Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Just another quiet night at the Friesen's

Last night around 10:35 pm, the front doorbell rang.


I cautiously opened the door to find a very inebriated man standing there. He carefully formed the words, "I'm looking for downtown, do you know where it is?"


I replied, pointing to the left, "It's that a way!"


"Ok, thanks"


And he was off to find downtown.


 

6 comments:

  1. I love those kind of brief, strange moments. For some reason that reminds me of that classic Far Side cartoon where there's a guy in his living room. The phone rings and it's God. He asks for "Derek" (or some name). The guy says, "You must have the wrong number." God asks, "Is this 555-1634?" and the guy answers, "No, this is 555-1643". Then God says, "Oh, sorry" *click*.



    I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this, but for some reason I was reminded of it. That's always been one of my favourite Far Sides. (they never sound right when they're explained, but hopefully it will spark a memory.)

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  2. at costco the other day, i saw the entire collection of far side cartoons in a lovely 2 book hardcover, boxed set collector's edition for the low, low price of $120 (or even more?!)



    my "brief moment of strangeness" involves a woman named wanda in a fur coat in the middle of the night...but I will perhaps blog about it someday, as it is too long to retell here.

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  3. Lynn- that sounds far too much like "play misty for me".



    We live in a small village of about 60 houses, and are relatively isolated. A few years back we were in our livingroom and heard a blood-curdling wail from outside. I dashed out, having grabbed something as a weapon, expecting to find a woman raped and bleeding (it really was that bad). What I found was a woman in her 50s, a little hunched and dishevelled, having hysterics in the road with no sign of an attacker.



    We brought her in, and eventually calmed her enough to get the story. She was from London, and been walking with friends between Banbury and Lower Heyford stations (around 14 miles cross country) when her dog ran off. She'd gone off to retrieve it, only to lose her friends. She then stumbled on for a few hours before it grew dark.



    Eventually finding our village (and probably borderline hysterical) she tried a couple of doors, without getting an answer. She *thought* people weren't opening their doors to her, and this made her worse than ever. All the houses down that way aren't very visitor friendly, and I think all those House of Hammer films were coming home to roost ;) I think the noise we heard was her just simply crumbling out of hunger and tiredness, not knowing where she was or where to go.



    We fed her, then took her and the dog off to the station in Oxford, where she returned, safe and sound, to the city and home.

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  4. Actually, I have that complete Far Side set!! It was a gift.

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  5. :)



    Toni, perhaps it was a cool strategy to discover someone who cared!





    Far Side is one warped cartoon, and my Fav too!



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