Those things you'd never think you'd see, the things you always expected to see, and the things you couldn't even imagine could happen in Paris.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Follow the bouncing ball

Today is Saturday, and every saturday morning I have the great pleasure of going into class for the 6th day in a row and studying 6 hours of accounting. This particular morning things were going well. I got up on time, left on time, caught the train on time, arrived on time, all without rushing. What made today different was what I saw while leaving the train station this morning on my way to class.

I saw this little brownish ball rolling/bouncing down the side of the street going the same direction as me. Normally this would be no big deal, but there was no one behind me and no one chasing after this ball. Hence, no apparent source for the ball. The area I was walking in is underneath the "centre commercial" and is where all the busses drop off their passengers. So here, in the shade rolling/bouncing up the street is this funny brown ball with no owner. These are my initial thoughts.

Then, as I'm staring at this rolling/bouncing ball I realize it is maintaining its momentum but not necessarily going in a straight line, or one logical to a rolling/bouncing ball. It is then that I realize that it is not in fact a rolling/bouncing ball, but a really fat young mouse running really fast and trying to stay as near the curb and hence out of sight as possible while running for cover. He was so fat he looked round, neither head nor tail were visible, contributing to this furry round ball appearance, and because he wasn't rolling straight and bouncing off to the side like a ball would be when it hit something it was just funny enough to make me laugh. This poor fat little mouse was running for cover from the dumpsters he'd been hanging around and was dodging the little pebbles in his way (hence the bouncing effect) then "rolling" under a leaf propped up against the curb. This fat little guy even managed to bounce up onto the curb before rolling away into the shadow and disappearing.

It was a good way to start the morning.

3 comments:

roshynphina said...

There's your daily dose of 'wildlife'! Well, I am glad that India is not the only place that has mouse running around, though really our streets have dogs and cattle :p its in my gran's place that I see mouse, rats, moles...though at the dead of night!

Laurel said...

Yeah, I prefer seeing my fuzzy bouncing balls in the daytime (that sounds really bad) than running down a street in the middle of the night. That area where I saw the mouse always has something "interesting" to see (unfortunately). I was kind of surprised to see the little guy out so "late" in the day! I usually see them at night in the metro stations not just before 9am out in the open. Guess when you're hungry you're hungry though right?

Jebelbryan said...

When I think of this fat mouse, I think of the fat mouse from Nutty Professor. Have no idea why, but seeing a furry ball run into things down the street does spur some funny mental pictures.