Sociological Inference

I'm trying to develop a running addiction. I want to develop the habit and rarely break it.

There are many benefits to running. It lowers your resting heart rate, decreases body mass index, builds endurance and discipline. Physical benefits, yes. But take up running and you're also sure to gain insight into the local population. A sociological education.

On an average run around town, I learn about the cuisine of my neighbors. At this house, they're cooking meat, slightly burnt. [They're not vegetarian, unless the meat's for their cat.] At another spot, there's a squash/spaghetti/Italian smell. [They eat vegetables!]

Someone smoking a cigar. [Stressed about life, developed the habit sometime in the past.]

Perfume smell wafting out of a car. [Someone bothered to hang a deodorizer.]

A wannabe rock star crashing on drums and still at it on my second round 23 minutes later! [Developed that musical taste, somehow. Putting inner frustration into "music?"]

Dogs barking behind fences and closed doors. [People bought the dogs -- why? Children, protection, companionship?]

Four cats lounging around a yard, a plastic feeding container reclining under a bush. [Someone places value on domesticated animal life.]

People riding bikes in the street with their children. [Just like the old days.]

A lady's Rottweiler runs at me, I stand still, I see the hackles already risen along its spine, and the lady says "she's friendly." Hah! [People are blind to the attitudes of their dogs.]

Most days, the ice cream truck plays "Do your ears hang low?", but one day the guy changed it up -- Jingle Bells and a lullaby and who knows what else. I had no idea ice cream trucks could play anything so varied. [An adventurous streak?]

A guy chopping wood in front of his house. [He knows something about house warming.]

A lady trimming vines along her fence. [Places value on beauty.]

Two people on the side walk ahead. One is wearing a ghillie suit, says to me "this is my normal." Yeah, what can you do but laugh?

When I run at the track, I see a subset of the local population. People wanting to improve their health, run faster, win a game of soccer. They're interested in exercise, so am I, and we go out there and run really boring laps and don't feel the fool for the repetition. Sunday, though... wow. There was this guy practicing boxing moves, complete with explosive sound effects, in the middle of the track. Air boxing, I guess you could call it. His sense of the ridiculous was either different from mine or he didn't care.

And I'm still wondering WHY someone put my CamelBak water bottle in an empty trash can. It was lying innocently on the grass and then it disappeared, I thought it was stolen, I looked in a nearby trash can, and Voila! Practical jokester? Hmph.

What do you learn from the smells and sounds of your town?