On November 9th, 2005 I wrote an entry about a man that I see with startling regularity around town. He’s an apish looking man that walks constantly. Since I wrote that entry, I’ve probably seen him about five more times or so. Today when I saw him, I had the presence of mind to get my camera phone out and take a picture. And here it is.



Unfortunately, it’s not the best picture. I was definitely planning on taking more, but he disappeared. It was really weird.

I was trying to act nonchalant while photographing him, but that got a little screwed up. I forgot that I had turned up the ringer on my phone to maximum volume last night, so that when I took the picture, the little camera sound effect was REALLY loud. I doubted that he had any inkling that I was taking his photo, but he slowed down at a bank of public phones and began checking each of their coin return slots for change. This saddened me because one of my pretend scenarios for the walking ape-man was that he was incredibly wealthy and just really liked walking a lot. I guess he still could be, but he’d have to be one really eccentric rich guy if he had a thing for finding loose change.

Anyway, I went ahead of him on the sidewalk as he searched the phones. I figured this might be the perfect way to get a shot of him from the front. I turned the volume of my phone down and slowed down, planning on pretending to talk on my phone and snap another picture as he passed by me. But as I put the phone to my ear and casually turned sideways, I snuck a peek down the street to find that he was no longer in sight. He was gone. I would have been more disappointed if I wasn’t so sure that I’d run into him again in the next couple weeks.

As I gave up and continued walking, new scenarios began to form in my mind. Maybe he did hear my camera snap his photo, and he didn’t want to take the chance that someone was taking his picture. Maybe he’s in hiding. Maybe he’s a mob informant that had to go into eyewitness protection. I did remark in my last entry about him that he does look very Guido-ish. If that’s the case, I’d really like to tell him that he’s not keeping a very low profile. I’m not even really looking for the guy and I see him EVERY WEEK.

More updates to come.