Things I saw this week

I saw my first lizard. It moved pretty fast but I'm pretty sure it was a broadheaded skink. It was hanging around the trash compactor at the McCompound. I think I like the cute little green geckos in Florida better. This guy, or probably girl, was big enough to be a little scary. It made me jump as it slithered away.

There's this one spot on the road when I drive home where it always smells like sewage. It always surprises me because it's rural here in the outback suburbs and although this spot is on the road near the turnoff from the main highway, it's still not so developed that you would expect there to be a septic system problem.

Anyway about twice a week, I see an obviously homeless person lying under a tree on the small stretch of grass in the smelly zone that seems to be regularly mowed. His hair is so wild and long he looks like a woman from behind. He's always stretched out on the ground, not sleeping but with his back to the road and a half empty quart of cheap beer next to him. I always wonder why he doesn't sit somewhere else to drink. There's miles of road with good resting places that are more private and don't stink. I imagine he staggers that far from the store across the main drag and just gives up.

A couple of time a week I pass a jogger, who is always on the railroad overpass that carries the highway over the tracks. He's only there on the hottest days, red-faced and sweating, always with one shoe in his hand. I keep waiting to see him pass out before my eyes and fall onto the pavement.

He hasn't so far, but you have to wonder who in their right mind runs in the sun when it's still 98 degrees out there and why, with the miles of more pleasant and rural choices of route in that part of town, is he running along the bloody highway?

Sometimes I think I'll never understand southerners.