Friendly Pets

The Fremont Solstice Festival is always entertaining.  It's best know for the parade and its collection of naked bikers (mildly NSFW pictures here). While looking at the "official" entertainment, though, don't ignore the crowd.  The people watching is awesome.

For example, folks crowded around some beautifully (and weirdly) decorated cars at the Art Car exhibit.One woman had a cat on her shoulders.  The cat was very calm, climbing all around her head.  That started to draw the crowd away from the vehicles as people wanted to pet the cat.  She smiled gleefully.  Suddenly her other pet poked out from her hair and crawled around her neck. 

Then it started to lick her teeth.  Woman, cat, and rodent all seemed quite happy and pleased with the attention.  And the gathered crowd tried to make sense of this alternative little family.

Keep a lid on your Pepper Spray

This story struck me as odd:

Emergency teams rushed to a Seattle hotel and at least five people were treated when a chemical irritant was released into the air Sunday morning.

Dozens of police, hazmat teams and medics were dispatched to the scene, the Hotel Andra at Fourth Avenue and Virginia Street, at about 11:15 a.m.
...

The chemical irritant turned to be a pepper spray, according to a statement from the hotel.

"The can of spray belonged to one of our guests, and was accidentally tipped over by a member of our housekeeping staff while servicing the room," the statement said.

...More

Presumably, the guest drove to the hotel  Or obviously, our highly efficient and effective TSA would have secured the Pepper Spray before they got on a plane.  Right?  Of maybe they just had less than 3.4 ounces of it.

But "tipped over"?  Was it in a cup?  Did someone fill their travel mug with pepper spray instead of coffee?  Is pepper spray really the kind of thing that can, if "tipped over," sicken 5 people and result in a full hazmat rollout?

In High School, Brother Paul Bernard opened the school year in Chemistry class by releasing a copper-based brown gas into the class room from an experiment.  That stuff poured out of the box on his desk and drifted towards the floor like a fluffy liquid.  Of course he reminded us, "THIS! is poison GAS!" but continued to do it for some reason.  I think he'd be considered a felon now.

So close the lid on your pepper spray.  You don't want housekeeping to spill it. I guess.

Haircut in the middle of the night

A late night, home-based room service order sent me to Jack in the Box at 11:45 PM on a Saturday night.  Fortunately, the local one down on 4th AVE in SODO has a 24 hour drive thru.

Of course there was a line because it's the hip place to be on a Saturday night.  What I didn't expect to see was a mobile hair salon. 

Parked on 3rd AVE, just past the drive thru bushes was a small flat bed truck with a camper attached to have the bed.  It had a big window and bright lights inside.

While waiting to place an order bound to be misunderstood at the drive thru speaker, I looked over at the van and saw a barber at work.  This wasn't just a random guy cutting hair with garden shears.  Inside the vehicle there was an actual barber chair, and actual barber shop blue liquid, and a guy sitting in the chair wearing an actual barber customer gown and an actual barber cutting his hair.  The barber finished and held up a mirror for the guy to see the results and he seemed pleased.  The barber then began sweeping up hair.

To many questions popped into my mind as I tried to wrap my head around this bizarre scene.  I thought about taking a picture but opted not to for a few reasons. One being that my cell phone does not take great night pictures.

But mainly because I didn't want to get shot.  I have no idea why someone feels the need to set up a random, mobile, professional barbershop with no outside signage.  Could it be performance art?  Could it be a money laundering operation?  Could it be an espionage meeting point? Could there be drugs involved?  Could it jut be an original entrepreneurial venture?  Could it be the kind of thing where I'm just supposed to not ask any questions?

If it was something unseemly, why would they choose something so conspicuous? So it must be legit, right?  Or is that just what they want me to think?

This is going to keep me up all night. Good thing I already do my haircut.