So long, ball!

I was heading to my local coffee shop when, seemingly out of nowhere, a guy jumped into the sidewalk chasing a bouncy ball. Based on his outfit, I assumed he was homeless. He clumsily tried to grab the ball a few times as it headed toward the busy street. “Ugh, who’s this weirdo,” I thought. (We have a lot of weirdos in Portland. It’s one of our things. Some of us have grown a bit weary of it.) As the ball bounced off the sidewalk and into traffic, he stopped, stood upright, gave a military salute, and said in a firm voice, “So long, ball!” I processed for a moment. “I love this guy!” I thought. I told the story to my family later, and my son could not stop laughing. It was a funny moment and good reminder to myself to not be so dang judgmental.