Uncommon Characters

On Saturday mornings, I take a break from my usual routine, and instead of doing my normal 2.5 mile walk, I pause at the halfway point and stop in at the local McDonald’s for breakfast. I follow-the-sun, so this time of year I am usually out the door at 5:30am, a time when only the hardcore athletes and desperate dog-walkers are about, the former pounding pavement, the latter picking up poop1. Rather than listen to a book on my walk (my normal procedure the six other days of the week), I listen to the SiriusXM 80s on 8 top 40 countdown for this week in some year in the 1980s2. The local McD’s is a casting central for some uncommon characters. There’s the fellow in the same booth by the window every day, slowly making his way through the Post, refilling his coffee after each section or so. No matter how early I arrive, he is there in the booth. There is the fellow with the limp, who wears a vest no matter the season, who usually takes a booth in the corner, and who always nods in…