Feb 3, 2011

THE ANGRY CAVEMAN

    It was hard enough to get myself out the door on this cold winters day. I had to keep reminding myself that I would feel better when I got going. I had planned to go 8 miles out and back on a usual route in my neighborhood. This consists of jogging along the “boulevard” for a long stretch of my run. As I finished up the first mile, snow started to fall. I was not going to let that bother me at all because by now I had already started my run, and nothing was going to stop me.

As I started to get near mile 3, I noticed that the traffic had increased because of the local high school just letting out. As usual, most of these teen drivers
zipped past me going 20 mph over the speed limit. Many of them taking the turns as fast as they can so that they can get the tires to squeal, and occasionally I swear I am only inches away from them as they fly by. I am sure that most of us in those days did these things and didn’t really care about the runners or bikers in the road.

However on this run at mile 5 while on my way back home, a ford explorer packed full with high schooler’s decided to start screaming at me. At first I did my best to just keep going. Much to my dismay they had turned around and decided to sneak up on me and try and scare me again. They were successful at this, and I am sure they saw quiet a site as I leaped away from them and almost slipped in the snow. As they drove off I raised my hands at them and had some choice words to say as well. I was pretty frustrated and let this get to me in a way that my run was now not giving me my good mental results!
As the next half mile passed I cooled off, and thought to myself that I shouldn’t over react at them. After all here I am the adult here. I used to work with troubled teens at a drug rehab and learned that teens just do some mindless things. I knew better than to react that way.

As I was just at the point of forgetting about it, the same group of kids were back on my tail. This time I was waiting to cross the street and they took a sharp turn right in front of me. As they were turning one of them threw a plastic cup at me. That was it!!! I then tried to step in front of their car (but tried to remember that yes a car can still run you over), and yelled in their open window to get out and join me. I asked them if they were so tough, let’s see how easy it is for you to be out here. Everyone in the car just stared at me and I could see that they were afraid I was about to jump in to their car. One of them said sorry, the rest just sat there with empty looks on their faces as the driver spun out to drive away.

They went their way and I went mine, and of course about thirty seconds later I was thinking to myself how big of an idiot I was for my reaction. I was embarrassed. I than thought about how lame I must have looked the rest of the way home. I no longer was upset, just ashamed of how stupid I must have looked. I couldn’t help but laugh at how funny I must have looked. At this time I was dripping with sweat, and had a full beard. I probably looked just like an angry caveman to them. Not only was I embarrassed about how I acted, but also for the example I set. Kids now days need stable adults more than ever. Unfortunately I was not there to be the better man. Even to this day I have never seen them again, but still carry the guilt of this act every time I jog down that same street. 

In case you were wondering how bushy my beard got, here it is.



4 comments:

  1. Derrick Lytle2/05/2011

    I'm digging the beard!

    ReplyDelete
  2. They are lucky you didn't jump in the car!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great story, Gator! Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous3/15/2011

    That is hilarious!

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.