June 14th is Mom's 85th birthday but I have to work so I decided to pay her a surprise visit on the 12th. When I was just a wee lad I used to picked swwet pea blooms for her and on this day I saw some growing beside the road so I picked her a nice bouquet of sweet pea blooms.
I had purchased her a pineapple cupcake from "Cupcakes to go" in Randleman (they were nice enough to put it in a sturdy brown box to protect it during the long trip). Honestly, the girls there are just as sweet as the cupcakes are. I took along with me her birthday card and a pack of party favors, the little horns that unroll and toot when one blows into them.
I sang Happy Birthday to her, she blew out her candle, and she just laughed with joy over our little party. She was happy.
I needed to go to Old Fort and hang a "For Sale" sign on my property (anyone interested?) and just as I was approaching Morganton a vehicle overtaking me to my left threw a can at my car, hitting it. I Called the highway patrol and gave them a description of the incident and the vehicle involved and while on the phone the van exited at exit 104 which is the exit that leads to the highway patrol station.
"My good fortune" I thought. Not so. When the van stopped at the traffic sign, a passenger, a big burly man, got out of the van and walked back to my car and started pounding on it. After five or six hits, he walked back to the van which took off across the intersection back to I-40.
The van then took the next exit (103) and then my call was transferred to the Morganton police. The van then pulled into a service station and I pulled in too but kept my distance. The burly man got out of the van and walked back to my car and tried to pull my door open. He then struck my door glass with his fist three or four times and then attacked my roof. He walked off just as two police cars pulled in.
One officer spoke to me and then spoke to the passenger. As the officer was walking back to me, the passenger got back into the van and they left. The officer told me that he told the man he needed to find a better way to handle his problems and that there was nothing he could do about the incident.
Throwing an object at a moving vehicle (called launching a missile) is illegal as is littering. Since the object throw was a large empty can of beer he could have been charged with carrying an open container. Certainly putting me in fear of my life and limb is an assualt. And I believe the dent on the top of my car is damage to personal property.
I had a taste of what it is like to be a minority as the attacker was Hispanic and the clerk at the service station was Hispanic and was hostile towards me. Excuse me for being an American!
To add insult to injury, I locked my keys in the car along with my wallet which contains my spare key in case I lock myself out of my car. My car was running.
I called my travel club and got a lady with a heavy accent which makes it doubly tough for a person who is hearing impaired. One has to remove ones hearing aid to talk on a telephone or cell phone. She couldn't find the Citgo station on her GPS locator although she did find the Exxon across the street. I finally convinced her to send the guy to the Exxon station and then tell him to cross the street to where I was.
That call took about thirty minutes. Forty minutes later help had still not arrived and I was getting hot, tired and annoyed. I couldn't buy a drink because my wallet was in the car. Ten minutes later she called back to inform me that the help was involved in an auto accident and would not be coming. She had no one else to send but I could hire my own lock smith, pay out of my own pocket, and send them the bill.
That's not what I pay dues to an auto club for.
I had twenty dollars, a cell phone with a low battery caused by trying to give her my location and the aforementioned incident. I do not carry a credit card and I only had a $100.00 in my checking account, probably not enough to get a locksmith out on a Saturday evening to unlock the door of a stupid motorist.
I decided to find me a big rock. Seems like an easy thing to do but it really isn't. Ten or so mighty whacks later, I gave up. Finally a man came over and he offered to break the glass. He grabbed my big rock and it didn't work for him either. So he went to get his hammer. After five whacks he looked dumbfounded at the still shinning piece of glass before him.
"It might be easier to just push it out" he suggested and he placed the hammer head up against the glass and pushed. The glass shattered.
I thanked the man, opened my car door (at least the car was cool) and took off to finish my mission.
After hanging my signs, I stopped for a bite to eat and noticed the lady behind me had a fresh dressing on her hand.
"Just come from the doctor"? I asked.
"Why yes, how did you know?"
"The dressing is perfectly clean and professionally done and by the way you are holding your hand I can tell it is a recent injury. Operation or accident?"
"Accident. I cut it on a piece of glass"
"I thought I was having a bad day" I said "but I wouldn't trade mine for yours."
I sent an e-mail to the captain of the police department in Morganton, NC to protest the way the incident was handled but i have a feeling I'm cursed with whatever malady Dr. J has when dealing with our legal system. I have a long list of horror stories but you don't want to hear them and I don't want to tell them anymore. It's kind of like asking a soldier just home from the war what it was like. He just doesn't want to relive the nightmares.
It happens to be a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy I can relate to.
I arrived back home safe and sound at a quarter to midnight. All and all, it was a good day. I sent the morning with my wife, made my mom happy and got my signs hung, and it wasn't me who had nine stitches from a nasty cut to the main hand.
Life is good and my grass seed finally sprouted and it rained.
Things could be worse: Ask a soldier or a homeless person.
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