Good Afternoon;
It's a really beautiful day outside, cool, sunny, breezy this morning, and warm and calm right now. Just what I needed after a really f*cked up night.
After I left the coffee shop, (where in a kind of freaky turn of fate Abe had offered to 'sponsor' me a pair of boots as he put it, but I held off from accepting because of what follows), at 9:00 pm. I met my friend at the library to see if the pair of boots she had for me fit. They were a pair of Timberland irregulars she had been given at a trade and marketing show she was attending last year as a representative of an 'end lot'/'overrun'/'not-as-new' retailer. They were 10 & 1/2 D and the reason they were wholesaled out was that the leather had a slight natural discoloration or stain to it, beyond the companies tolerance level. Other wise they would be sold for $129.99 at a typical 'big box' retailer or outlet, (MSRP was $189.99, but even the mall stores knock 15-20% off that). I've seen the same boot at Marshalls for $79.99.
I tried them on and they fit nice, so I put my old pair back in the box and saved them to put in the shed...just in case I needed a pair to wear in a situation that would mess up or ruin good boots. She offered to put me up in a motel room last night, buttttttt.......,tempting as it was I had to decline. She gave me a melancholy little smile that was part disappointment and part relief. With our past history we both knew that it wasn't a good idea because of where it would lead. Over the past 30 some years we've been great friends and great lovers.....but never both at the same time......and we've found that the friendship is so much better than even the best sex.
Well, after our slightly misty eyed goodbyes I sat on the bench at the library to finish the last 10 pages of the book I was reading, (Andre Norton's "The Game Of Stars And Comets"). I had my hands, particularly my fingers go numb and the 'pins and needles', turning blue white, and then bright red/pink as I walked over to the Giant just before they closed at Midnight. It was not THAT cold out where this should be happening!....Sh*t....Sh*t....Sh*t!
I then stopped at the shed and dropped off my bags and relocked it and went over to the gas station to talk to Daniel who I had seen on the bus earlier but had not got a chance to talk to.
Okay....Abe just walked in....more on this in a minute.
At about 1:00 am. I left there and headed back to the shed. As I came around the side of the building and was crossing the parking lot a guy runs up behind me from out of the space behind the gas station fence and slams into me knocking me down and pulls out a knife and says, "kick it out, you know what to do, gimme your money". Well I had no money on me except for a plastic pill bottle with about $3.00 in coin in it. I hold it out to him and tell I'm homeless and have no money.
He looks at me and sees the ripped pants and shirt I have on, (I had changed into the clothes I sleep in when I dropped off my bag), and notices my shoes. He says "gimme your Tims" and I quickly pull them off, (being on the ground with an obviously coked or methed out dude with a knife standing over one tends to cause one to seek the quickest and quietest resolution possible, avoiding any action that could cause the antagonist to misconstrue any movement as threatening). He grabbed the boot and looked at the ragged and holey socks I have on and then takes off running around the fence to the back lot where I hear him say
"let's go" and hear a car start and pull off rapidly, spinning it's wheels and bottoming out on the speed bump as it left.
I went back into the shed and wiped off the gravel and dirt, luckily having no injuries other than a slightly scraped knee and a sore hip and back where I landed on my left side, and no aftereffects other than an overdose of adrenaline and stomach acid, and a heartbeat like a hummingbird's.
An extra Ibuprofen and muscle relaxer and tranquilizer and Zantac seemed in order as I wiped off the knee and hands with an alcohol towelette from the first aid baggie in my ditty bag.
NO I did not and do not plan to call the police, as I can hear some of you asking. The ensuing hassle would weigh any possible benefit. I could not give you a description of the guy, (other than I'll KNOW him if I ever see him again), and what would be the point of looking for a 'thug' with his boxer covered ass hanging out and a pair of 'Tims', in Baltimore City. A case of 'hidden in plain sight'.
And I don't need the grief of putting myself in the cops sight as homeless. Even if I am not doing anything wrong, we are the first ones blamed.
So, in the middle of typing this story, and with no knowledge at all of last night's events..I have told no one yet. Abe walks in and when I go to shake hands I feel a wad of folded paper being slipped to me. As he walked over to get his coffee I looked and it was cash, which he told me when he came back over was for boots and pants for the coming winter weather.
That's a pretty strange bit of synchronicity, is it not?
I'm starting to get a headache so I have to eat something, (besides the peanut butter cookies from Giant which I went to purchase this morning because they were on sale from $4.49 reduced to $3.99 with 2 $1.50 off stickers on them, coming in at $0.99. Well the register charged me the $4.49 price, less the $3.00 off, so I paid $1.49. When I noticed this after paying and went to customer service, because of Giant's 'Right Price Guarantee' I was refunded the whole $4.49!, I told the cashier that all I expected was the $0.50 difference, and she said "Nope...take it or leave it!", with a laugh, and said it was policy,.......so,.......I took it!.........lol!
Okay, I'm going to talk with Abe for a while........
Later.................................Dave
P.S......Again with the font and color.....????????
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