Monday, February 15, 2010

The Circus Outside My Window...Day 4

AllTheRingsThatFit
EmptyVille


My office is located a stone's throw from the Circus' most Westerly (ie. not-so-important hockey) Pincer.

So, here's the thing.....

The nearby streets have been closed /diverted for 10 days now.

And the parking lot where I would park if I didn't ride in most days has been closed since last Wednesday.

And thank the goddess for that because....by today at noon on Day 4 that parking lot, which is directly outside my window, was a beehive of activity with, exactly:

-2 white passenger vans

-1 McDonaldsAd-festooned pick-up truck

-4 loitering blue coats gobbling off-site food from the nearby house of the evil green g'girl (although to be fair, extra excitement and activity was provided by the fact that one of the fine folks in blue was spinning her lanyard like a yo-yo doing 'Around-The-World' and talking animatedly about something or other)....


And that's it.

That's what all the fuss is about so far today.


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There was one bit of excitement on the weepy Saturday afternoon just passed (ie. Day 2) that occurred when I had the temerity to cut across the empty parking lot on my way home, which led to the sudden swooping in of a stormtrooper-laden (well, ok, a couple of corpulent horsemen-in- body-armour-laden), camouflaged ATV out of nowhere to make sure I wasn't a protester with a message, a bike helmut made of compressed plastic shards of Esa Tikkanen's old Jofas, and MEC raingear....Or some such thing...(of course, they waved me on when they saw the whites of my eyes, the white of my hair, and, presumably, the white of my.....oh nevermind...)


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8 comments:

Burgess said...

Isn't it amazing that one's normal activities now come under 'possible' activity to create civil disruption? A few years back while driving around Germany in our green VW camper van we were stopped twice at border crossings (Belgium and Switzerland) with machine pistols pointed at us while the van was searched. The third time was when my wife was taking a neighbour's daughter to the hospital. Guns out and pointed and car again checked. All this on a suspicion that somehow the Badder/Meinhof gang had escaped after the murder of a trial judge and escorts in Karlsrhue had escaped in - - you guessed it -- A green Volkswagon Van with Canadian Military licence plates on the vehicle. At the time both children 8 and 5 both asked 'Where those real guns?" Yup.

Aunty Bertha said...

Ross, you should come and visit me in the red zone. It's nucking futz here.

Just walking my dog has become a death defying experience

GAB

West End Bob said...

Good thing the corpulent horsemen-in-body-armour-laden ATV saw all that white on you, RossK. Alison had some issues a few days back 'cause she was wearin' black. (You could have heard all about it had you joined us Saturday.) "Burn . . . ."

Anonymous said...

pacificgazette.blogspot.com; You saved my day again.

RossK said...

Burgess--

Heckuva story....and way scarier than mine....Thing is, unless you count the 14 year old kids who like to skateboard atop the now cordoned-off, submachine-protected parking-lot across the way and, 'allegedly' throw old computer monitors down into the alley below late on Saturday nights (nights when I'm never, ever here writing grants or waiting for Engelebreth-Holm-Swarm sarcoma-derived matrix to polymerize) well, nary a whiff of Circus-Crashing Gangs out here, Badass/BernieMadoff or otherwise...

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RossK said...

GAB--

Will get a taste of your nuckfutz zone later today when I head out to pick up little e. from tapdance class just up the street from the house that Suitcase Smith built.


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RossK said...

Ahhhhhh.....sorry to have missed that story Bob....And all the others...Sounds like a good time was had by all!

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RossK said...

Anon-Above--

You got me, 'cause there is no link to something stupid....

But, still, I've gotta ask.....

You spammin' to me?

Huh?

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