Seeking Speedoman

If you look, you can see the rain hitting the river.

The other day I talked a co-worker into having lunch with me in the park by the river. I didn't tell him in advance, but part of my motivation was to see if Speedoman was still around. For those of you who do not know, Speedoman is an older man (80s maybe) who runs at this park daily in just a Speedo and running shoes. At least, when the weather is nice that is what he wears. If he runs year round, which I assume he does, I'm sure he wears more when it is cold out.

Though it was beautiful in the morning when we made our plans, it started to get cloudy just as we left for lunch. Partway to the park, it started to sprinkle. There are plenty of picnic shelters, so I wasn't that worried. Just as we reached the park, it started to rain. I let Brian pick the shelter, so we decided to take the one closest to the river to have a good view -- plus I could park right up next to it.

One of the filthy tables.

We walked in and noticed immediately that there were a LOT of birds in the rafters. Of course, lots of birds mean, well, lots of bird droppings all over the tables. At this point, it had started raining pretty hard, so we found a fairly clean spot and decided to stay. Luckily I had extra paper towels to cover the table where I was eating. After a few minutes, Brian got up and stood in the middle of the shelter while I finished eating. I was about to ask him why when the answer became obvious -- big drops of water were landing all around me. Looking up I saw the roof was holier than Swiss cheese! I finished eating standing up, we ran for the car and drove around the park until it was time to head back to work.

Wouldn't you know, just as it was time to head back to work, the rain stopped and the sun came out. By the time we got near our office, the streets were totally dry!

Well, I didn't get to see Speedoman that day, but eating in the bird-infested shelter was an adventure -- one I don't plan to repeat. And if I come down with some weird illness in the next week or so, I'm sure it will be some type of bird flu.