Yesterday I completed my morning exercise program. On the way home I decided to stop at the gas station/convenience store to pick up a copy of the Milwaukee Sentinel. The Sports section on Monday is usually very good.
As I pulled into the parking area of the convenience store, a “black and white” squad car was right behind me. Oh, oh. Maybe I did something wrong! I parked and the squad car continued around the side of the building. I got my newspaper in the store and it was kind of erie. I didn’t notice anyone else in the store and the clerk was talking on the telephone as I made my transaction. As I paid her, another squad car passed behind my car and proceeded around the building. The clerk said “thank you” to me and continued to talk on the phone. I left the store. As I backed out of my parking space I noticed a “black and white” in back of the store on the left. There was another squad on the right and a third squad pulled into a parking space on the side of the building. As I was exiting the parking lot, a fourth squad was just entering the parking lot from the street.
Now I know I am not “the sharpest knife in the drawer” but something was going down in the convenience store. I think Grasshopper No.4 told me when he worked at a local gas station that he was trained to pretend he was on the phone if somebody looked suspicious. I have never encountered a clerk on the phone before but my guess is she was in contact with the police. Of course then there was the fact that four squad cars were strategically place around the station. A potentially dangerous situation was in process.
I guess I have watched too many movies over the years. There is a movie called “Regarding Henry” where a lawyer (Harrison Ford) goes out for cigarettes at night to a local news-stand and gets caught in the cross-fire of a gun fight. He gets shot in the head and spends the movie trying to recover.
I don’t know how close I was to a really dangerous situation but the whole episode passed without incident (to me). The good Lord decided it wasn’t my time “to go” yet. My resolution is to continue to be a warm, loving and caring human being (just the cuddly Teddy Bear that I’ve always been). So the world will have to put up with me for another day.
Love,
Dad