My Eventful Weekend

As I've tweeted, October is shaping up to be a fairly eventful month!!! Starting last Friday, when I had a pair of tickets to Loggins & Messina at the Greek Theater. It was the only show that sounded like anything I was interested in on the list, and I managed to be the lucky one. A funny story about this season's drawing, a lot of people had put in for Lakers tickets, but ended up getting Clippers tickets!!! No one was signing up for them, so they're giving 'em away!!! Well, I guess they're giving 'em away no matter what, but now they're giving them away to people who didn't really want them.

Anyway, the concert was pretty good. I do like that venue, but I detest the parking there. I know he had a string of hits in the early 80's, but besides "Footloose" I couldn't think of another. Turned out not to matter, he didn't do ANY of those, "Footloose" included!!! Of the whole set, I only knew four songs, and two of those were covers. He opened the show by covering a Lynn Anderson tune that my wife used to go around singing all the time, which I think got him in her good graces. A rockin' good time, even though I wasn't as familiar with all the works. Oh, and the weather is feeling like autumn in Cali, and it was a nice, crisp night to be out under the stars.

Saturday Sammy and his brother were celebrating their birthdays at his parents house. As always, the food is amazing there. Got to meet his wife's brother and his high school friend, and two of his cousins, who are true delights. Boccie and Karaoke for all who would partake. My older boy sang a few, and Sammy told me he admired his taste in music. Sammy's brother told me it's an unfortunate time for him to be singing, in a Peter Brady kinda way. True and true.

Starting today I've been on call for jury duty. I had fun two years back when I went to serve, and thought it worked out pretty good. They've added in WiFi connectivity in the jury pool room, so I'd manage to keep well occupied the whole time. Unfortunately, I haven't been required to come in yet, so I've been having to go to work instead. I'll bet they call me in on Thursday, the day I've got an appointment for my flu shot at work.

But the part I really wanted to share about happened on Sunday. I'd taken the family out for some fast food lunch, and on the way back pulled into the grocery store to pick up a few things. I ask my wife if she's coming in or waiting, and her and my younger boy both elect to wait in the car. The older and I shop, and on the way out, here comes my wife and younger, walking towards me rather briskly. "Thank goodness you're here!!!", she tells me. I figure she urgently needs to use the restroom, so I'm taking the boy's hand, and I ask her if that's the case. "No!!!", she replies, "Some guy selling bootleg DVD's just molested me!!!" Huh??? This changes things, I'm getting a good head of pissed off going... She quickly tells me a bit of what'd happened, "There he is!!!", she says. It's on.





He sees me coming, with my wife, and he starts in trying to sell me some of his wares. Oh yea, this is going to go well for you, beotch. I roll up on him, asking WTF and who knows what all else (apparently quite loudly) cock back and take one swing, which he sees coming and gets his head moved sufficiently to the side to where it glances off, but I caught him square on the next shots. Next thing I've got him pushed over backwards on the trunk of Janice with my arm on his neck. Interestingly, he's lost the ability to speak English at this point. I pull back a little at this point, as I'm attracting witnesses. Don't know why that should have bothered me, I should have.... well, a lot of things I should have done differently, but I'll get to that later. Suffice it to say, I was concerned that the crowd was going to turn on me as the aggressor, and I was attempting to control that situation. I'm trying to explain to the crowd what'd happened, and get someone to call the law (not that I'd have been perfectly content to deal with him myself...)

The guy isn't really struggling much, so I finally pull out my own phone to call 911. I tell the dispatcher what's happened and where I'm at, and they transfer me to the actual police. At this point, scumbag starts wiggling while I'm trying to restrain him left-handed. I've got a grip on his shirt, and he manages to shuck it off and takes off running, leaving his bag of contraband DVD's. No one tries to stop him. They do, however, come up and start grabbing up all his DVD's. Anyway, he lost his shirt, I busted his sunglasses, he lost his stash of discs, and a tallboy of beer. Not the outcome I would have liked, but a small victory. And, I did get in a couple of good shots.

Five minutes or so later, three of the store employees and the manager come out to see if everything is OK. Um, no, not really, but a little late now!!! The manager asks if there's anything they can do, and I opine that a little more vigilance prior to would be a nice thing. He says they have a security guard, but he doesn't get there until 4:00. Makes sense, usually more problems when it starts getting later. I'm thinking a call to corporate asking what they're going to do to make this right may be in order. Half an hour later the police finally show up and take an incident report. That will probably be the last of this. Unless, of course, I see that guy again.

Now, what would I have done different??? Don't know why, but I think I have an ingrained "fight clean" ethic within me. First shot, I should have bagged him in the nuts. Hard. Repeatedly. That will take all the fight and a lot of the flight out of most anyone. Plenty of time to bust up his face after you incapacitate 'em. I'd love to have done some of that. Second thing, don't leave him upright. ON THE GROUND, AND STOP YOUR RESISTING!!! Third thing, hand off my phone to my wife or son to make the call, I've got other things to deal with. Next thing, if he tries to take off, go after 'em!!!

Oh, and wife seems to be doing fine. I know it's one of those incidents where you'll be replaying it over and over for days. I called her up today to see how she was doing, and she tells me she keeps seeing me pounding his face. I think that's a good thing.