Beautiful autumn afternoon heading north on Montlake Blvd. in Seattle. U-turn to 520 to get north on I-5. At the U-turn there's always a panhandler and every single time I have an exchange, it's memorable. Yesterday. I'm stopped at the red light, this guy is outside my car, two feet away. He's about 6'4" with a wide, toothy smile. My window is open, it's unseasonably warm and the street is lined with trees dripping with yellow and red leaves. I've just been grocery shopping and there are a few bags on the floor behind my seat. "Howyadoing?" I ask the guy. He smiles at me and says nothing. His sign reads, "Never Thought I Would Be In This Position. Homeless. No Work. Broke" Everything is spelled correctly, I'm impressed.

I reach behind me and pull out a box of cookies out of one of the environmentally friendly bags. Gingerbread-ish with white icing. "Want some cookies?" I'm not feeling pity, I just want to share. They were on sale. One less box of cookies in the house and the guy had a nice smile. I'm not the cookie-eater in the house anyway.

He puts his sign done and smiles real wide. "Oh, yeah. Your timing is perfect."

I hand him the cookies. "Here you go."

He takes them, holds them to his chest and says, "Thanks, I just smoked a joint and I got the munchies REAL bad."

Light turns green. All I can do at this point is shrug and laugh and make my U-turn. Got me.

Again.