Strange Happenings:

I like to take walks at lunch. It’s nice to get out of the cubicle, away from my phone that never stops ringing and crowded inbox. It gives me some time to think.

I’m mostly left alone; although I get hit up for change a lot. I vary the route, sometimes traversing over the Roebling suspension bridge and around the Ascent.

That’s the route I chose today. I was deep in thought when I reached the Kentucky side of the river, and saw a disheveled looking man smoking a large, hand rolled cigarette standing by a lightpost with two duffel bags. I had the busy road to my left, and a sharp drop off to the river to my right. I couldn’t avoid him.

Steeling myself to utter my often repeated line “Sorry, man, I don’t have any cash.” I began to walk towards him. He looked up and saw me, beginning to dig in one of the various plastic bags by his duffels.

I had no idea what he was doing. Was he looking for another cigarette? Was he going to try and pull the bag over my head and cart me off to a desolate location? I hoped he didn’t have poop in the bag. That would be unpleasant.

I was totally unprepared for what came next. It was none of those things.

He pulled out a dollar and held it out to me. “Here.”

I stopped and backed up a step. “I can’t take that.”

“Go ahead.”

My brain was not processing the situation. My hand took the dollar. I tried to hand it back.

“Are you sure you don’t need it?”

“Nope. I’m always thinking about you. Go get yourself a pop.”

The whole situation was really odd. Someone who I perceived to be homeless, giving me a dollar. And then there was the whole thinking-about-you thing. I don't remember ever seeing this person before. What was that supposed to mean?

Those thoughts spinning around in my head, I tucked the dollar in my pocket and continued walking around the Ascent. It took me less than a minute to get back to the lightpost.

The man and his duffel bags were gone. I looked all around for five minutes, but I couldn’t find him. I checked my pocket. Had I been hallucinating? No. The dollar was still sitting in my pocket, making no sense.

I walked back to work thinking about a lot of things. Why did he give me the dollar? Who was he? And where did he disappear to? Am I supposed to get something out of this? What should I do with this dollar?

I really don’t know what to do with the dollar. The whole situation was really strange, so I feel kind of like I should do something special with it. Should I make a dollar donation to a charity or pay it forward somehow? Give it to someone sitting on the street corner? Buy the suggested soda?

For now, it’s just sitting on my desk. I keep giving it strange looks. What do you think I should do with this mysterious dollar?

Kelly Miller Circus:

I was sitting at my desk on Monday morning, muddling through permanent parcel numbers and postal codes with the Butler county Auditor when I got my Dad’s email.

“Want to go to the circus on Friday? Check with David and let me know. I am picking up tickets today.”

I called David and asked him if he wanted to go to the Circus in Loveland. The Kelly Miller Circus was visiting, which is a smaller, one ring circus. They were setting up at the Loveland high school.

David, ever the skeptic, ventured that it would be one guy with a few dogs jumping through hoops.

“C’mon.” I said. “It will be fun. I looked it up, they have elephant rides. Don’t you want to ride the elephant?”

I won out in the end, and told Dad to get us tickets. On Friday last week, we headed up to Loveland to see the circus, my second, and David’s first ever.

They led with their strongest act, in our opinion. Tigers!

"Hey Bob, should we eat Casey today?"


"Meh, maybe later. I saw him down two burritos for lunch. We should wait a day or two."

Four adults and one adolescent tiger were wheeled up to the ring and hopped out of their cages and onto their little platforms. Dad had upgraded our seats to ringside, so we were in the front row.






Tiger paws!

"Aw, why do I just have to sit here and watch?"

The Tiger Tamer, Casey McCoy, had two things, a bullwhip in one hand, and what looked like a large kitty toy in the other. When the tigers got cranky—which was often, they were pretty snarly—he would flick it in front of their faces to distract them.




OMG, they caught Shere Khan!


The Ringling Brothers circus is very polished and you’re usually sitting pretty far away when you attend. Sitting ringside next the single ring set up on the school parking lot, 6 feet away from 5 tigers was pretty exciting. The sense of peril was very real. You really can’t bribe tigers with peanuts. Maybe nachos, but they’d probably be more interested in your arm.



We noticed that the tigers, though snarly, postured themselves a lot like housecats. Big, grumpy housecats. That can roar. And eat you.






I will not roll over, I wont, I wont!

The next act was juggling. Hats, balls, and ping pong balls.




Juggler Brett Michael


After that, a balancing act on something called a Rola Bola, featuring Fridman Torales. I’m not sure how this guy did it. He must do a lot of yoga.

meh.

OK, I'm impressed.

Touche, Torales.

Sure enough, David was right, and there were dogs jumping through hoops. But he did not predict them pushing each other in the doggie bassinet.


da-da-dada-dada-da-da-dada...

Whee!



boing



superdog to the rescue!

Of course, there were clowns, along with a ringmaster, John Moss III, that I found to be a mix of Stephen Colbert and Bob Saget, mostly Saget, a little Colbert.









There was also the hula hoop master, Deyanira, who I respect because I can’t even hula one hoop.








she also looks like she's trapped in a giant slinky

I told Dad I wanted a lightsaber, and he complied during intermission, bringing me back a green one.



The elephants appeared which we did not ride because they were kind of smelly and kept farting. They held eachother’s tails, which I thought was very cute. One of them sneezed all over the people at the other side of the ring, which David caught and I sadly missed.









And then, what David said was the best act, a dog in a mini elephant suit.







There were some acrobatics, and then a motorcycle on a tightrope with a trapeze.




alright, who let Peter Pan's shadow in here? that guy's nothing but trouble.







As we left, I bought David a red lightsaber even though it was $12 just to take these pictures