Who leaves a paper plate of Ceasar salad in the park?
I’m walking my dog early this morning before the eastern sky even hints of daylight as is our routine. Being that it was so early in the morning, I unleashed her to let her explore the neighborhood green space while I did a few pushups. Also, our usual routine. She sniffed her way to the fence line at the back of the park and began working her way back towards me as she does every day.
Being that was a clear morning, and the sky was void of moonlight, I snapped a few celestial photos of Venus, Jupiter, Aldebaran, and Betelgeuse along with a few surrounding stars. Man’s best friend continued to sniff and snort her way down the fence line towards me. She always sniffs and forages for mushrooms and sedge grass to munch. On this morning however, she was treated to something knew.
I was standing about fifty feet from her and noticed that something had grabbed her attention. A second later her head buried into the ground as she was clearly eating something and in a hurry. I approached to find my dog breathing in the lettuce, parmesan, and creamy dressing as if she had never eaten a day in her life. I mean she was full on scarfing down this plate of dressed up rabbit food. Picture Chance from “Homeward Bound” eating his kibble out of the bowl and the sounds he makes while doing it. Or, if you’ve ever witnessed hogs eating from the slop trough, a similar sound was heard from her. Not very ladylike, but hey, we were at the park, so I guess table manners were out of the question.
Her neck craned for just one more bite as I pulled her away and put her back on the lead. I shone my light onto the paper plate while she licked her chops and saw a half-eaten plate of Ceasar salad and a plastic fork. Now, I know for a fact that she took in 3-4 dog sized mouthfuls in those few seconds and the amount left was still enough to be a side salad serving at any fast-food Italian place, so I couldn’t help but wonder. Did someone leave an entire paper plate of Ceasar salad in the park overnight? Did they forget it when they packed up their picnic basket and blanket?
There are two trashcans at either end of the 100×50 Yard greenspace. Did they not have the energy to walk the plate to the trashcan? Perhaps because they didn’t finish their meal, they lacked the brain energy to execute proper civility. Either way, it did not make any sense to me.
I pick up trash there about once a week to try to keep it nice. There is a house being renovated and the workers take their lunch underneath the park shade trees. Sometimes, I find their leftover pizza crust, sub sandwich wrappers, and clear plastic cups scattered, but never a full plate of salad. This clearly was not them because I walked this same route at dusk yesterday evening and my hungry pup would’ve found this plate then.
So, someone left a full plate of salad in the park overnight fork and all. It just didn’t and still doesn’t make sense. Once the sun comes up, I’m going back to the park to further investigate and pick up the scattered salad remains, but for now, it just doesn’t make sense.
So, what does make sense? Well, these three college football picks for Saturday just make sense to me:
- Rutgers 24- Miami (OH) 6
- Miami @ Rutgers 1:30 Peacock
- Stanford +18.5
- Stanford @ BYU 8:15 ESPN
- LSU -37.5
- LA Tech @ LSU 5:30 SEC Net+
I’ll probably never know who or why the salad was left in the park overnight fork and all, but hey, that’s life bucko. Nearly zero percent of it makes logical sense anymore.
The fuzzy snores the morning away now, but we did have a guttural expungement in the back yard a few moments ago. Chunks of iceberg lettuce and strands of parmesan formed a wet, but neat pile that I just threw away. It smelled, but not so different from actual Ceasar salad. Funky parmesan and anchovies already have that sort of regurgitated smell even when they are served fresh. Oh! I get it now!
Someone must’ve prepared a Ceasar salad for the first time in their life. Because of the smell, they decided to eat it outside of their home, and not just out of their home, but completely off their property. So, they walked to the park and took one bite, but it was so horrific that they just left it there. Perhaps a similar regurgitative feeling came upon them suddenly and to risk the embarrassment of spewing in public, ran home and left the salad in the park for my pup to find this morning. This makes sense.
At least some sense. Who knows? Who really cares? At the end of the day, the funky and illogical keep a day in the life interesting. By golly, those devoid of logic seem to be multiplying like the rabbits that eat such meals like plates of lettuce for breakfast. The future may not be bright, but I guess it’ll keep getting more interesting. Because in the weird and funky, there is also interesting.
Find the Humor and Keep on Movin’
Whit W.