I Saw A Donkey Today

So I quit bringing my camera with me on lunch. We walk to the same place every day. I've taken pictures of the everything of interest on the walk...or so I thought.

We walk outside of Goodyear's gate and are standing there for another Rockwell guy to join us. His name is Tony. So we're standing there and Jerry wants to go into the Mom and Pop store across the street. Now when I say "Mom and Pop" IT'S Mom and Pop. So we walk down a set of stairs. Jerry goes into the shop, I wait outside because only about 4 people fit in this store...and Mom and Pop are already in there.

Jerry comes out and we walk back up the stairs. (You can't see the street from the bottom of the stairs.) We get to the top, and there is a DONKEY! I know I've said, "I wish I had my camera"; this time I REALLY wished I had my camera (With the exception of Gold Member, I'll never forgive myself for letting that one slip away).

There is a little old man sitting on a cart that looks like it's from Mid-Evil times. He has two big, blue, disgusting barrels on the back of the cart. He looks to be around 132 years old. He's sitting on the cart, whipping the donkey...only he's so old and frail he's barely hitting the donkey. There is no way the donkey knows he's being whipped. I just started laughing right there! The old man is yelling something as he attempts to whip the donkey (Oh yeah, the whip is a piece of string tied to a twig). He is barely above normal voice when he yells. I ask Jerry what he's saying?

"He say, faster"

I agree.

The whole scene looks like Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail. "Bring Out Your Dead!!"

We start walking down the road, within 30 seconds we are 40 yards ahead of Team Donkey. We aren't even walking fast...in fact, I keep stopping to turn around and look at the Team Donkey. The reason for this is that we are approaching the corner. That's where the main drag is. There are 6 lanes of traffic on this road (Only 4 in America, but they make it work as 6...maybe even 7 depending where people decide the turn lane is).

So we get to the corner and he's still coming. I tell Jerry I want to wait and see what happens. Jerry looks at me like I'm strange, "You've never seen a donkey and a cart?"

"Not heading into Chinese traffic." Jerry shrugs and stands to watch. The old man shows no signs of slowing down...mostly because it isn't possible to go any slower. They get to the intersection, the old man starts talking to the donkey. A car comes whizzing around the corner and scares the hell out of the donkey...he takes off into traffic!

The old man is yelling now, cars are honking, people are swerving, the donkey is going at a trot now. I'm laughing so hard I'm going to wet my pants! Jerry is still a little perplexed that I think this is odd.

They make it to the other side of the street, and start heading down the hill. I have no idea where he was going, but man, there has got to be a better way!



Here is a picture we took with the BTA Maintenance team. Jerry is on the far left. They are all nice guys! It was funny when we took this picture. (Big Boy is taking the picture) He needed us to move to the left...so instead of everyone shifting over...everyone started shuffling over, it was like we were doing some weird little dance. A great kickoff today though!