the weird things you see...

...on a New York City sidewalk. I was walking home from work the other night and I walked past a livery cab driver spray painting some random piece of something next to his car and I realized that New Yorkers will do just about anything on the sidewalk or the street. New Yorkers don't have front yards or backyards. They don't have their own garage or drive way. Many things that would normally get done in those places occure instead on the sidewalk.

When I got home the other night I asked everyone what the weirdest thing they ever saw someone do on a sidewalk and the popular answer was pee. There is a lot of public urination that happens here. One hopes, as they are walking down the street, that the puddles of pee are from dogs not humans but you can never be sure. My personal favorite is the curbside car wash. This may just be in my neighborhood but it makes me smile whenever I see it. Basically some guy has a shopping cart that's full of buckets of soapy water, rags and squeegees and he will wash cars wherever they are. The best is when they are moving from one car to the next pushing their shopping cart full of sloshing water managing to not spill a drop. Just imagine what this guy does but mobile.

I usually walk the same 10 blocks to and from work so I see the same things everyday with little variety. Mark has been temping for the University as a messenger so he really gets around the Upper West Side. He'll tell us about the things he sees and in the last few days he has told us some really good ones. A personal favorite is when he saw two hobos fighting over the same street corner. The so called owner of the street corner was accusing the other hobo of stealing the spot and subsequently any change to be earned. He even went as far as to try and take the change the spot stealing hobo had in his cup. It's a pretty funny image.

I think all of the weird things that happen on the streets help make New York what it is. Without them, it wouldn't be the same.