Gave two skeezy hitch-hikers a 30 mile lift yesterday. Didn’t get killed. Pulled a guy out of a mud hole tonight. Didn’t get killed (and I could see his gun). He’da spent the night out there if I hadn’t come along, and maybe most of tomorrow. Maybe I’ll make Pancakes for the kid in the morning. Should survive that as well.
I don’t really feel much better, however.
.
Tomorrow’s headline: Local man Immolated in tragic flap-jack disaster
Giving the hitchhikers a lift was kind and brave. I know I wouldn’t dare anymore.
And now I want pancakes, dammit.
The last time I picked up a hitchhiker it was a young woman trying to get home late at night. She was understandably nervous, I was driving a brand new car. I did not know the rear doors had child protective locks set. When her door wouldn’t open she became upset. I kept pushing the unlock button but she couldn’t get out. By the time I got out and opened her door she was freaking out a bit and ran from my car into the night.
We don’t know that it will be tragic. It could be hilarious.
I’m assisting a friend by giving his naturally bored kid online chess lessons.
Every little helps!
Karma is real, y’all. Years ago on my way to work, I saw a guy with a flat tire on the side of the road. Looked like he didn’t really have any experience changing a tire. I pulled over and helped him out. I carry a 5 ton jack, and he had a Jeep Commander, which was a beast of a vehicle. So my 5 ton jack was way more useful than the stupid weak little jack that came with the Jeep. I had him back on the road in 10 minutes, and he thanked me. Said he was unemployed, on his way to the airport to apply for a job, and he might have missed his flight if not for my help. Offered me money, which I turned down.
Later when I got to work I found out a co-worker had passed by, saw me helping, and nominated me for a “Hero” award our workplace had at the time. I won and got $50-- instant Karma!
So, back maybe 20 years ago, I met a very friendly couple, new to the area, at work. We talked and they made a purchase, then returned a few days later for another purchase. What a nice couple!
Then, their checks bounced (this was back in the day when I still accepted checks). I assumed it was an accident, since they just moved to the area and were probably switching over their banking, etc. I told my business manager to wave the NSF fee; I was certain they’d be in with apologies right away.
Days and then weeks passed with no contact from them. I tried calling and eventually got through to a machine. I left a polite message, blah, blah. No money. One day I called and the guy answered. He explained that he felt bad, because I was a nice guy, but I’d never see the money, as it was a planned thing that he and his wife had done for years. Sure enough, looking things over, the two purchases were strategically separated to keep the check amounts each below what I could turn over to law enforcement.
A month after that, during a snowstorm, I had to run in to work for a minor emergency. The snow was really coming down, but I was in four wheel drive with monster tires, so I took the scenic route home, driving a back-back-back road that was red-dog and totally untouched by snowplows.
At about the halfway point I saw a minivan with a flat tire. The driver had pulled over to change it, but the berm was a ditch and the van’s one side was down in it. I had a good jack in my Jeep and figured I could raise the vehicle up, pull the van back onto the road, or at least take the people into town.
I stopped my Jeep and immediately recognized the couple. Once I was certain they recognized me, I drove off, leaving them stranded and the weather rapidly worsening. There would likely be no traffic on the road overnight, so one or both of them would be walking 3-4 miles to reach “civilization”.
TL;DR: Karma, if it exists as an entity, works both ways.
Good story! I thought at first it was going to be an ‘anti-karma’ story about getting punished for a good deed; which certainly happens also. But it turned into a good old-fashioned “what comes around, goes around” tale.
You are a better man than I. I would have… well, lets just say you are a better man than I.
I would have at least called a tow service. “By the way, these people have a history of deliberately bouncing checks. Make sure they have cash.”
The only time I picked up a hitchhiker was decades ago. I stopped for a red light and an elderly woman with a bag full of groceries stepped off the curb, opened the door and got in. She pointed straight ahead and said it was only a few blocks. When we got there she thanked me and got out. I’m still puzzled over it.
When vacationing in St Martin, we pick up hitchhikers. We have a whole sub-category of experiences that involved picked up hitchers.
A couple weeks ago I went to pick-up some phone-ordered personal pizzas from a restaurant nearby. No dine-in. I got there when they said the pizzas would be ready and waited. And waited more. Someone came up to me to ask about my order, then checked, and turned out they made a mistake and never made the pizzas (while others were getting their orders and flying out of there as I waited).
The manager came up to me to explain the mishap and popped $31 and change into my hand and said that was a discount on my next order. It was like a refund for 2 of the 3 pizzas we ordered. As I waited a little more I started feeling like this was really un-necessary, so when they put the pizzas into my hand I told the server to hold-on for a second, while I dumped the $31 into the tip jar for the workers to share.
I am not expecting any karma points there, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Dad gave an older woman a ride home. She insisted on making coffee for him. There was an eye in a jar on the mantle. She explained that it was her Husband’s. It had to me removed for some reason. Dad said it followed him all around the room.
Not exactly a hitchhiker, but a few years ago I took off early from work the day before Thanksgiving and stopped at the liquor store on my way home to get some beverage for the next day. It was a bitterly cold and windy day. As I was leaving the store, a woman who had been standing at the nearby bus stop waved me over and asked if I knew when the next bus came by. She had just hitchhiked into town and was trying to get downtown to the homeless shelter. I told her I wasn’t familiar with the bus schedules but I’d be happy to give her a ride. Probably risky for both of us but it wasn’t that far out of my way and I would have felt bad leaving her out in the cold for who knows how long.
How did the eye get out of the jar?
We were at the liquor store picking up some wine last Saturday when I saw a dude stick his XJ Cherokee into a snow bank when he lost it going around a corner I had an XJ and I know how easily you can oversteer them, especially on a slick road. Pulled him out with SWMBO’s Edge and a tow strap. It was -35C w/o windchill, no way I’m leaving someone stranded even on a busy road at those temps. He offered to buy me beer but I told him pay it forward when he sees someone who needs help.
I have only picked up a hitchhiker once. It was a middle aged woman that looked down on her luck. She wanted to get where I was going. About half way to our destination, she pulled out a small pocket knife and suggested I give her all the money I had, that would have been about $7. I was driving an old Dodge pickup that had a 440 under the hood. I decided to see how brave she was. I sped up to 70, this made the truck rattle and shake a bit. She asked me what I was doing, I said either scare her or attract a cop. She said I couldn’t scare her. I sped up to 80. The truck rattled and shook some more. About the time I hit 90 she wanted out. I pulled over and out she went. About half a mile down the freeway I passed 3 state troopers. I would guess she had some karma on her side. Got to where I was going and found the knife she had, it was a nice Schrade. I still have that knife.
It was diseased and removed surgically. They let you take things home in a jar back then.