I was on the north side of Riverside downtown, walking east.

Up ahead, a guy in a motorized wheelchair was careening along on the sidewalk in an erratic manner. He made a bat-turn onto Howard. And I heard bells.

In a moment, I got up behind him and saw that hanging on the back of his scooter-chair were a couple of ornament-like bells.

I caught up with him. When I turned to face him, I got the impression he was a bit out of it for one reason or another. In all honesty, I think he was (expletive deleted)-faced. But I went ahead and asked him my question.

"What's with the bells?"

I had to ask a couple more times before he figured out the nature of my inquiry. But eventually, he had an answer.

"Every time Obama (expletive deleted) over the country, they ring."

I suggested that him driving like an (expletive deleted) might have more to do with it.

But it didn't seem as if we had established the basis for fruitful dialog, so we happily went our separate ways.

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