang out the windows and yell for no good reason. When I got close enough to make out what they were saying I was amused to discover that they were yelling, "Get a car!" at passersby. That's funny! Nevermind the reasons we're walking (exercise, it's a short distance, I like the sun, rising gas prices) isn't it ironic that people in a bus should be yelling this? I mean, if any of them had cars, they wouldn't be yelling at me, right?

Unfortunately my amusement was only short lived. As I approached the pizza place, I walked under a tree. It wasn't until too late that I noticed a caterpiller hanging by a strand of silk. Suddenly I was surrounded by paratrooping tent caterpillers. They were descending from everywhere! Although I don't consider myself a squeamish type, I don't relish the sensation of hundreds of insects writhing around on my head and shoulders either. I made a mental note to use the other side of the street on my way home.