Sunday, November 16, 2008

Suburban Weirdness

As Dave Barry would say, I Am Not Making This Up.

Several mornings a week, I find my newspapers on my front stoop instead of at the end of the yard. I especially appreciate this on rainy mornings. At first I wondered whether the delivery guys had developed particularly good aim, but I rejected that pretty quickly. After that, I just assumed that some kind neighbor threw the papers up there occasionally while walking his or her dog. Wrong.

This morning, I went out to get the papers from the end of the yard when I saw a man in a full-on monk's habit -- brown gown, hood, rope belt -- with what looked like a mop with a plastic bag covering the mop head and a slight limp, walking slowly up the street, taking people's newspapers and placing them on their stoops. We exchanged a cheery "good morning," but I was too flabbergasted to talk to him more. I went inside, and he went on his way. I ran upstairs to wake Mr. T to come see this, to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating or anything. I wasn't.

Mr. T pronounced him a nutjob and wanted to call the police. "No," I said, "he's a helpful nutjob. He's not hurting anyone, just doing a random act of kindness."

Still. Strange.

In the meantime, I'm very close to finishing this Simple Knitted Bodice. I'm almost done with sleeve 2, which leaves me with the neckline and some minimal finishing before I can get it blocked.


I have a case of the blahs, knitting and otherwise. Hopefully I'll snap out of it soon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is very odd - but very nice of him to do! Love the sweater - great color!

Scott T. said...

I'm still saying it's worrisome. The picture is getting closer to reality.

Anonymous said...

What an interesting vignette--it sounds like the opening of a short story. I tend to be very trusting of stuff like that (umm, weird people in monk garb depositing my newspaper on my front stoop), so I wouldn't worry.

Nice sweater. I get what you mean about capturing the right shade of red. I'm a terrible photographer, but on Saturday I went all over the yard and the house trying to capture the "true" color of the Arrows shawl I finished. It looked different in every photo.

kippi said...

Maybe he was just practicing a random act of monkness. Is there a monastery near your house? Do monks who live at home wear full garb? WEIRD. might be worth a call to the police anyway. Maybe they know of some sort of convention or something.

So sorry you have the blahs! Your sweater is lovely, does that help a little?