"Your neighbour is doing a big construction."
I am always amazed how people I don’t know, or don’t know well, seem to know so much about me. It is not as if I go about advertising myself or trying to draw attention to myself, but nonetheless, people always surprise me by seeming to know more about me than I would expect.Case in point: as I paid for my gas before heading home for Montreal, the attendant, an elderly gentleman whom I only know from the gas station 2 blocks from my house in Ottawa, said to me: "Your neighbour is doing a big construction."
Yes, it is true, the neighbour across from me is doing a major renovation of his home, however, I do not expect this gas station attendant to know where I live.
While I do live two blocks from the gas station, it is not line of sight (it is 1 block, 90 degree turn, another block). The gas station only came into being after Sofia and the kids relocated to Montreal. I come home late, I don’t hang around the neighbourhood, nor am I there on the weekends.
These types of incidents only further reinforce the notion that I am somehow not plugged into the general happenings around me. It seems people have underlying social connections that I am totally unaware of. All my life, I am the one left wondering what happned because I certainly did not see the group moving in one direction. It reminds me of a story a deaf friend related to me about taking aerobics classes, she said it was difficult because she could not hear the music or instructions, so she had to follow what the people were doing, but they would unexpectedly change direction and she would be left trying to follow them.
NOTE: there is nothing flashy about my car, it is a fairly basic charcoal grey Mazda 3.
NOTE 2: for those who don't know it is 170Km (about 100 miles) from the door of the house in Ottawa to the door of the house in Montreal.
Image nabbed from here.
Comments
MOI: I lived for a few years in a small town called Williamstown and experienced the small town mentality. The intersting thing is that unless you have been there 200 years or so, you will always be considered an outsider.
freckled-one: it often seems to me that some people spend a lot of time discretely studying other people. I imagine people hiding behind their curtains spying out at the world outside.
Hey..u have a cool Japanese car too.
By the way, how do you like your mazda 3? I have rented one before and recall enjoying it. Right now my rental car is a Mazda 6 and it is a fun car to drive...powerful and agile! I need to get a car when I return to Paris and I'm looking at various options. Okay, weird question...I realize! :-)
On the other hand, the Mazda 3 has far better fuel economy (which is a good thing since I have logged over 51,000Km these past 13 months).