Odd things I noticed Thursday

I had time to kill yesterday, unplanned. I noticed a few odd things. I took a bus in Lausanne and a musclebound young man with [tattoos] got on the bus with his docile, floppity-looking golden retriever. Several people slithered away and others looked at the dog a bit nervously. This is probably fallout from the incident last week where a pitbull puppy in a Geneva park attacked a toddler out walking with his mother. The child will live but he's needed a good deal of surgery, including having a nose built and stitched on, which they are not sure will hold. Dogs you don't know suddenly all look a little less certain than before.

I sat outside a building waiting to be picked up by my husband and noticed three different people, all relatively young, lighting cigarettes while talking on cell phones, which meant their necks were at a really odd and not normal angle. Wonder how long it will take before they get neck aches from this.

Children in the mountains started school yesterday. On the plains in Switzerland, where it is hotter, they start later. I had forgotten this but suddenly realized it because I saw three teenagers walking down the road at 6:45, a time when you only see them if school is in session. And there was another clue: their shoes were new. Clean, no holes, laces and velcro pads in place. You can tell they have not just gotten off airplanes: hair gel.