Every weekday I take my boy to school by bike or on foot. We use the beach cycle path for about a kilometer and our routine includes seeing our neighborhood regulars. Unfortunately, it's not easy to take pictures of people who are simply going about their business, but I thought I'd write about them.
I park my bike in the underground parking lot, and the ramp to get out is super steep. I put the bike on the lowest gear, and I have to really concentrate on my legs to get to the top without having to push the bike half way up. The kid, comfortably seated in his chair, doesn't really get how hard this is to do, but the security guards at the gate sure do! They cheer me on loudly every time I get to the top without putting my feet down!
As we ride the "doggie pooh path" toward the beach, I pass men jogging barefoot (yuck) and carrying their surfboards for a pre-work ride with the waves. What a way to wake up!
By the main pedestrian crossing to the beach, there is a civic traffic controller who wears a completely fluorescent city-issued outfit who stands every morning in the traffic with his whistle. Thank goodness for him. He directs both pedestrians and commuters and I'm sure has prevented countless injuries and fatalities.
There is older bald man who wears silver, mirrored aviator
sunglasses who runs on the beach every morning in his speedo and
fluorescent running shoes. He wouldn't stand out that much if he didn't
run on the tip of his toes as if he was barefoot and the sidewalk was
burning hot and if he didn't have a super shinny white perma-smile on his
face. He makes me smile.
At certain times of the year, lifeguard
recruits train along the beach by running army-style on the cycle path while yelling out army type calls. These fine bodied men in black speedos
and red tank-tops make for delicious eye candy first thing in the
morning. I almost find myself almost cat-calling. Yow-zee!
There's a short, fat lady with frizzy hair who parks her ancient rusted car by the kid's school. She's the local Starbucks. She brings out white plastic stools and serves coffee and homemade cake from the trunk of her car. All the neighborhood workers congregate there and talk; doormen, gardeners, construction workers, and hotel workers. What a simple way to connect with others.
The school doorman/kid wrangler/traffic controller/greeter, Gil, is there standing by the red metal door of the school. He is indispensable. The school and two others are on a dead-end, residential street which is narrow, and requires that cars face each other down to decide who is going to get by, with a guard gate on one end and a boat launch on the other. Plus there is a entrance/exit for large construction vehicles that pull in and out without any notice in a giant cloud of dust. Not to mention, the moms on bicycles, pedestrians with their surfboards, nannies with strollers, dogs, the frizzy haired cake lady, the working parents trying to park and drop off their kids, other drivers who park on the sidewalk, the highschool kids that throw almonds at each other while running across the street and the fact that there isn't really a sidewalk makes this morning adventure very "exciting". Did I mention, that the school doorman is indispensable? Again another dedicated hard working person who surely has prevented a many school drop-off disaster.
On another note, sometimes after I drop off the kid, I jog on the quieter residential streets near the school. I see other doormen come out on the sidewalk to sweep the street in front of the apartment buildings. All I hear is my breath, the birds and the swishing of their brooms. It's beautiful.
At lunch hour when I come back to get my boy, I ride though the cloud of construction dust while holding my breath and see some construction workers sleeping in the shade of the trees on
the boulevard. Others run across the street in their wet shorts to
join them after a refreshing dip in the ocean. Now that's what I call a
lunch break!
And back along the beach we go! We might even pass the " Smiling Toe Running Man" again!
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| Gil, the "indispensable' school doorman |
