Huddled under a thick shawl on a hot spring day, the woman caught my eye as she peeled stickers off paper and stuck them to a street post.
Then I saw that the stickers were hearts, which really piqued my interest.
I told her I liked the stickers and asked if I could take a picture. She agreed, though she never looked up, just busied herself peeling and sticking those translucent, sparkly hearts.
I thought that was the story, a shy women sticking hearts on random poles. It turned out to be even more. The stickers are part of an #lalovesbirds project that asks residents to put stickers on their windows to discourage birds from crashing into them.
If you look closer, the woman’s display notes that 240 million birds are flying tonight. LA might love birds but LaLa, who was once the unjust recipient of a red-winged blackbird’s rage, is a little freaked out by them.
Still, it’s a charming story.
I spent some time on another street watching two guys lower a couch from their window. A third man stood underneath ready to catch the thing. The couch dwarfed the man as it made its way down to him. I thought he’d get squashed like a bug, but he actually caught a full-sized couch and hauled it to a truck.
Away from the dangling furniture he would not have appeared to be a man who could catch a couch. Sometime’s a fellow’s strength can surprise you.
I chatted with another lady in the middle of the street as the farmer’s market teemed around us. I had been drawn to a cute display of clothes I thought might be perfect for my granddaughters. On closer inspection, I realized they were better suited for Benny the Wonderdog.
“Aren’t they cute?” the woman said as she perused wracks of tiny Northface (Northdog on closer inspection) parkas.
“Very cute,” I said. “And kind of fascinating too.”
We humans are a quirky bunch and the dogs who love us put up with a lot.
On another street I spotted a sculpture in the front yard of a home. Blocks later I got the joke. It was a replica of a giant scissors cutting paper on a rock. Rock. Paper. Scissors. Shoot the photo.
We live in a world full of interesting stories. I’m grateful for days when I have the time to enjoy them.
