Cav's Place

The second half of spring and the first half of autumn are the best times to go out and explore the city, or at least that’s how it seems to me. Summer’s too hot and it can even be unsafe to be out because of that, early spring and late autumn are usually too rainy and likely also chilly, and winter may be a nice time to go out but needing to wear thick clothing, take care not to slip on ice and navigate through piles of snow makes it unfit for walking long distances and exploring unknown areas. That last part obviously only applies for real winters, like the last one was, because otherwise what I said about early spring and late autumn would also apply to pretty much any other winter we had during the last decade.
That said and seeing as we’re already well into the second half of spring, I’m starting to poke my nose out way more than I did during the past several months. Right now this was also helped by the fact that, due to unforeseen and highly unfortunate circumstances, I’ve been home alone for the past week, but I was planning to go exploring anyway. Now dad is back home, which in itself would still mean I’d be alone most of the time during the day, but it appears they’ll both be back on Saturday, though at this point I have no idea for how long. Either way, when I’m not alone I’m very unwilling to go out of my room unless I have to, which makes it quite unlikely to get out of the house more than once per week, as that’s the minimum quota I set for myself over three years ago, but going out once per week to explore certain areas of the city is still very different from going out once per week just be able to say that I was out, running right back in after a few minutes.

The first such “exploration” was supposed to take place last Saturday, but that didn’t work out. I meant to check out this supermarket that’s right across the street, as I might have ended up needing to buy something while alone and it could have been useful to know if I could somehow get it from here. But you’re certain to have at least a few pairs of eyes on you when you walk in there, so I only made it to the door, got cold feet and left without even going in.
Then I meant to try again on Monday, and at first that seemed to be an even worse failure, as I couldn’t even get myself to the door that time, panicking and walking right past despite meaning to go in. That left me wondering what to do next for the next couple of minutes, then decided to go to the park, cross through it and come out the other side. Once there, I realized there was little point to keep going, as I wasn’t going to explore anything else while in that state, so I just turned around and went right back the way I came. But just as I was passing in front of this supermarket on the way back, I saw an old man coming out, which suddenly gave me the courage to go in, thinking I can survive it if he can… That was about as uncomfortable as I thought it’ll be, as the place is very cramped and you can’t be “invisible” while inside, but at least I had a look and therefore accomplished what I set out to do.
But I went out yet again the very next day, the target being a farmers’ market that I noticed was supposed to be right next to an area I thought I knew reasonably well. That was another failure, not because I wandered around for a while before managing to find the place I thought I needed to get to, but because the market wasn’t there. I found a better map after getting back and plan to try again next week, however.
And then I also went out today. The target was another farmers’ market, with an added vague intention to have a look at a couple of other shops that are supposed to be close to it. And at least the primary goal was reached, as it was easy to find the market and have a quick look at the offer, but I had to quickly make my way out as soon as the first person invited me to buy something from them as I passed their stall, obviously being in no condition to do any more exploring after that, especially since the shops in question are pretty small and therefore all eyes may very well be on any person who enters.

So far, my primary targets when I went out exploring were often parks, either meaning to learn the best route to a particular park or to explore certain areas of the park itself. Occasionally, when I either needed something and thought I could get it myself or at least wanted to see what my options were, I’d change the primary target to a hypermarket. And when I learned of a potentially interesting fair, especially if it wasn’t strictly during the weekend, that could become my target, despite obviously not buying anything. But this time I think I want to make farmers’ markets the primary target, to learn where they are, what’s for sale and what the prices are there, and hopefully also get an idea about where you can find actual farmers’ products and where you’re likely to just be tricked with supermarket goods. If nothing else, it’ll give me something more to say to dad when I pointlessly try to talk to him about healthy food and the like…

As for the expected strange event, as Jen was noticing some time ago that I keep attracting strange people, it happened on Tuesday and involved me walking down the sidewalk and spotting three obviously Gypsy men coming from the opposite direction, pretty much blocking the entire sidewalk. There was a guy riding a bicycle behind them and trying to find a way to get past, moving slowly and looking back several times once he did. After he went past me as well, I made towards the street, as it seemed the best way to get around the three. Just then, I noticed a stream of yellow liquid coming from between the legs of the one who was closest to the street. The source, as expected and as noticed a moment later, was my esteemed pedestrian colleague’s dick, out of his pants and flapping about with each step he took. So I quickly made for the other side as the pissing guy yelled “forgive me for I know not what I’m doing”. Said other side appeared quite fully blocked by the other two, but they moved single file just when I reached them and allowed me to get around, with them in between me and the pissing guy. The one who actually moved aside to make room for me also threw a “making jokes mister, eh?” just as I passed him.
Now a guy pissing while walking, with his dick out and flapping freely, is certainly not what you expect to see while walking past the commercial area of a relatively important street! And, after checking my pants to make sure I didn’t get sprayed, the surprise quickly turned into amusement, making me struggle to keep from bursting too loudly into laughter on the way back.