Seeing Signs

Phew! The weather report on Saturday called for rain, but the collective mood of the artisans and patrons alike kept the wet clouds at bay and we sighed with relief as the sun came out to play, long enough for us to take note of these signs.

In the early morning, a “homeless” man stopped by our booth to rant. He showed me photos of his apartment, talked about his $700.00 bicycle and continued to spew resentment that the economy has been affecting his begging business.

After listening for quite awhile, I found the magic wand to make him disappear. I asked him point blank, that since he wanted everybody to give him money, what was he willing to give them in exchange? A smile, a kind word, a blessing? He, ahem, suddenly had to go.

Eugene is a quirky place. Admittedly, sometimes I have felt “stuck” here, but that was B.C. (before camera), and now I’m discovering my bliss, my heaven.

I don’t exactly want to say that Eugene is white bread, but pulling straight from the City of Eugene Recreation catalogue, there is an “Ethnic Excursion” planned. Any guesses what it could be? Lunch at a Thai restaurant, housed in the former International House of Pancakes. Oh, my sides are hurting I’m laughing so hard. And wait, there’s more. Here is a direct quote from the description, “After lunch, a mystery stop around town is usually planned.” Mystery stop? Usually planned? Boy, sign me up.

NOTE: When Groom proofread this, he came to the “Ethnic Excursion” paragraph and choked. He exclaimed, “This can’t be true, nobody is going to believe you!” I whipped out the catalogue and pointed to the lower left-hand side of page 52. We both had a second fit of laughter.

Through his tears, he rationalized the mystery stop and why it is usually planned. “The driver has to roam around downtown in the tour bus until he spots somebody that could pass as a ‘person of ethnicity.’”

We were cracking ourselves up. Then I said, “That explains why that bus full of people were honking and waving at me and taking snapshots the other day. Is that why they’re called honkies?”

If Eugene is spread on the white bread side of life, its edges can get a little moldy. These rough edges that used to poke at my raw nerves have become fuel for inspiration.

You may not be able to partake of the “ethnic lunch excursion,” but we can proceed with a mystery stop or two around town.

We purposely walked down 13th to photograph Antrican’s hand-painted mural, and I am ashamed to admit I didn’t know it had been “accidentally” painted over two years ago. What? Where have I been?

I don’t think the signs would be as interesting if every photograph were taken from the same angle, say straight on and centered. That’s why a few of these well-known landmarks are only partially on view. For those of you who live here, you’ll know straight away where everything belongs, but for those of you who reside elsewhere, I guess that’s the “mystery” part of this tour.

P.S. We are looking forward to having our own website, The Language of Light, completed. The photos in this blog format are often cropped in strange places and/or squished together in odd ways after posting. The finished result looks very different than what we see beforehand and we are trying not to be too disappointed. Click on the photo to enlarge and use the back button on your browser to return to this page.