The people that you meet each day

I opened up my paper on this overly-warm Thursday morning and found this article about a phenomenon I've never seen in person, but is rapidly growing as a symbol of this strange city I live in.

I was first introduced to the Bikini Cyclist by my brother Andy. He'd been using a picture of this guy as his avatar on Facebook. The picture was from behind (yes, there is crack involved) and for a while I thought it actually WAS Andy - given that they share the bald head and the picture wasn't very good. Why on earth would my brother have a picture of himself taken like that? I finally asked him about it, and he explained about the Bikini Cyclist.

He is worthy of notice and notice people do. He even has his own fan page on Facebook, though he'd never heard of it until the reporter from the paper asked him about it. From the article, it seems he's a little slow in the head - perhaps from having suffered some brain damage in a car accident several years ago. And he rides this bike everywhere.

Tallahassee has had no shortage of locally colorful people.

Years ago, we had a character on the streets called King Love. He was a local fixture, a victim of untreated bipolar disorder. Once a brilliant doctor, he roamed the streets dressed as a king, urging people to love each other.

This video is rather disjointed and rambling - but the voice you hear is his.

His ending was a sad one - alone in his room in a public housing facility.

We had a runner that dressed up in costumes for his daily workout. He was Superman the time I spotted him running down College Avenue towards the University.

Another local personality cut down before his time - this time the foe was cancer.

Please take a moment and click on the links associated with each person. It is amazing the things you can learn about people if you just listen or pay attention.

Every person on this planet has a story. And each one is worth hearing.