The Person of the Day...

Every day when I walk to (or from) work, I see someone remarkable... I think I will designate a 'person of the day'.

Monday, it was six people - soldiers doing early-morning manoeuvres, I imagine. I said "Good morning," to them and one replied in kind. They looked a little strained. How far had they been hiking? I took considerable satisfaction in the fact that my back pack was almost as big as theirs.

Tuesday, it was the little boy on the bicycle. He was maybe three years old - four, tops. His bicycle was so little it barely reached my knee. His father was cycling slowly behind him, so the kid set the pace. He was manfully pedalling, slow but steady, not wobbling at all. Go, kid!

Today my Person of the Day was on a skateboard, just whizzing onto the Hurdman foot bridge as I was getting off. A youngish man. He had long blond hair. He wore a black hat, black jacket, black narrow-leg jeans, and black shoes, with neon orange shoelaces and a Hawaiian shirt (glimpsed under the jacket) in bright green, orange, and black. He could have been a Halloween poster, or a comic book character.

Yesterday as I walked home - only a few blocks from my place - someone spoke to me, beyond the customary "hello" one might use with strangers. He asked if the Torchwood patch on my back pack was a reference to Doctor Who. I admitted that it was. I said I was actually an alien in disguise. He replied that my Meat Suit was very good. We chatted about the show a bit - he said he's only watched from the Chrisopher Eccleston shows to the first Matt Smith series, but it's clear he's hooked.

Ahh, fandom. I love the way fans pop up here, there, and everywhere.

And then there's the Weird Thing of the Day...

There's an odd bit of my walk by the river where I have go go under the Hurdman transitway bridge, then up stairs to get to the path beside the Ottawa U football field that leads to the Hurdman foot bridge.

On Monday, it was just fine.

Yesterday under the bridge there was a suitcase on the path. Slightly zipped open, full of clothes and what looked like a laptop case. This was anomalous enough to have me wondering how it could have got there. If someone had thrown themselves into the river, it seems unlikely they would pack. A murder? No sign of violence. A stolen suitcase then, riffled through for anything valuable, and then just left there.

The more I thought about it, the more sinister it seemed. As if bad things happen under that bridge. So I hesitated this morning: but it would take me ten minutes out of my way to avoid it, and there seemed to be no immediate danger, so I went that way and the suitcase looked untouched since yesterday. I fought the impulse to search it a little myself. Perhaps I should have called the police, and reported it? Perhaps I will.

In the UK, and probably elsewhere, I might have worried that it might be a bomb. That never occurred to me till afterwards. A friend of mine had a bomb scare recently just outside her house in the country - yeah, it can happen.

Earlier in the walk, I encountered a runner who was concerned about a bicycle left unlocked and unattended by the path, with no owner in sight. She thought it had probably been stolen and then abandoned, and planned to call the cops to report it.

High crime on the Rideau River. This also makes me reflect that in a few weeks - I'm not sure how many - it will be too dark to walk alongside the river morning or evening, regardless of the weather. I must enjoy it while it lasts.