Early morning antidisestablishmentarianism
I woke up early this morning to go to the gym. I got a good workout in, then rushed home to get ready for work in record time. I was in a hurry because I’m trying to work overtime this week so I can leave early Friday afternoon to spend some QT with GTB before heading to Hometown for Christmas.
My morning commute includes the long, sluggish drive down Mercer Street for I-5 access. It’s usually a tangle of people jockeying for position, only to realize they are in the wrong lane (“Southbound?! Shit!” eeerrrrrrcccchhhh…) and then jockeying again before we are all forced to merge into two lanes. The only thing worse than Mercer Street during most of my mornings is the other merge that happens on I-90 as six lanes turn into four right before going into the first tunnel. Fun!
This morning, for the second time in about a week, just as I was getting on the Southbound I-5 access ramp, I looked to my right and spotted what I thought was a panhandler. “That’s a pretty stupid place to stand,” I thought to myself, because he’s placed himself on the wrong side of the intersection. If you want people to notice you, you have to stand where they are stopped at the light. A captive audience, in other words. If they don’t see you until they are whirring by, what can they do for you? Toss money like you’re a toll booth?
Then I realized he’s not a panhandler. He’s a guy who looks a little like a clean-shaven Unibomber. Hooded sweatshirt; big, dark glasses; but no beard. And, for the second time, he’s holding a piece of art. It looks like it’s been painted on a piece of panhandler cardboard, but it’s ART. So, for the second time in a week, my half-awake brain was delighted by some early morning dominant paradigm subverting.
I’ve been trying to figure out more about this guy, and why he’s standing in the rain with his cardboard art. (It can’t only be to make me happy, can it?) But I can’t figure out how to google him. Searching for “guy who looks like panhandler with art by I-5” just doesn’t seem like it would work.