Trail of the Firewriter…
2010 Road Trip: Day Sixteen

Day sixteen was an uneventful day with some strange occurrences. I ran out of business cards, but through the miracle of the internet was able to have a digital template sent via e-mail, from Petoskey, to the Office Max in Oveido. It was done in minutes. Later that day I found a saloon at the end of my walking route where I could buy a beer at the happy hour rate. It is called Beef O’Bradeys.  It reminds me of Casey’s place in Detroit without the Firefighters.  When I came in today, I was dying of thirst. I do a 40 minute walk. Doing it in the hot sun triggered a desire for a cold Killion’s Red served in an iced mug. The young lady bartender was busy with the late lunch crowd. The miracle of the computer, which worked so well at Office Max, was not faring well at Beef O Bradys. It took at least 10 minutes to get my cold beer because the computer/cash register was not working properly.

I spent a restful afternoon catching up on my e-mail when I heard a horn blowing outside. I looked out and saw a Federal Express truck in the middle of the street being blocked by a car. I went out to investigate. I found a situation that reminded me of my Firefighting days. Sometimes at a fire something would go wrong. When that happened, it seemed everything would go wrong.

The lady across the street was taking her hyperactive dog Carlos to the vet. At the end of her driveway she found her garbage can overturned and it was rolling around in the street. She got out of her car to move the garbage can. Unfortunately she left her engine running when she got out of the car.  Carlos went into his hyperactive state with high pitched barking , bouncing up and down, and running a quick circuit around the inside of the car ricocheting off the dashboard and side windows.  On one of his circuits he hit the button that locked the doors. The lady had to walk back up the long driveway to get another key. When she left, Carlos went crazy. He ran laps around the inside of the car until he was exhausted. The lady couldn’t find a key and returned to find a traffic jam in the street. A group of people gathered and decided on a game plan. They decided to get Carlos to step on the window control button and open the window. Surely a bouncing hyper droopy eyed dog could do that. As they tapped on the window, to excite Carlos, they found the dog had other things to do. Carlos just sat there and stared at them. Adding insult to injury, Carlos started to lap up the iced tea the lady had sitting in the seat console. That’s when the Federal Express guy moved his truck close and laid on the air horn. Carlos exploded in a run for his life. On his second trip around the inside of the car he hit the right button. Down came the window. The crowd cheered, Carlos leaped into his master’s arms and life returned to normal in Oveido Florida. It was my only adventure on day sixteen. Tomorrow I am invited to breakfast with the local Kiwanis Club.


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