Strange Encounters
I believe we are all strange, most of us stranger than we realize. But there are also those people who skirt along the fringes of society and embrace the “scary dude” persona. I’m dwelling on this today because my lunch today produced the second strange encounter for our family in as many days.
Yesterday Aubrie was pulling out of the driveway and had to stop for the cross traffic. She was suprised to see a hobo standing next to our mailbox. While she was stuck there he approached her window (rolled up) and started talking to her. She rolled it down a bit to see what was up, and he wanted to know how far he was from Newcastle. She told him just a mile further down the road, but he didn’t seem to understand. There was an opening in traffic so she pulled out and saw him have a little spasm in the rear view mirror. It was unusual and a bit disturbing to have happen right outside your house.
Today I went to the Vernon Street Grill for lunch with Matt, Josh and Roy. It had been a while since I threw down a Boston Bomber (one of my favorite sandwiches…full of meat and cheese), and since I’ve exercised the last 5 days in a row I went for it. Despite some really good humor going on at our table, the entire lunch was dominated by a stranger sitting across the cafe who literally stared down Josh and I through most of the lunch. Just a blank stare for minutes at a time. Then he would get a smile on his face. Then he would stare at the table in front of him. Homeboy was on something! He also put away three beers while sitting there. Eventually he put on a metal helmet and approached some not-so-lucky girls at a table across from us. Roy ended up getting a picture on his phone. Leave it to Josh to strike up a conversation as we are leaving and helmet guy asked if I was Chuck. Josh replied, “Yes, that’s Chuck.” And helmet guy responds, “No it’s not.” Alrighty then.
