Thursday, September 20, 2012

Same Stride Different Day

Stop them. Before they walk again.

It's the stuff of horror movies. Stephen King tales. Daytime nightmares. I cannot escape the roadwalkers. They seek me out like white cat hairs on a black sweater. Like marinara sauce on a business tie. Like cockleburs in the Golden Cocker Spaniel coat of an escaped Westminster Kennel Club Grand Champion candidate. Every day. In a variety of shapes and sizes. On different routes. The roadwalkers plague me like...well...the plague.

At least I saw the one in my lane today. He was no Jean Paul Pierre sporting a beret on a bicycle. He was Joe Factory. In black jeans, black t-shirt, and workboots. Joey F. strode along the edge of the pavement. I saw him from a good half-mile away. I know he heard me. Not that I put my Tahoe in neutral and revved the engine or anything. I had to stop to let an oncoming car go past us. Joey F. got all passive-aggressive and stepped off the blacktop onto the grassy shoulder. Barely.

Joey F. was walking a fine line. Skating on thin ice. Avoiding the roadway by the skin of his teeth. His swinging arm was still in my air space. Had I driven alongside him, he would have pummeled my passenger door. My extra-wide side mirrors would have cracked his skull. And I would have been the one in trouble! Not sweet and innocent Joey F. with his massive head injury and slim possibility of regaining consciousness.

I hate it when they win.

6 comments:

  1. Here in the big city, our folks are more brazen. Teens (and young kids--first and second-graders from the looks of them, and everyone in-between) walk NOT on the edge of the road but right down the middle.

    I'd prefer Joey F. At least he doesn't take his half down the middle.

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  2. I know you're thinking about it, but who will write your blog if you're in jail for running this guy down.

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  3. Hahaha! It's the street joggers that plague me around these parts. WHY do they run in the street when there's a perfectly good sidewalk well out of the way?

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  4. I'm thinking that you could possibly be related to Andy Rooney, who always spoke his mind. Cracked his head...you crack me up.

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  5. Joe is a lucky man that you didn't hit him.
    Maybe Joe was going to meet up with Jean Paul.

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  6. Sioux,
    You city folk need a trip to the woodshed. You probably have perfectly good sidewalks going to waste.

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    Stephen,
    Genius would take over. Until he succumbed to starvation, due to lack of sandwiches.

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    Vicki,
    Joggers feel that they have the same rights as cars. Except for signaling, stopping at lights and signs, and yielding to oncoming traffic.

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    Linda,
    That's just a polite way of outing me for my crotchety nature and bushy overgrown eyebrows. I've got your number, girly! Good luck staying out of the hoosegow after I drop a dime on you. The coppers don't look favorably upon a doll nabbing bacon off buffets. A strip of bacon in the purse is worth ten in the pen.

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    Donna,
    Jean Paul was lucky that Joe didn't find him. Joe looked like he could stomp the oui out of Jean Paul, and turn him into a perpetual mime.

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