The Crazy Asian Guy of 92nd Avenue

Every morning, I take a right onto 92nd and cruise with leisure alongside highway 205 on a hillside, while traffic below moves sluggishly along in a parade of blinking red lights. I pass through the intersection with Otty, and there on my right I will see Crazy Asian Guy. As soon as I see Crazy Asian Guy, I am assured that all is well with the world

Who is Crazy Asian Guy? He's a gangly, 60ish year old Asian man who comes down off of his steep street every morning, to the corner of 92nd to drop his grand kids off for the bus. After the kids are safely aboard the yellow bus, he remains there perform what I call Crazy Calisthenics.

Crazy Asian Guy is quite the character. He's got choppy bowl-like steel grey hair (when I can see it), and a long, sweet-looking face. Crazy Asian Guy, however, is not performing a series of graceful exercises; nor is he in the peaceful garden one would do such exercises in. It's a noisy street that parallels a busy highway. His spot of choice is the corner of the sidewalk, near the wall of someone's yard, facing up towards the sharp incline of his street; this is where he installs himself.

His grand kids probably make sure everyone is facing forward until he is out of sight of the big yellow school bus, cringing that someone would see Crazy Asian Grandpa doing his thing

Ah, his thing... The Crazy Calisthenics (I'm thinking of adding a K in place of the Cs just to illustrate how Krazy it is)... It's not a dance of liquid movements and poise, oh, no. Crazy Asian Guy has his own 'style'. He does things like flapping his arms; and reaching them up high, and then bending in half to touch his toes. He'll spread out his arms wide with his hands flat and horizontal, and then swivel back and forth like a Crazy Asian helicopter. He'll do squats with his arms straight out; he'll bend his elbows, reach for the sky, then bend elbows, touch his chest, then bend his elbows and reach down his sides. I've seen him do high-kick-goose-steps back and forth too, that one made me laugh all the rest of the way to work.

Crazy Asian Guy is *far* from graceful. He's jerky and uncoordinated and looks like an epileptic scarecrow. And even better, has absolutely no problem doing this in a puffy feather anorak with his hood up on his head; in his standard chino high-waters and white socks, standing on a street corner first thing in the morning during full-on rush hour, every morning. And you know what conclusion I've come to about all this? I simply adore Crazy Asian Guy!

Crazy Asian Guy makes me smile. Every freakin' morning, I'm steaming angry from my commute; and that last bit before I hit Johnson Creek, there he is; flapping and jerking about frenetically; and every time, I get this warm smile on my face, and this urge to stop and hug him and his puffy blue anorak. I wish *I* had a Crazy Asian Guy doing that on my street every morning. I guess I'll have to just be content with my momentary glimpse of this Crazy Asian Guy.

I love Crazy Asian Guy. I wish he were my Crazy Asian grandpa.