Showing posts with label tales from the before times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tales from the before times. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The Night Is Dark And Full Of Terrors

     First off, yay for "Game of Thrones" references.  Second, as my brain is currently mushy and useless, it's time for another installment of Tales From The Before Times!  This, of course, is when I tell you lovely people all about some strange and random thing from my past.  You're welcome.


     Once upon a time, when I was still a young and sassy firecracker (as opposed to an old and sassy one,) I moved into a new house.  I've moved about a billion times, so this should have been no big whoop.  But things are rarely as they should be.  This move, in particular, took a few days to complete.  On the first day, I basically just moved whatever random crap had made its way to the front of the random crap pile.  I also moved a couch, so I would have somewhere to sleep that night.  Moving is hard work, and I was a lazy ass, so I called it quits around mid-afternoon.  I jumped in my car rather spryly to make a run to the grocery store.  As I backed out of my driveway, a man walking down my street flagged me down.  I may have mentioned that I was young and thusly stupid.  So, of course I stopped my car and rolled down my window.  I was ten feet tall and bulletproof, after all!  Anyway, this man asks me if I've got any spare change.  I used to be a sucker for a sad story, so I gave him the approximately fifteen dollars in change that I had in my console.  To paraphrase Daniel Tosh, "You hit the jackpot, mofo!"  He was pleased with his unexpected windfall, and I left for the grocery store feeling morally superior to everyone I passed.
     Fastfoward to that same night.  I went to the store, and got myself some yum yums.  Tired from my day of half-ass house moving, I ate and then retired to my bedchambers, aka my couch in my new living room.  Around four in the morning, I was awakened by someone knocking on the front door, which happened to be right next to my head.  And I don't mean a polite tapping on the door, or a "it's probably just a tree branch" situation.  I mean a full-on "let me in the house because a monster is trying to eat me" scenario.  I peeked out the blinds behind the couch, and who did I see but the same man I gave about twenty pounds of change to that afternoon.  As we did not have plans to play bridge and have a spot of tea, this immediately sent me into panic mode.  And what did I do in panic mode, you ask?  Oh, just froze solid on the couch, and prayed that the man didn't come around to the side door which didn't have curtains.  As he continued to pound on the door, I managed to thaw out one of my hands, and called my mother.  She told me to stay still and quiet, and that she would call the police.  But since I made it a point never to listen to my mother at this point in my life, I did the exact opposite, and began searching for a weapon.
     At that point in my life, I didn't own a gun.  I also hadn't moved any of my silverware or table lamps.  Basically, I had nothing to defend myself with.  Other than my samurai sword, that is.  Serendipitously, a few days prior, I had passed a yard sale, and purchased myself a fancy schmancy sword.  It also came with a board to mount it on for display, but I hadn't attached it yet.  And this is how I found myself to be creeping silently through my home, with a giant sword held at the ready.  I was absolutely ready to decapitate some intruders.  Suddenly the knocking stopped.  I don't know if the guy was able to see me through the window, and had second thoughts about assaulting a girl who defends herself with a sword, or if he just got tired of knocking.  But a couple of minutes later, another knock at the door came.  Thankfully, the man knocking identified himself as a police officer.  Because I may have had trouble explaining myself for assaulting an officer of the law with a dull, ninja sword.  And I think this story is entertaining enough on its own without having to add attempted murder into the mix.  What say you?

Monday, June 25, 2012

Oh, Karma, You Delightful Creature!

     My house is still in the midst of its very own black plague.  Apparently, we had the great fortune to contract this super bug that's been going around.  Its most noticeable symptom?  Oh, just the fact that it lasts for about a month to six weeks.  So cool, right?  As I still feel like straight garbage, I'm too tired to attempt to make my daily life sound interesting.  Thusly, today I will be regaling you with one of my Tales From The Before Times.  (That should sound all cool and echo-y when you hear it in your head.)  These tales will henceforth be told any time I try to come up with a current and relevant blog post, but just end up with doodly squat.  They're pretty much just good stories that I think you might like to read.  Could be wrong.  I'm okay with that.  Let us begin.


     About a year ago, before I started feeling all Lyme-y and before Skeletor's major behavioral issues surfaced, I was gainfully employed working on an ambulance for the local hospital.  It was while working here that I was witness (well, ear witness) to the single greatest example of karma that I can imagine.  There I was, watching television in a recliner working super hard at one of our stations, just making it through the day.  Then the tones sounded, signaling that someone was about to go drive an ambulance really fast.  Turns out my truck wasn't going anywhere, but we all still listened to see if anything cool had happened.  The call was for a snake bite.  Now, even though we live in the south, it's still relatively rare for someone to call 911 for this kind of thing.  Hmmmm...interest piqued.  A few minutes later we heard one of our paramedics come over the radio trying to narrow down the location of the call.  It seemed that the patient was somewhere in the middle of a cornfield.  Dispatch advised that there were police at the scene, and that the paramedics should look for the blue lights.  Even more interested.  They found the patient...and his wife, and the police, and a rightfully pissed off snake.  What had transpired was karma at its most instantaneous.  Apparently, some mean spirited, abusive, hillbilly of a jackass had been working in the field with his wife when she did something to upset him.  Instead of using his words, as we teach toddlers to do, he decided that physical violence was the only way to get his point across.  But he didn't use his fists.  No, no, that was not a flashy enough gesture.  In order to truly express his anger, this moron picked up a poor snake that happened to just slither by, and began to beat his wife with it.  We will not even get into how horrid this is.  We will, instead, get right to the good part.  As he was beating his wife with this snake, he got bitten.  But he didn't stop.  He continued to hit his wife, and then was bitten again!  Then he dropped the snake, and presumably started to flop around and have all sorts of nasty symptoms.  Oh, karma, thou art such a divine and lovely creature!  You make life tolerable.
     I don't know what happened to him, because his physical well-being was not my concern seeing as he was such a douche kabob.  Maybe he lived, maybe he died, maybe he lost his arm.  Who knows?  Doesn't really matter, because the point in the story where he gets bitten is where every single person I know ceases to care what happened to him afterward.  And, there you have it, folks: my absolute favorite example of karma.  Now, I'm going to go drink Nyquil, and pass out.