So long, ball!
I was heading to my local coffee shop when, seemingly out of nowhere, a guy jumped into the sidewalk chasing a bouncy ball. Based on his outfit, I assumed he was homeless. He clumsily tried to grab the ball a few times as it headed toward the busy street.
“Ugh, who’s this weirdo,” I thought.
(Not proud of that reaction, but we have a lot of drug-addled weirdos in Portland. Some of us have grown a bit weary of it.)
As the ball bounced off the sidewalk and into traffic, he stopped, stood upright, gave a military salute, and said in a firm voice, “So long, ball!”
I processed for a moment.
“I love this guy!” I thought.
I told the story to my family later, and my son could not stop laughing.
It was a funny moment and good reminder to myself to not be so dang judgmental.