Quote of the Day: Lewis Mumford

"Humor is our way of defending ourselves from life's absurdities by thinking absurdly about them."


Yesterday as I was pulling out of my driveway, I saw a shadowy figure run into the backyard so naturally - since I am the man of the house - I had to investigate. Before I even made it to the gate a man in a red and black coat jumped out in front of me and squared his body at me like a gunfighter about to face off with a rival. He said, "Can I help you?"

"How about can I help you?"

"I'm okay." He had a very bad stutter.

"What are you doing here? This is my house."

"Seattle City Light," he said very slowly as if I was a crazed animal that needed to be soothed. He held up plastic badge attached to a lanyard. "You don't think it's real?"

"All right. I just had to check." By the way, it looked very cheap and fake. "Sorry," I said as I got in my car.

He then came up from behind me as I was shutting the door and said, "No worries. Happens all the time."

He then proceeded to stand there until I got creeped out enough to shut the door and drive off. My last image of him was of him shining a flashlight under my garage door for no apparent reason.

Nothing was stolen so all's well that ends well. Still, kind of weird.