I nearly got killed tonight.

How's that for drama.

I didn't almost get killed but I did guard myself for the worst. This morning I had a terrible commute (2 hour drive that should have been about 30 minutes). Anyway, my car went to Empty about 15 minutes before I parked at Union station. Fortunately I made it but I was left with an empty tank. After today's event and subsequent dinner and conversation with Bob Franquiz... I needed to get gas. Bob was kind enough to follow me to a gas station up the road. Bob took off and I began to pump the gas. As soon as I started the pump I hear "You wanna fight? You think you can take me?" I'm like ohh, no... Here I am... Mr. Whitebread in a not so great part of town at a gas station at 10:45 p.m. and a riot is about to break out. Well... I slowly glanced over to see what was going on. I see this man trying to fight the gas station attendant through the protective glass (gee, I wonder why they installed that?)

The attendant ignores the man (good move) and then the man looks to take out his aggression on someone else. He approaches two innocent men coming up to buy some "black and milds" from the attendant dude. (I know b/c the threat of violence heightened my awareness of the situation). This same guy talks smack to these guys and says "C'mon... let's fight right now." The two guys were apparently sober and sane enough to realize it was ridiculous so they simply said "No thanks" as if they were turning down a free sample of Chinese food at the mall. Well by this time I'm looking at the gas and asking God if he wants to speed up the pump for me so I can get out of Dodge. God decides to let the tank go at the normal speed and I decide to grab my keys in a position getting ready to have to throw down in the Exxon parking lot.

Well, the insane dude comes toward my car and I think "Here we go." You know what he says to me? He says "Hey brother... Don't do anything for this country okay?" I said "Okay" and nodded. Now, I have no clue what he meant and I wasn't in a position to ask him. I simply thought "Okay... He's to my left, the car is to my back and the hose is between me and him... If he comes at me I can knock him down and get in the car pretty quick..."

Fortunately I didn't need any of that. The guy just said "Good" and walked away! It was the craziest thing. Here he was trying to pick a fight through a window... Then stepping to TWO guys.... He sees Cracker pumping gas and he never gets rude with me at all. So strange.
So I finish pumping my gas and proceed to leave when another man approaches me asking for 50 cents "for dinner". I said "sure thing man, right after I finish up." He waited patiently and stayed about 8 feet from me (to give me the assurance he wasn't up to anything) and I reached in my wallet and grabbed a buck and gave it to him). He was pumped over the buck... I was pumped over my body being in one piece and I said "God Bless", he returned the greeting and we parted ways.