Fraught circle

[randy_byers]

Forgot to mention that on Saturday I hauled some water to the tree in the traffic circle at the bottom of the hill. An older guy in a pick-up stopped and said, "Don't get yourself killed!"

I laughed. "You're not going to punch me out, are you?"

"Not today, I guess," he said, and he drove on.

For those not in Seattle, this was in reference to James Paroline, who was killed last week while watering a traffic circle. It's a bizarre story, in which he had set out traffic cones to protect his garden hose while he was working in the traffic circle, got into a verbal argument with a couple of young women who were unhappy about the traffic cones, and then was punched by a guy and fell to the ground, where he struck his head. He later died from head injuries. The guy who threw the punch, Brian Keith Brown, has turned himself in.

Anyway, it's big news around these parts, and I'm sure most locals reading this will have immediately understood the joke in my interaction with the guy in the pick-up. Needless to say, I won't be putting out any traffic cones when I work the circle.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I guess I just don't pay enough attention to local news -- I caught a little bit of this story, when Brown turned himself in, but I hadn't previously heard about the events leading up to the incident. People need to just calm down.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Seriously. It's just hard to imagine a death resulting from something so trivial. Further proof that truth is stranger than fiction.

[alces2.livejournal.com]

Guerilla Gardening can be dangerous, it seems. Be careful out there.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm a polite gardener, and remember: a polite gardener is an armed gardener. Hold on, that doesn't sound quite right ...

[alces2.livejournal.com]

Gee, should I refer you to this information page? Revolver, not pistol (semi-automatic). I don't have a gun, revolver, pistol or other firearm although if I keep reading articles like this I wonder if I will become paranoid enough to do so. I doubt P would let me have such a thing in the house. Everyone assures me that it will never happen and it is just the paranoid lunatic conspiracy theorist fringe spouting totally unbased rumors.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I've often thought I should at least learn how to shoot a gun just on general principles, but I'm too damned lazy. Also, Chekhov's Gun makes me think that having one around would only mean it would have to go off, whether I really wanted it to or not.

By the way, that first link gave me a 404 error.

[alces2.livejournal.com]

Hm, let us see if this link works. It is a pdf file.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yep, that worked. His ideas about why politicians might support gun control are a bit, um, simplistic, but I'm sure the rest of his information is good. (On my more contrarian days, I'll argue that the government should provide every citizen with a gun.)

[puffpastry.livejournal.com]

OMG, when I lived in Seattle, I was FASCINATED by the traffic circles (we didn't -- and don't -- have them in Minneapolis), and one day a notice went into the mailboxes in my Capitol HIll apartment building saying that they were looking for someone to landscape and adopt the traffic circle closest to our building. I was SO excited -- I immediately envisioned an entire future for me and my adopted traffic circle -- but when I called to put in my bid for being circle-gardener, I was informed they'd had, like, 120 applicants. Competition is apparently FIERCE for traffic circles!

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Wish there were that much interest in my neighborhood (in Fremont)! I'm the only one that does any weeding or watering, as far as I can tell, although somebody else does the same for the other traffic circle on our street. For that matter, we did have a big turnout when we did the initial landscaping and planting.

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

What is wrong with people? I saw this in the news and I could not believe it. Keep safe on your traffic circle. Ours are tended here on Phinney Ridge, but not by me.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Actually, passersby are very friendly to me when I'm working in the circle. I've been thanked by many people for doing the work. I think what happened to James Paroline was just one of those bizarre things that come out of nowhere.