The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Ever have one of those days you can't decide was a good day or a bad day. Well, I had one of those yesterday. It started out great with a call from my best friend in High School and while I was in the Army. We hadn't seen each other or even spoke for over 35 years. A wonderful start to the day; and things began to change.

• When I stopped by to see a friend, I looked down and there smack dab in the middle of my brand new trike tire was a roofing nail. I didn't hear any hissing, but I wasn't about to pull it out until I got home. When I did pull it out, yeah; you guessed it! Hssssss! I had only one radial tire plug, so I had to make it good. I think I did. I plugged the tire, trimmed it off, tried a little water on it, and it appears to have fixed it. Was still up this morning; I am optimistic - sort of.
• I come out the back door of my schoolhouse to check on the tire that I just fixed, and I see a young man standing between the dumpster and the building, holding a burning matchbook in his hand, which he drops to the ground when he sees me. I say to myself, "This isn't good." I am thinking that he planned to light my dumpster on fire, which would have destroyed the two plastic lids, not to mention the adjacent brand new vinyl windows on the schoolhouse. I grab the kid, and he wrestles away from me and runs toward his bike and begins to make the great escape. There are still questions to be answered, so I run after him, stumble, and with one great leap of faith, actually tackle him - bicycle and all. He is obviously not all there, and has a very difficult time distinguishing between truth and lies - lies that I actually think he immediately convinces himself are true. When the sheriff's deputy arrives, his dad pulls behind him shortly thereafter, and we all have a talk for about two hours. I didn't press charges, and actually came away from the ordeal, feeling sorry for the boy, and his dad who is trying to straighten the kid out, who had been living with his mom, in let's say, a less than ideal home environment. His dad is at the end of his rope with the kid, and doesn't know where to turn. Been there; bought the T-shirt. Needless to say, another night that I don't get to bed early.