Dan's Journal Entry

06/05/09

Walking to Victor’s pizza yesterday, Michele and I passed through a stretch of sidewalk covered in what I can only hope was a yellowish brown mess of dog shit, but was probably more likely, sick, homeless junkie shit. It had been stepped in by several people and possibly a dog or two, and was tracked all over about a block and a half of the sidewalk. There was so much of it that it actually seemed to build with each step rather than fade. It was as if the person tracking it hadn’t just stepped in poo, but was actually wearing shoes made of poo.

After leaving the restaurant we headed back toward the poop-stacle course, when a young sporty lady in workout clothes came striding ahead of us talking on her cel phone. But just as she was about to enter the minefield a very old Asian lady standing in the gutter slowly lifted her cane, pointed to the sidewalk and calmly said, “Ka ka”. And to all of our surprise the young woman, still deep in conversation, simply glanced over at the old lady, then down at the sidewalk, and without stopping, leaned over, reached down, and picked up a paper plate amongst the mess and continued down the street. But as she began to walk over to a trash can, I realized that she’d assumed the old woman was asking her to throw out the plate, to do her part for the city she lives in, and help rid San Francisco of it’s unsightly litter. And as she undoubtedly patted herself on the back, walking toward the trash can, the mostly white paper plate, blown back by the wind, curled up and down in her grip, and with every step, gently patted her on the knuckles with yellowy brown feces hidden just underneath the plate.