Adventures in Raleigh

Now that I'm working a bit more during the day, I can take lunches while I'm downtown. It took me a while, but eventually I learned it is far faster to walk a few blocks to the "mall" (which is not really a mall, but a former pedestrian zone now a street) than it is to walk to my car and drive out of downtown to somewhere I recognize more and can get to with a car. So I started eating downtown.


There's a restaurant around here called BabaGhannouj, that is owned by a friend of mine's dad. I used to eat there... then he sold it and it became AbouGhannouj or something like that. I still eat there, get the same spicy curry chicken with fatoush. I hadn't been down there in a while because my work schedule has been such that I wasn't downtown for lunch. (Plus I was cooking so I ate at home more.) But yesterday on Salisbury St. I saw this unusual creature:


That long snout is sniffing the curb for trash. I've seen people in downtown Raleigh who are paid to pick up trash (with the trash-poker sticks) but this was new. This we do to keep the streets clean I suppose. I understand that in the middle east people just drop their garbage on the street without a care--here, there are trash cans, but apparently people "miss" or we wouldn't need such bizarre trash eaters, would we?


Today I went to Quizno's though, which is a short hike downhill from my building. It is owned by a Hindu couple who is very nice--plus they give me a discount for being a state employee! Yay! But on the way back, I see this character:


The picture quality isn't that great, not great enough for you to recognize that he's probably about 80 years old. Such a police officer would lead you to think that Raleigh is a safe place to live, right? Very low crime... but he reminds me of a little whistlin' tune. Is it my fault I can't help but think of Don Knotts (aka Barney Fife) whenever I see old policemen like this?


Maybe I have a right, being a native North Carolinian, to see random Andy Griffith references everywhere. Although, I feel compelled to tell the world there is no such place as Mayberry, but the show was actually filmed in a town called "Mt. Airy." And now there's a country song by a band called Rascal Flatt's about Mayberry... he sings: I miss Mayberry, sittin' on the porch drinkin' ice cold cherry... coke! Where everything is black and white...


Ohhhh a metaphor!!