Walker's High

Flirtatious:"Look at this little bauble I got for you at Tiffanys."

Real Mood: Anti-Supercilious

Prediction: Some day "Dollar Stores" will give way to "Two Dollar Stores." ( Remember dime stores?) 

Sometimes the shadows are more enchanting than the reality.

You can think about things like that when your endorphins are activated.  

That's one of the nice things about living in this part of the country.  You can get a "runner's high" walking to the grocery store.

(For those of you of more recent birth that's where you walk out the front door. Then you put one foot in front of the other until you reach the market. After shopping you carry your groceries home as a pedestrian. No, really!)

So while I'm out walking this morning I get to thinking about things I've seen lately that are incongruous. Isn't incongruity just a challenge of our expectations?  But even within that definition I think there must be some relativity to incongruity.  And it's my BLOGGY declaration that REAL incongruity must be supported by a set of circumstances beyond all normal imagination.

For instance, the enchanting dancing shadows in the picture above are reflections of a very decayed, colorless, thistle plant. Strange, but so what? Incongruous? I don't think so.

In an earlier BLOG entry I talked about being penned in by a Mercedes in a COSTCO parking lot. A little weird, but I can live with that.

I can top that now.  We're in a parking lot of a strip mall in California.  I park as close to the front door of a drugstore as I can. I don't want my mother-in-law to have to walk far.  We had forgotten her Handicap placard. 

So right next to my spot is the big old wide marked out handicap area.

In that painted grid is a Lincoln Town Car parked at an angle. (No doubt the owner of the vehicle doesn't want any of us "common folk" to get  close enough to scratch his surface.)  It's a little odd, but once again, so what?

I clearly notice the vehicle has no indication it is authorized to be positioned at ANY angle inside a handicap spot. But could he have maybe just left his placard at home like we did? If so, so what? That's still way short of qualifying as a classic incongruity.

Well there's a little more to the story. The fellow driving the town car finally steps out of the conveyance and stretchs up to his full 6 foot 4 inch height. You can tell this is a fit man.  It is also clear he frequents tanning salons. Parked in a handicap spot? 

Well maybe he stayed under the sunlamp too long? Maybe he's having trouble walking? That's almost understandable. I've had bad sunburns. They can really hurt. So let's have some empathy here. And who really cares, huh?

His demeanor and posture indicate this is likely an economically successful, confident man. But that in and of itself shouldn't require he be banned from handicap parking spots.

And this is a dapper man. I'm no expert but I'd say he's put at least a grand into the suit he is currently wrapped in. Parked in a handicap spot? Oh, come on, they've got handicap spots on Rodeo Drive? Don't they?

I AM a LITTLE nonplussed as this guy starts furtively looking around 360 degrees. Then he pulls out his wallet and starts thumbing through it.  I'm thinking maybe there's a major drug buy getting ready to go down. Right here in front of me? But you know these kinds of things happen? It's maybe a little bit out of the ordinary for me, but classically incongruous? I don't think so.

So we head into the drugstore and I instinctively look back over my shoulder. I can see him, but I'm pretty sure that's not mutual. I say that because he does one of those quick eye things in each direction?  He's clearly making sure it's safe to make his next move?  I can still be an apologist for the guy. We're still just hinting at possible incongruity because we are not accustomed to some of his overt behavior.

Brace yourself. 

Hiding behind a pilar in the drugstore I continue my surveillance. The subject is no longer standing in one place.  He is on the move.  He has not given up his careful surveying of his surroundings. He pauses just briefly before entering the establishment in front of him.  And then IN he goes. 

What could be going on? I look up quickly to see just what kind of storefront we're dealing with here.  Whoa!   

This cross between Sean Connery and George Hamilton is going shopping at a "THRIFT STORE."

He has illegally parked  his LINCOLN TOWN CAR, at an angle, IN a HANDICAP SPOT, so he can go SHOPPING at a "THRIFT STORE?" For SHAME! I vow right then and there to always use this story when someone asks me to give them an example of INCONGRUITY. What a jerk!

Then on the way home from my walk I see this building that advertises it's a BANK on one side? HEIDI'S DELI on the other? That's a little strange, but by comparison, no longer applicable as an incongruity. And that dying thistle plant is starting to look pretty good.