Sunday, April 6

everyone's out on the weekends

No one is employing the whisper chipper, it just sits on the block. In the covered bed of the whisper chipper truck instead of there being wood chips there is just a pile of unbroken branches. I can’t tell if the pile is getting larger or I’m just seeing it at different times of day when the light changes and you can see farther back into the covered bed. It’s just that the branches shouldn’t be whole, they should have gone through the chipper and come out of the chute to have landed in the back of the truck. But someone is just stacking sticks in the back of the truck and not using the whisper chipper. It’s not my business, but nothing on my substack is my business.

If it’s fine with it, I’m fine with it.

Here’s everyone I saw on my walk -

Two people unloading their car that I knew to have a Virginia bumper sticker on it. The car sits in a one-car garage at street level right up next to the sidewalk, and the door is always open whenever I walk by. The house is farther up the hill. I couldn’t see the bumper sticker because the hatchback was open, but I did recognize the car. The two people unloading their car were from Virginia and we said hi and I introduced myself and then I moved on; it didn’t need to be more than that. One of them was visiting the other here in LA, and I’m sure they had plans.

A guy in his garage up a secluded road to whom I said hi and I think he was pleasantly surprised that I acknowledged him through the gate of his driveway because we had a few more rounds of nice platitudes (how are you / I’m good / happy to hear it / you have a great day) than one would usually have.

The guy working at the liquor store when I stopped in to buy a soda. I saw him when I came in, then went around the corner to the sodas. When I came back, I didn’t see him at first, and the he emerged by rising straight up from behind the counter. Straight back. Coming up from a squat. Rose right up. It was crazy. I said holy cow you just came out of nowhere. He got it, he laughed. He must be working on keeping his back straight, it was a very conscious movement.

A woman holding a yard sale that I found by following a big orange sign with an arrow, like Wile E. Coyote himself. The woman was really nice, and she only wanted one dollar for a wooden serving tray, so I doubled back to my house to get one. It was mostly clothes and some costume jewelry. Spring cleaning.