My old photographer friend, Lee Romero, used to remind us — often from a perch on a barstool — that people are creatures of habit. Today my normal, habitual pattern was interrupted and, as a result, I left the house on a shopping excursion without a camera. Of course, several visual oddities presented themselves as events unfolded while we were out on the economy:
1. While waiting in the car for Kim to withdraw cash at the bank, a pickup truck drove by, towing an otherwise empty flatbed trailer to which was affixed a dental chair, seeming to be ready for action.
2. Striding across the snowy G.O. parking lot came an individual (with a woman on his arm who could have been J.J.) who appeared to be a perfectly-executed human version of Zeke of Doonesbury infamy, perhaps visiting from Seattle.
3. Awaiting the change of a traffic signal, the driver side window of the car in front of us suddenly opened, whereupon an outthrust arm dangled and vigorously shook a pair of men’s pants, jerking it back inside just before the green appeared.
4. My friend Eric, proprietor of an eponymous body shop, appeared driving his Jeep in cross-intersection traffic. This is a small town, you know.
5. We saw a SeQuential truck slowly slithering through the 4-way on Island and Washington.
SIDEBAR: While the above underscores the futility of attempting to describe the visual with words alone, occasionally we come upon writers who can do just that in a wonderfully, almost magically, successful way. In fact, just such an example served to provide my Pattern Interruptus of the morning. I was gearing up for our shopping trek and was about to grab my camera from the other room, when I saw Kim resting her back on the couch. So I stopped and sat across from her, picking up my newly-gifted “Up In The Old Hotel” by Joseph Mitchell and continued to read aloud to her, until she was ready to depart. This is a book not to be missed.