Random sights from around the corner

Ok, so I am pretty used to panhandlers. They hold up there sign asking for money, or food and are pretty much harmless. On an average day in a good spot, they probably make more money than me. I have seen them across the country, from Florida to New York, and from Nevada to Canada. They are all pretty much seem the same.

Not here. It seems that although Anchorage has a large number of homeless, they are different. Not different in the homeless sense, but in there attitude towards being homeless. You see, while most homeless people in the lower 48 seem to be dejected and morose, the homeless here seem to be very happy. We have one gentleman that frequents a corner and has a sign that reads, “Bill is looking for a rich wife with a fat ass”. He also dances and sings. He may be homeless, but at least he is enjoying himself. Other signs that I have seen around are, “looking for one sock”. I will have to drive by again to see if he really only has one sock, or if he is collecting one at a time. Another that has been seen is, “need one penny”. I suppose he is not setting his sights very high, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

Yesterday I saw something that I am not sure of what it was. As we were waiting at an intersection when we noticed a woman standing on a corner. She did not look homeless in any way, and was not holding a sign. What she was holding was what looked like a wolf pelt. The entire thing - Head and all. She just stood there with her flat friend draped over her shoulder and hanging down about 3-4 feet. I was quite puzzled (and still am…). Was she waiting for the light to turn to get across the street, or was she trying to sell the pelt? After getting done shopping, we noticed that she was still standing on the corner holding her deflated wolf. No sign, no indication of moving. I wanted to go ask her if she was selling the pelt, but we had bigger and better fish to fry that day. I suppose I could drive by and see if she is there again today.

Other than the wolf lady, it was a pretty normal day. One thing that I do need to get done is exchanging my cable box. It seems that the newest and best boxes that they have do not accept some channels. I have probably talked to customer service for 2 hours straight. I would venture to guess that I have talked to over half a dozen reps with no satisfaction. They did send out a cable repairman that looked at the box, pushed several buttons and made a 2 minute call to the “super secret tech support”. He came back and told me that the new and improved box did not work (I already figured that out…), and that I would need an old and inferior model. Great. Now I need to go get an older box to watch the new Hi-Def channels (all 5 of them). Hopefully it will be less of a hassle then dealing with customer support. We will see.