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July 16, 2005
Saturday in Syracuse
I’m in Syracuse with Mari and Eliza, and I’m having a great time. It’s so so good to seem them again; I’ve really missed them both. Mari looks great, she’s in fantastic shape, and apparently she’s pretty committed to staying in great shape, since she “can’t gain a pound and still fit into [her] wedding dress.”
We went out to a farmer’s market this morning and then on to the Syracuse Arts and Crafts fair. Not surprisingly, this one is pretty much isomorphic to the Clayton Arts and Crafts fair to which I went with Carol Ann last month. Still, it’s fun to walk up and down and see what there is to be seen. We also walked over the the Syracuse Blues Fest, which was taking place just a few blocks away.
On a sad note, Mari and I witnessed someone die, perhaps of heat stroke. We had wanted to use the ATM at a local bank branch, and this man was standing there before us, looking strange. Mari thought he was perhaps a bit drunk, while I thought he was perhaps a not-fully-together homeless man. He was a large man, pretty obese, wearing an apron that made him look like a short-order cook (which perhaps he was). Anyway, he was standing at the ATM in such a way as to make us a bit nervous, so we left and went to a different ATM.
Ten minutes later, we happened to be passing by on our way to the Blues Fest, and we saw an ambulence and three fire trucks at the ATM. Naturally, we were curious. We walked over and saw the man lying on his back surrounded by paramedics applying an oxygen mask. The man was literally blue, like a blueberry, his eyes were open but his body limp like dead weight. The paramedics were treating him as if he were alive, so we assumed he was. They put him into the ambulence and we left.
Later on we passed again on our way back to the Arts Fair, and we saw a police officer taking crime scene photos. We asked about the man, and he said he had died, probably of health-related causes. He speculated on heat stroke and high blood pressure, and apparently before he collapsed the man had been saying that he had just got off of work where it had been really hot.
His death is sad, to be sure, but also sad is the fact that we saw him ten minutes before he died and instead of approaching him and seeing if he was okay, we avoided him altogether. Mari and I are not thoughtless people, of course—if we had suspected he was in some sort of trouble, we would have done something immediately. What’s sad is that instead of assuming he was simply someone in need of help, we assumed he was someone drunk or troubled, or otherwise potentially dangerous and to be avoided.
While this certainly put a sober edge to the day, the rest of it was fun. We met a couple with a 14-week-old puppy, the cutest little dog I’ve ever seen. It’s a breed I’d never heard of before: a Coton de Tulear. Completely adorable, like a mini sheep dog. Right now we’re homing resting before going out to a movie. Tomorrow morning, Mari and I are driving in to NYC, where I’ll be for the next week.
Posted by alex at July 16, 2005 04:44 PM
Comments
yeah, but once that wedding is over, and the cat’s in the bag, you know I’m lettin’ myself go big time. xoxo - wonderful to have you in syracuse
Posted by: mari at July 17, 2005 11:00 PM