sunday august 30

today i left the rogers centre after the blue jays game and was walking up bremner toward spadina when a woman in front of me lost her balance, stumbled for a couple steps, and then fell over onto the pavement. it was a bizarre fall, since she hadn’t really even been walking -- just standing there. as the only person in the immediate area, i ran up and asked if she was alright, and she just seemed embarrassed, insisting she was fine and exclaiming, "i don’t know what happened!" i replied, "a strong gust of wind maybe?" and we both had a good laugh.

about two seconds after i had started walking toward spadina again, a baseball rolled toward me from off to my right, ending up at my feet. a kid had missed it during a game of catch with his dad, so i tossed it back to him and he thanked me.

maybe five seconds later, after i turned down a panhandler’s request for money, he said to me, "have a great day, man!" in a tone so friendly and genuine that you’d think we were pals who just parted ways.

three encounters with strangers in the span of 150 feet is a much higher incident rate than i’d ever want to experience on a regular basis, but i have to admit it could’ve gone much worse.