Distant fog

It was foggy and drizzly on my walk today. That hill is across the river in West Virginia. The foreground is in Maryland.

While out, a man with piercing blue eyes like Paul Newman's, a five o'clock shadow, and wearing a Baltimore Orioles hat and Pittsburgh Penguins shirt got my attention by asking if I was from Phoenix. He noticed my Arizona Diamondbacks hat.

I said yes. Oops. That opened the floodgates. This 56-year-old fella with a smooth radio-host voice talked to me for about 15 minutes about Pittsburgh and Arizona sports, movies, his award-winning actor cousin, his 22-year-old girlfriend, how much Cumberland sucks, and how good Pittsburgh is compared to Cumberland. He told me his girlfriend stole his train ticket and that he had another ticket to Pittsburgh but had to wait until Sunday.

I tried to shake him by stopping or walking faster, but he stayed with me to ramble. He asked me odd movie trivia (yes, I know Nicolas Cage is really named Nicolas Coppola; yes, I know who his uncle is; yes, I know Alec Guinness was in "The Bridge on the River Kwai"), which was funny because I am such a movie buff, I could answer all his questions. He said he was walking to the liquor store to buy booze for a stranger. He indicated to the park behind us where the local derelicts hang out.

He said he only had a few dollar coins and other change. I thought he was going to ask for money, but he never did. Finally, he decided to walk to the store a few buildings down. I stayed behind for a few minutes.

I had to walk past the store to go home, so I had to walk by him again. D'oh. He was standing outside smoking, and he stopped me to talk more movie and sports trivia. He smoked his cigarette to the filter, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a mask, cigarettes, the change (I did see the dollar coins) and what sure looked like a crack pipe.

He talked a little more about something, though I stopped paying attention. Another customer approached the door to enter, and the man stopped to talk to him about Pittsburgh, even though nothing about that guy said he knew anything about Pittsburgh. I slipped away and walked home. What a character.