Golden Smile

What do dogs and motorcycles have in common? Not much on the face of it, but for me, they're both ways to talk to strangers.

I used to like the fact that when I rode motorcycles, it's like I was in a brotherhood of sorts. Like truckers, I'd give other bikes a wave out on the open road and if I saw a rider by his bike on the street, it's easy to bowl on up and start chatting. Motorcyclists like to talk about their bikes. It was a way to talk to the type of people I'd have never had the chance to ordinarily. Now I know it's not exclusive to motorcyclists - these bonds occur everywhere from skateboarders, surfers, musicians, farmers and countless others - but this is the way I knew. Not having ridden for a while now, I kinda miss that 'in' to a conversation with strangers.

I was walking around to the dairy (i get hassled for calling it that here) this evening and saw a guy walking a little dog like my family used to have. Mitzie was a Miniature Fox Terrier and we loved her and had so much fun with her. So every time I see a similar dog it reminds me of Mitzie and makes me smile. So I caught up with the guy and his little dog, which was bounding along like puppies do, trying to smell everything and take the exciting world in. When I got up to him, I saw he had some serious tattoos on his arms so didn’t seem like the type who would be seen with a dog like this, more likely a bull dog or other ugly animal. So I pet the dog a bit and asked him what breed it was and it turned out to be a Jack Russell and there aren’t many Foxies over here. I got a bit of a surprise when I saw the guy had all his teeth gold plated. I tend to look at regular peoples teeth while they talk, so definitely had trouble not looking at this guys mouth ‘bling’. But it was nice to have a quick chat to a stranger about his little friend. The sort of encounter that can turn a walk around the corner into something I’m still thinking about 3hrs later. I hope I meet more strangers with a golden smile.