Weirdness along the river

ORN: 3.8 miles in 40:03.

Nothing like a run to clear your head. It's during weeks when the boss is nagging one to put cover sheets on one's TPS reports, the wife is saying that the bathroom needs remodeling NOW, the Young 'Un is begging to hold the hamster every five minutes, and the in-laws are asking one to watch their chickens while they're out of town that a run like today's helps keep everything in perspective. Seriously, today's run was like a David Lynch film [soundtrack listing below].

Setting: Grass-lined trail along Ohio River. On one side, the city of Louisville -- concrete and steel. On the other, the brown, dirty river, filled with geese, ducks, logs, and unidentifiable flotsam. Sunny day, late morning.

I'm running along. First, I pass a cluster of four shabby-looking fishermen, all staring at their lines in the water. None speak to the others or sit together. Several have beverages wrapped in brown paper bags.

Next, I pass a white MSD pickup truck. Nothing major there. They've been posting signs by their outfalls lately. A little beyond the truck, I find a pair of Canadian geese munching on grass with great intensity. They look at me with great skepticism, like I intend to steal their grass. I say, "Honk" to them.

Up ahead, I see a cop car. These two cops with crew cuts and cop-sunglasses are having a serious-looking discussion with four urban outdoorsmen, one in a wheel chair and another with a shopping cart with a long, strange-looking, plastic board in it. I avoid eye contact.

Then, near my turn-around point, I see this dude who was walking like something out of a Monty Python skit, arms flailing wildly. I initially think it's a wandering lunatic. He appeared to just be a dorky-looking power walker.

On the way back, I passed the urban outdoorsmen once again, this time with no police shakedown going on. I was a little concerned for my safety, but the cops might just have been hassling them because that's what some cops do.

The fishermen were still fishing and drinking, alone yet together. Actually, there were just three when I passed by this time.

Then, as I approached work, I saw too many strange characters to list here. Seriously, the last few feet of sidewalk were like a Blue Velvet/Twin Peaks/Eraserhead dream sequence packed with weirdos like a freak-sausage. Of course, I work in a building near the county jail and a courthouse complex. In other words, a fairly typical crowd. But combined with all the other strangeness, it was like the cherry on the sundae of my run.

I rocked out to:

1. Uncertain - Operation Ivy
2. Let Me Go - Freedom Of Expression
3. Prime Audio Soup - Meat Beat Manifesto
4. Blood Evil [Mix] - KMFDM
5. Headhunter V1.0 - Front 242
6. Rainbow Into The Rio Mino - Rico Rodriguez
7. Jump Around (Pete Rock Remix) - House of Pain
8. I Don't Need Society (long) - D.R.I.
9. Jailhouse - Bob Marley and The Wailers
10. Very Ape - Nirvana
11. Bitchin' Camaro - The Dead Milkmen
12. Hung Up - Bim Skala Bim