Why I love the Bywater

I’ve told you guys one story about why I love the Bywater.  Tonight you get another…

 Last night I was standing out on the sidewalk in front of the church with a few other people just talking a little while we waited for more of the kids to get there.  As we’re standing there, we notice a girl coming down the street on a bicycle, which is the preferred mode of transportation for many in our neighborhood.  Nothing strange about that.  She was rather eclectic in her apparel and it appeared that personal hygeine is perhaps not at the top of her list of priorities.  Again, a pretty normal sight around here.  As she comes up closer to where we are though, without slowing down or ever turning her head to the side to actually look at us, and with a half-drunk, half-asleep sounding voice, she sort of slurs, “Am I still on North Rampart?” (still facing straight ahead down the street).  ”Yes,” replies Shannon, rather cheerily.  As she rides on past us, she mumbles, again without slowing or looking at us, “How much further to Poland?”  ”About 5 blocks,” Shannon answers, a little louder this time since the girl is about a block away from us at this point.  And she kept on riding off towards Poland (that’s a street name, by the way, not the country), and that was the end of that.

It doesn’t sound nearly as funny in type as it was in person, but trust me, it was hilarious. You have to just wonder where it is she’s coming from and where it is she’s going.  It was really funny in the moment.

I’m also told (though I was at work for this one) that earlier in the day, there was a sort of impromptu parade, complete with a coffin-turned-bicycle, a Chinese dragon looking thing, and a guy beating on drums riding on a trailer being pulled by a bike.  Where else can you experience stuff like this?

Oh yeah, and don’t forget that we will be drawing our winner tomorrow!  You still have until 5:00 p.m. (central time, Dave) to post a comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win.  After that, we’re closing it off, writing all of our commenters’ names on little bits of paper, and drawing a winner.  I also thought about turning one of Sam’s pee-pads into a bingo grid of sorts, writing all of your names on it, and letting whoever gets peed/pooped on be the winner.  :-)  Or I may come up with still a better and more fun way to randomly select our winner.  We’ll see.  Either way, though, you have to have commented on that post for your chance to win.  So go leave a comment, already!