Hip hop heron

First off, I'm not really home at the time this is being posted. I'm pushing the date forward so I don't mix posts. :P

Strange bookends on the day, yesterday. Going to work, I had a bunch of people get on the SkyTrain on the stop after me, and they sat and stood nearby.

One young guy was going on and on about the hiphop scene in Toronto, comparing it to here. He was lamenting that here when he freestyles, nobody pays any attention, but back in Toronto (he says) people would stop and join in.

A girl he was talking to said she liked to rap too. He asked her to do some, and she said "I will if you will." So he did.

It was canned, not improvised. And it wasn't that good. Just because you're from Halifax (he said this later) doesn't mean you're supposed to sound like some guy from Detroit in the movies. Which he didn't, but he busted out all the slang and it was ridiculous. Word to Big Bird, homie.

And I know why nobody pays him any attention here. Bah.

Anyway, when he was done the girl started up. Her rhyme was much better, both in content and delivery, but it was obviously memorized too.

Not that I have anything against memorizing, but that ain't freestyling, IMHO.

So that was just before work. And the close of the day, after work?

I nearly got clocked by a crane. Or a heron. I kid you not.

We spotted this thing in early January. It just sort of perches motionless in this rusty runoff stream near the site, and does nothing. It's not fishing, so I don't know why it's in the water. Maybe so nothing sneaks up on it.

Anyway, some atrophied hunting sense must have come to the fore, because I stopped short my walk and sort of half ducked.

And THRUM THRUM THRUM this big-ass thing goes ripping by (so it seemed) just about where I was. And what was the first thought that went through my mind?

"Jesus, that's a big bug!"

Well, I don't usually have to dodge birds. :P

I relieved The Sleeper again. But something was different this time. Normally, the second I walk into the office he's shouldered his bag and is walking out. There's no talk between us, and I'm lucky to get a response to my "Hi".

But this time he saw me and dropped his bag. And he said "Hi" first.

It seems innocuous, I know, but it's really really weird behavior coming from him. He also had a semi-confrontational stance, at least for him.

"Hi," I said back, "how did you make out today?"

Meaning, of course, "how are you" without asking it, because he's forbidden me to ask that. Also was just a greeting, meant nothing.

"Fine," he said, and started wiggling his head from side to side for emphasis, "how did you make out?"

Uh... "good!" I said.

He hadn't moved, so I slid past him and dropped my bag on my desk. I started to unpack my uniform and such, and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that he hadn't moved, and was in fact staring at me. Then...

"So, did you get a good sleep today?"

What?

"Not really," I said.

And he laughed! Not as a comrade, but kind of a knowing snicker at the misfortune of others kind of laugh.

So I said "Something funny?"

He said "I asked you if you got a good sleep today, and you said no. I find that funny. Although you, not having had a good sleep, wouldn't. Bye."

And off he went.

What the hell just happened?!

I know this doesn't come across as much, but the guy is, in his own way, crazier than a shithouse rat. :P

The Romanian had a surprise inspection about two hours before I showed up too. He resented it, but only after the fact did he vent. And what did the guy harp on him about? His laziness? Nope. Sleeping on the job? Nope.

His socks.

He was wearing white socks, which we're not supposed to wear. Oh, and because as he wrote an entry on his report with a time slightly different from the watch on his supervisor's watch, the guy accused him of "falsifying records".

Don't think I didn't hear about this all night. :P

The Polish guy was on too. He'd taken a day off over the weekend to go to a judo tournament. I bet the Indian guy big money that he'd come back limping or wincing theatrically as he moved, so that he could tell us about some catastrophic injury that was dealing with on his own.

And sure enough, Hop-a-long came limping in claiming to have a broken ankle and several broken toes. No doctor visit for him, of course. Just some ibuprofen (spelled right?) and that's it.

You know, I'm pretty sure that at major martial arts tournaments they have doctors.

And the funny part was, when he was unaware that someone was watching, his gait seemed much smoother and limp free. Sigh.

There was an incredible burst of snow here during the night. It started as hail, shifted into such fine light powder that it seemed like rain you can see but can't feel, then the snow started. It quickly turned into gigantic cottony flakes, like something from a Disney Christmas movie. You know, flakes big and furry enough to wrap around yourself like an afghan.

Then it stopped, the temperature dropped, and everything was slick. And the piss poor drivers who think that the coefficient of friction remains a constant regardless of road conditions played demolition derby.

Makes me glad I take transit rather than drive myself.

Lots more people at work seem to know me by name. But it's all good now, because even if it's for some nefarious reason (mwah hah hah hah) they go out of their way to find me and say good morning, sometimes. And I'm unused to that, but it's not really a bad feeling.

I wonder what will happen tonight? There, hopefully that jinxed it so that it's an uneventful night. Or else it may be something like this. ;)