Americans do it backwards
Another drawback of the suburban lifestyle: you simply cannot appreciate the all the wonderful oddities of many of your fellow citizens when everyone spends most of their time in a window-tinted car. Sure you'll catch the occasional nose-picking or enthusiastic torso dancing. But when you see several of those in a day, the joy is gone. Nothing makes for greater people watching being outside.
I got my haircut yesterday from an especially gregarious German woman - I wonder how long she's been not noticing that no one can hear you speak when you're blow drying right into their ear? When I could hear her we lamented about how much we miss Europe after my two weeks and her twenty-two years. She said her ultimate goal was to live in California, which to my surprised she described as very European - I didn't bother to ask which part but figured it wasn't L.A. What she missed most is how everyone spent time outside, no matter the weather. Anyone in the Bay area knows what a beautiful day Saturday was, so her point was very well taken.
So I'm driving back home on Bruce B. when I spot a man in a wheelchair on the southbound sidewalk. Not only was he enjoying the outdoors but he was so invigorated as to have regained use of his legs, or at least enough to push himself backwards up the sidewalk.
But it wasn't over yet. After I got home my second errand had me going further north on BB Downs. On the northbound sidewalk was a jogger - sure enough, jogging backwards.
I guess it's possible that jogging backwards might target a different set of muscles, though I cannot imagine that health benefits outweigh the potential for physical and pride injury after a fall. Either way I'm sure they don't do that in Germany.
Posted by Joel at 1/08/2006 08:53:00 AM
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