We Are Not Alone

DAY 16


I read a great short story years again in college titled Probability Storm. I wish I could find it again. The story essentially said that probability was like weather it seemed to act in certain ways. Sometimes for no reason an number of improbably events might happen way beyond the frequency of their normal occurrence. Many times when what feels like a probability storm occurs an explanation can be found and the world seems normal again. I felt this morning coming in on the train. In Mid-town I noticed, what looked like a “homeless basket”. One of those grocery carts taken from a market usually pushed by what appears to be a homeless person piled high with all the worldly passions of the person. Later when I got of the train down town to power my last leg into the office I passed another grocery cart just sitting by the light post. This really seemed strange to since I saw another very similar basket twenty blocks South.

The basket was pushed up against the crossing light pole, actually a little behind the pole up against some bushes. In fact I thought on second glance that maybe the owner of the basket was asleep under these bushes but I could not see anything—feet sticking out or something out or something. I was fascinated with the basket that I stopped my progress and dug out my camera and “clicked”. This was someone’s life sitting here in the grocery cart. Clothes, a radio, a package of opened cookies, various amounts of plastic and aluminum there was even an electric griddle. An electric griddle the kind you can buy for a buck at Deseret Industries, Salvation Army or any number of second hand stories in this city. The griddle has been on my mind all day. What a great idea! Since I now use a electric powered wheelchair I keep an eye out for electric pug-ins, I am surprised at the amount of outlets located on buildings down town. These outlets are everywhere. Say you had enough money for a can of Spam, corned beef or even eggs. Find one of these outlets, plug in and you are on your way to a great breakfast or dinner. You could take this to a next step: plug in the griddle, keep it on warm and then sleep on the thing all night when you are outside in the middle of winter. Where did they go?

The vanishing point is just a block away from an NBA affiliate not that means a whole heck of a lot but still this would be a highly- visible area of town—another oddity is this grocery cart remained there undisturbed all through one day and night. And what is the probability that I would see two such baskets in one day? I remember during the Olympics these folks were “whisked away” during the two weeks the Olympics were in town. This has an “Andromeda Strain” feel to it. What if there are multi-dimensional vortexes scatter through this city and these bag people are time and dimension travelers like John Titor? I want to know where they went