I Met Him Outside and I Was Upwind

Not too long ago, Buster and I were out for a walk and came across a pathetic creature. No, it wasn’t an incumbent federal politician, although it could have been. No, I saw a guy sitting on a bus bench with a cast up to his knee on his right leg and casts on both his left and right wrists, a neck brace and what must have been thirty stitches at different locations on his face. Those were the injuries that I could see. WOW!

I went up to him and asked if I should call him lucky? He looked at me for a while and then shook his head and smiled. I am sure that it must have hurt. Whenever I see someone in a cast or with some kind of mammoth bandage I just have to ask them if their injuries were worthwhile or just stupid bad luck. Invariably it is the result of bad judgement. This particular fellow was doing a good deed, and as we all know, no good deed goes unpunished. It seems that he was walking along feeling wonderful about himself as he had just started a new job recently, bought a good used truck and had moved into a new apartment. He came upon a woman and her two children who were very upset because their Frisbee was stuck in a tree. Glancing at said Frisbee and the tree that it was in, he felt that he could rescue the Frisbee and make someone’s day as wonderful as his own.

Well, you guessed it not only did he climb the tree and knock the Frisbee down, he did it with his body. Somewhere on the way down he tried to stop himself with his face and when that didn’t work his ankle caught in the crook of a branch which did slow him down until the branch and or the ankle snapped. Now, as he plummeted towards the ground his hands went out in front of him as is only natural, thus breaking both wrists. Poor bastard!

He hadn’t been at his job long enough for his employer to keep him on staff so he lost his job. Now, with no income and his severe injuries he had to give up his apartment and move into his parent’s place which no 33 year old man wants to do. With the loss of his job came the loss of his truck which he couldn’t make payments on, which is why I met him at the bus stop on the way to the doctors. This story unravelled and all I could do was wish him well and make the observation that since everything that could go wrong had already done so.

I wished him well and Buster and I continued on our way, content in the knowledge that I am not nice enough to have offered to help the kids in the first place and although Buster is that nice, without opposable thumbs he would never be able to get high enough in the tree to do himself any damage.

I don’t know why, but I felt much better about myself after talking to him. One thing still bothers me and I wish that I had asked him how he managed to wipe his ass? Perhaps it was a good thing that I met him outside and I was upwind.