Caution Crossing.
Why are the Cautions crossing? What do the Cautions look like?......So I can keep an eye out for them when they cross.
This morning when I got home from that overnight Pittsburgh run, my wife said that the Kool-Aid chemo was actually better than this New chemo. She said the Kool-Aid chemo made her sicker. She said the side effects were far worse. She said the difference is this. With the Kool-Aid chemo, she knew when it was over. With this New chemo, it comes and goes in waves. It changes all the time. She never knows how she'll feel one minute to the next.
This past weekend she was up on the eight-foot step ladder sealing up first floor windows while I did yard work. Today she's crashed. She hit the wall and crashed in the Pooh chair. We have this chair that sort of looks like the color of Winnie The Pooh. Not really but it's close. We call it the Pooh chair.
Had a stop I've never had before on last night's trip. Naser's in Apollo. It's at the end of the Apollo bridge, right on the bend on the left hand side. That's if you're coming out on 56 east through Vandergrift like I was. It's a tight squeeze into that loading dock. You have to drive your semi in between the grocery store and a beer store. You have to jack your trailer into this very old and narrow dock.
When I got there I didn't see or hear anyone. The sometimes vehicles crossing the Apollo bridge out front were all that could be heard. Not a sound came from the store. The garage type door was unlocked so I entered the store after ringing the loading dock bell a few times with no response. The lights were all on. I walked through the back of the store from the loading dock area as quietly as I could. I didn't just walk in shouting hello immediately.
This slightly paranoid ex-cop from Jersey is now thinking that something must have happened. You don't just walk into an open and empty supermarket at five in the morning, find no one, and assume everything is okay. It could be anything. The overnight person could be sick, and or incapacitated due to injury or even a heart attack. Worse case scenario is of course the obvious robbery. The perps could have the store people stifled at gunpoint when the truck driver shows up to make the delivery. So like I was saying. I don't just go barging through the store making my exact position known to all.
I proceed with due caution. Carefully approaching the end of each aisle. Stopping for a second to listen and look at the floor for changes in light patterns. I do this before dropping to one knee and taking a quick peek down the aisle. I listen for a second again. I check six, or look behind me, then move to the end of the next aisle. Third aisle down I see a mop and bucket standing just about ten feet down. I hear something just then. I quickly and quietly back track to the loading dock area. I very quietly pass through the swinging doors that mark the border between the store and the Employees Only back rooms. Through the dock door and out to my big truck. I retrieve my phone from the cab. For a second I wish I had a Glock. Then I saw him.
His name is Dennis and he works at the store. Turns out he was upstairs taking care of his overnight cleaning detail in the bakery/deli area. I didn't know they had an upstairs. It seems the unlocked garage type door on the loading dock was an oversight. It turns out that this is not the type of area where that would pose a problem. All is well at the grocery store. No one knows about my paranoid reaction. I'm not planning on sharing that with anyone either. Given the same set of circumstances, I'd do it the same way again. Old habits die hard.
I heard Molly Hatchet, Flirtin' With Disaster on the radio on my way down 28 earlier in the shift. They followed it up with The Beatles, Yesterday. The Georgia Satellites rounded out the set. Keep Your Hands To Yourself. There really was no obvious bridge between them. It kind of works though. If you think about it.
Man made moon glow sparkles on the highway.
Franky said; I got to do it my way.
Drive on troop. It's almost Friday.
Got to have a beer.
This morning when I got home from that overnight Pittsburgh run, my wife said that the Kool-Aid chemo was actually better than this New chemo. She said the Kool-Aid chemo made her sicker. She said the side effects were far worse. She said the difference is this. With the Kool-Aid chemo, she knew when it was over. With this New chemo, it comes and goes in waves. It changes all the time. She never knows how she'll feel one minute to the next.
This past weekend she was up on the eight-foot step ladder sealing up first floor windows while I did yard work. Today she's crashed. She hit the wall and crashed in the Pooh chair. We have this chair that sort of looks like the color of Winnie The Pooh. Not really but it's close. We call it the Pooh chair.
Had a stop I've never had before on last night's trip. Naser's in Apollo. It's at the end of the Apollo bridge, right on the bend on the left hand side. That's if you're coming out on 56 east through Vandergrift like I was. It's a tight squeeze into that loading dock. You have to drive your semi in between the grocery store and a beer store. You have to jack your trailer into this very old and narrow dock.
When I got there I didn't see or hear anyone. The sometimes vehicles crossing the Apollo bridge out front were all that could be heard. Not a sound came from the store. The garage type door was unlocked so I entered the store after ringing the loading dock bell a few times with no response. The lights were all on. I walked through the back of the store from the loading dock area as quietly as I could. I didn't just walk in shouting hello immediately.
This slightly paranoid ex-cop from Jersey is now thinking that something must have happened. You don't just walk into an open and empty supermarket at five in the morning, find no one, and assume everything is okay. It could be anything. The overnight person could be sick, and or incapacitated due to injury or even a heart attack. Worse case scenario is of course the obvious robbery. The perps could have the store people stifled at gunpoint when the truck driver shows up to make the delivery. So like I was saying. I don't just go barging through the store making my exact position known to all.
I proceed with due caution. Carefully approaching the end of each aisle. Stopping for a second to listen and look at the floor for changes in light patterns. I do this before dropping to one knee and taking a quick peek down the aisle. I listen for a second again. I check six, or look behind me, then move to the end of the next aisle. Third aisle down I see a mop and bucket standing just about ten feet down. I hear something just then. I quickly and quietly back track to the loading dock area. I very quietly pass through the swinging doors that mark the border between the store and the Employees Only back rooms. Through the dock door and out to my big truck. I retrieve my phone from the cab. For a second I wish I had a Glock. Then I saw him.
His name is Dennis and he works at the store. Turns out he was upstairs taking care of his overnight cleaning detail in the bakery/deli area. I didn't know they had an upstairs. It seems the unlocked garage type door on the loading dock was an oversight. It turns out that this is not the type of area where that would pose a problem. All is well at the grocery store. No one knows about my paranoid reaction. I'm not planning on sharing that with anyone either. Given the same set of circumstances, I'd do it the same way again. Old habits die hard.
I heard Molly Hatchet, Flirtin' With Disaster on the radio on my way down 28 earlier in the shift. They followed it up with The Beatles, Yesterday. The Georgia Satellites rounded out the set. Keep Your Hands To Yourself. There really was no obvious bridge between them. It kind of works though. If you think about it.
Man made moon glow sparkles on the highway.
Franky said; I got to do it my way.
Drive on troop. It's almost Friday.
Got to have a beer.
posted by Squarehead at 2:29 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe it's because I've been watching way too much true crime on TV this week, but I didn't think that was an abnormal reaction. Nothing wrong with being a little paranoid, if it keeps you in one piece.
Ah, the elusive Caution!! It's a cross between a whitetail deer and a turtle. Think of it as the Pennsylvania version of the Jackalope.
We don't talk about the Caution in Pennsylvania, because we want people watching where they're going, not scanning the hillsides for a glimpse of this extremely rare and never-photographed beast.
Great story about your trip to the supermarket. You're probably not the only ex-cop or serviceman to do this, you're just the only one confident enough to admit it.
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