Yesterday I was out for my noontime stroll because one simply must keep the ticker going, when I distinctly heard a very unhappy cat.
I was walking along Rice Road in Oxnard, a very heavily traveled business thoroughfare that connects the Pacific Coast Highway to Interstate 101. Man, there is so much traffic – semi trucks, business people, the occasional Mercedes ragtop driven by a old tan guy with wrinkles and too much hair and a wind-blown passenger, usually female, usually looking rather miserable.
Anyway, walking am I during my lunch because it might be a good thing to do, and I need to settle the ticker after having read the day’s political news. I swear, it’s like watching a train wreck. Now that aliens are involved in the Covid Relief Package, well, how can you not look?
Anyway, behind me I hear the howl of an unhappy cat. I turn around, and here comes a guy on a bicycle, riding on the wrong side of the road. He’s dressed all in black, has a red sash (I wish I could make that up), and a coat tucked under his left arm. A youngish chap, Hispanic I surmised, and sweating in the unseasonable heat.
His right hand clutched both the handle bar and a grab of multicolored NCR forms such as one might get from a doctor’s office. Or perhaps a vet.
Because, sticking out of the folds of the bundled coat, was a tabby cat’s very angry face.
Meeerrrrroooooowwwr, she said.
I laughed and looked at the guy, who smiled with his eyes, for he wore a mask.
“She doesn’t like the way I drive!”
Anyway, now you know why I take a walk at lunch.
John D Reinhart 
How long was this stroll or was it a lunchtime walk? An hour? I mean by the time I read it, it was clearly 15 minutes or so. I mean you did eat either before or after the walk. Clearly, it must have been before lunch, then you walked and then I figured you had to walk back, right? I’ll probably have to reread that part about the cat because I was caught up with your description of the youngish, Hispanic 👦chap. Perhaps the kitty was going to be delivered to someone? Maybe on your next walk, you can share if the man with the cat came back? Next time you might think about a quiz afterwards. I’d be ok with that.
Mine is a regimented life: I leave my desk at 1:00 PM, and return promptly at 1:40. The gentleman with the kitty road off in the direction of a homeless en encampment,
Allow me to finish: he rode off towards a homeless encampment, where I imagine he and the kitty lead a wild but fulfilling life. I imagine.
LOL. I wish my walks were like that!
Just one of the many wonders of Oxnard!