[I wrote this draft almost exactly 10 years ago. It amuses me so I decided to finally share it.]

In front of my new workplace, there is a food cart. It’s called the Cultured Caveman and caters to people following the latest foodie trend called the paleo diet. The paleo diet is a meat heavy way to eat, but this being Portland, the cart has veggie fare, too, and I visit it for a snack a couple times a week.  Yesterday, the guy at the cart and I were talking about how great the weather has been and how it’s even supposed to last through the weekend.

The Caveman guy said, “Yeah, I’m super-glad.  A bunch of us are tanning hides this weekend and it’s a lot nicer to do it in good weather.”  Being my brother’s sister, I asked some moderately intelligent questions about his plans and learned they’d procured some roadkill deer and a nutria (a nutria looks like an enormous rat but is web-footed and hangs out in the river). His group would tan the hides this weekend with the intention of eventually using them to make outfits.  “I have a small nonprofit in Portland that teaches people wilderness skills and we thought we should look the part more.”

For some reason, it makes me smile to live in a city where some people are engaged in making themselves deerskin clothing.