Well this looks like an appropriate place to talk about what happened yesterday. In the afternoon, I drive vets and the elderly to doctors appointments or anywhere really. I'm sitting at Publix waiting for someone to grocery shop right now. Yesterday, I took a little old lady to the doctor, and then we stopped at the pharmacy. I did my own shopping for a few minutes, and when I came out there was a man parked right by the door playing a harmonica.
I thought, "that's odd," but you see a lot of odd in Florida. I stopped to light a cigarette. He put his harmonica in his truck and shut the door.
He started motioning at me saying, "hey, hey," until he knew he had my attention. I thought he was going to ask for a cigarette or some oddly specific amount of change since that's happened very time I've been to that Walgreens.
"In this day and age, you can't leave home without Sam's Colt," he said as he came toward me and pulled a pistol from his pocket. I made a noncommittal, half-hearted laugh and got myself around the corner to put a brick wall between me and the nut job with a 9mm. The lady I was driving was sitting there sneaking a cigarette of her own, and she started to ask me what he was saying about a colt.
I told her, "He just flashed a gun, so we should probably leave." I got her in the van and pulled up to the exit where I could see his plates to give to 911. But he came back out and got in his truck before I made the call.
Had she not been with me, I would have handled that situation differently, and I'm reasonably certain it would have ended with him or me getting shot. I was massively relieved to see him come back out so quickly. I'm not saying I would have wrestled him to the ground, but he would have come out to find me standing behind his truck talking to 911.
That doesn't always work. At that same Walgreens with that same lady on a different day, I had a guy walk all the way across the parking lot, yelling at me the whole time because he wanted a cigarette...and 75 cents for a beer. I gave him the cigarette, and he told me all about how he'd been kicked out of every store within 5 miles.
Well this looks like an appropriate place to talk about what happened yesterday. In the afternoon, I drive vets and the elderly to doctors appointments or anywhere really. I'm sitting at Publix waiting for someone to grocery shop right now. Yesterday, I took a little old lady to the doctor, and then we stopped at the pharmacy. I did my own shopping for a few minutes, and when I came out there was a man parked right by the door playing a harmonica.
I thought, "that's odd," but you see a lot of odd in Florida. I stopped to light a cigarette. He put his harmonica in his truck and shut the door.
He started motioning at me saying, "hey, hey," until he knew he had my attention. I thought he was going to ask for a cigarette or some oddly specific amount of change since that's happened very time I've been to that Walgreens.
"In this day and age, you can't leave home without Sam's Colt," he said as he came toward me and pulled a pistol from his pocket. I made a noncommittal, half-hearted laugh and got myself around the corner to put a brick wall between me and the nut job with a 9mm. The lady I was driving was sitting there sneaking a cigarette of her own, and she started to ask me what he was saying about a colt.
I told her, "He just flashed a gun, so we should probably leave." I got her in the van and pulled up to the exit where I could see his plates to give to 911. But he came back out and got in his truck before I made the call.
Had she not been with me, I would have handled that situation differently, and I'm reasonably certain it would have ended with him or me getting shot. I was massively relieved to see him come back out so quickly. I'm not saying I would have wrestled him to the ground, but he would have come out to find me standing behind his truck talking to 911.
See, thats why I make a rule to not acknowledge strangers beckoning for my attention. I know how bad my luck is and I dont want to push it.
That doesn't always work. At that same Walgreens with that same lady on a different day, I had a guy walk all the way across the parking lot, yelling at me the whole time because he wanted a cigarette...and 75 cents for a beer. I gave him the cigarette, and he told me all about how he'd been kicked out of every store within 5 miles.