I was waiting for the bus at Dayingpo and it seemed to be taking a long time. Bus 86 delivers me directly to my front door in Poly Hot Springs area so it is convenient. My back hurt and I was thinking that maybe “They” were right, that maybe I am too cheap and should take a taxi. The difference would only be less than two USD, 14 rmb vs 1.8 rmb.
I was leaning against a tree and something kind of big hit my shoulder, like a big cockroach or something. I quickly brushed it off with a well practiced evasive maneuver and it turned out to be bird turd, which was the blackest, largest, and juiciest bird turd I have ever seen in my 67 years. It could have hit me in the middle of the head . . . MamaMia, three more inches. All I could think of was the old nursery rhyme: “Birdie, Birdie, in the Sky dropped a bird turd in my eye. It don’t hurt. I don’t cry. Gee I’m glad that cows don’t fly.”
It was a crowded mess at the bus station so I started searching for a package of tissue, but no stores were nearby. A lady was handing out flyers for some silly sale, and it was on really cheap paper, not shiny at all . . . very absorbent.
I thanked her and pulled the other hand out of my pocket to hold the coat while I wiped the shoulder off. The flyer worked great. So a young man stepped right into my face waiving a 100 rmb bill in front of my nose. It had fallen out of my pocket when I pulled my hand out of my pocket.
I smiled, took the money, and tried to thank him, but he was gone. Only in Guiyang can you interact with nature and a couple friendly citizens in a 90 second time frame. The 86 bus showed up and in fifteen minutes I was feeding my blackened jacket into the washing machine. . .
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