Daniel Meyer
Member
Posts: 5492
Author. Adventurer. Electrician.
The State of confusion.
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« on: July 11, 2021, 03:53:19 PM » |
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A long and lonely night run. Feeling it. Wondering just why I do this to myself sometimes. Too little sleep. Too many miles away from the woman. Too many miles alone with my own thoughts. Sometimes just what's needed. This time...a toxic combination.
The glimmerings of dawn coinciding with the need for a splash of fuel for the big cruiser...and some food for the soul piloting her. This sort of stop can be therapeutic...encountering other people on their own journey might convince me mine wasn't so damn futile.
I find that all sorts...meet at these kind of crossroads. Sorts I'd normally never encounter.
Small town diner. Odd hour. Open and serving, but the old pickup trucks usually filling the lot and heralding such a place haven't arrived yet.
Damn. More lonely. Ah well. At least I'd have some coffee to go with it.
Coffee. Eggs. Cheese. Various hams, bacons, and sausages. Much of that arranged in a rather excellent omelet. Buttered grits and fruit served up without being asked for. Some rather excellent hash browns to top it all off. A coffee cup that never went empty.
Perfect.
Only one other patron...and he was a odd one. I'm a fair judge of people...and I go by far more than their dress. It's manner and presence that really cue me in. I couldn't get much of a read on him.
Dude was a puzzle. He hadn't looked up at the waitress the entire time I was there...or at me...nor spoken. He had, for lack of a better description, growled at her a few times. She apparently understood as she had brought him breakfast and kept his coffee full.
I could describe him no other way as...unsettling. Perhaps with a dash of evil tossed in. Or maybe the other way around.
Only thing about him that I could read clear...was that under the proper circumstances he would be a very, very dangerous man.
I chuckled at a sudden thought...I'd mark him as a werewolf...just needing a full moon to break out in a frenzy of death and destruction...were it not that fact that I'm a supposed adult in a world all declare as mundane.
We don't believe in such things. Or so I've been told.
A single glance from the man...piercing green eyes meeting my blue ones. Then he was back to ignoring me. I shivered. And believed.
"Unsettling."
So much so that after I'd finished breakfast and was checking out at the front counter, I asked the waitress, "You gals gonna be okay?" while nodding in the dude's direction. It was just her and another lady at the grill in the place...and they'd be alone with the growler when I departed.
She grinned at me confidently. "Oh yeah, we'll be fine." She glanced his way, "I'm pretty sure he's a full out demon, but he's a regular and he tips well."
I blinked. "Uh. Okay. You're sure?"
"It's a *diner* hun. We see it all. Even demons gotta eat."
She patted me on the hand and tilted her head at me. "Just like the wandering souls do. It's what we're here for."
Demons and wandering souls.
...and they all gotta eat.
It's what we're here for...
I'll see you on the road...or perhaps at the crossroads.
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« Last Edit: July 12, 2021, 06:19:53 AM by Daniel Meyer »
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CUAgain, Daniel Meyer  |
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old2soon
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« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2021, 04:05:09 PM » |
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On the road or at the cross roads or at the demons roost? RIDE SAFE.
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Today is the tommorow you worried about yesterday. If at first you don't succeed screw it-save it for nite check. 1964 1968 U S Navy. Two cruises off Nam.
VRCCDS0240 2012 GL1800 Gold Wing Motor Trike conversion
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Valkorado
Member
Posts: 10493
VRCC DS 0242
Gunnison, Colorado (7,703') Here there be twisties.
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« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2021, 04:19:03 PM » |
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I count a couple unsung heroes there.  Fun read Daniel, thanks. |
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Have you ever noticed when you're feeling really good, there's always a pigeon that'll come sh!t on your hood? - John Prine 97 Tourer "Silver Bullet" 01 Interstate "Ruby"  |
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Willow
Administrator
Member
Posts: 16608
Excessive comfort breeds weakness. PttP
Olathe, KS
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« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2021, 04:53:05 PM » |
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Demons and wandering souls. Wise insight shows itself sometimes in unexpected ones. |
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f6gal
Administrator
Member
Posts: 6882
Surprise, AZ
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« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2021, 10:20:42 PM » |
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Not all those who wander are lost (but sometimes it helps).  |
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Rams
Member
Posts: 16200
So many colors to choose from yet so few stand out
Covington, TN
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« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2021, 01:39:43 AM » |
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Does a "Wanderer" need to recognize that he/she is lost, ask for directions to where ever or just keep wandering until he/she is discovered by those wondering where they went to? Such questions rarely come into my mind but then I get lost frequently in my wanderings. I'm so confused.  Rams  |
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VRCC# 29981
Learning the majority of life's lessons the hard way.
Every trip is an adventure, enjoy it while it lasts.
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Farside
Member
Posts: 2543
Let's get going!
Milton,FL
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« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2021, 05:43:58 AM » |
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Good story. Oh what the waitresses could tell of the clientele that comes in and out of those doors.  Maybe some  or  I've noticed in my experiences that late night early morning could be trouble and it was a good call on your end. I'd of probably done the same. 
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Farside
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hubcapsc
Member
Posts: 16779
upstate
South Carolina
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« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2021, 06:16:42 AM » |
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Oh what the waitresses could tell of the clientele that comes in and out of those doors.
I've gone into a restaurant (the Shady Valley Store?) where they reminisced some
about Gordon from a previous visit...
-Mike
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Daniel Meyer
Member
Posts: 5492
Author. Adventurer. Electrician.
The State of confusion.
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« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2021, 06:52:57 AM » |
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I should clarify also..."dangerous" is not what gains him an "unsettling" read...most of the very good men I know are extremely dangerous when needed...it's just that we operate in similar enough world that I understand when/why/what that is for those folks. This guy? I didn't move in his world at all.
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CUAgain, Daniel Meyer |
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J.Mencalice
Member
Posts: 1850
"When You're Dead, Your Bank Account Goes to Zero"
Livin' Better Side of The Great Divide
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« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2021, 08:18:39 AM » |
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I should clarify also..."dangerous" is not what gains him an "unsettling" read...most of the very good men I know are extremely dangerous when needed...it's just that we operate in similar enough world that I understand when/why/what that is for those folks. This guy? I didn't move in his world at all.
A "what if?", sir. What if there had been eight other patrons seated around you that morning? Retrospectively, would you have paid him any mind at all or would he have just been passed over in your overview of the scene and you interacting, engaging, conversing with someone else?  |
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"The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive." Bill Watterson
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance...
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Serk
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« Reply #10 on: July 12, 2021, 08:27:09 AM » |
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 "I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler." |
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Never ask a geek 'Why?',just nod your head and slowly back away...  IBA# 22107 VRCC# 7976 VRCCDS# 226 1998 Valkyrie Standard 2008 Gold Wing Taxation is theft. μολὼν λαβέ |
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Daniel Meyer
Member
Posts: 5492
Author. Adventurer. Electrician.
The State of confusion.
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« Reply #11 on: July 12, 2021, 08:48:14 AM » |
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I should clarify also..."dangerous" is not what gains him an "unsettling" read...most of the very good men I know are extremely dangerous when needed...it's just that we operate in similar enough world that I understand when/why/what that is for those folks. This guy? I didn't move in his world at all.
A "what if?", sir. What if there had been eight other patrons seated around you that morning? Retrospectively, would you have paid him any mind at all or would he have just been passed over in your overview of the scene and you interacting, engaging, conversing with someone else? Most likely would have had the same impression...I am a people watcher...generally observant of the things and people in the world around me...and I attempt to do it as much as is humanly possible without bias...a frequent subject of my writings is to point out that this sort of stuff is happening, always, all around us...it's just that most folks cannot see what they're not looking for and are oblivious to anything out of their definition of ordinary until or unless it deliberately intrudes into their world. And some won't even see it then... Some people though...excel at NOT being noticed when there are others around...deliberately so...so perhaps I would have had a different take on the scene in a different setting... |
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CUAgain, Daniel Meyer |
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Oss
Member
Posts: 12593
The lower Hudson Valley
Ossining NY Chapter Rep VRCCDS0141
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« Reply #12 on: July 12, 2021, 10:31:28 AM » |
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most excellent post sir !
I had a conversation with DDT about this while at an IZ some years back (Roanoke?)
As you did, sometimes better to let the sleeping demon lie or drink its coffee in peace.
Something tells me those waitresses have the means to dispatch demons if need be
Oss
If I ate all that I would be sleeping in 30 minutes
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« Last Edit: July 12, 2021, 10:34:20 AM by Oss »
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If you don't know where your going any road will take you there
George Harrison
When you come to the fork in the road, take it
Yogi Berra (Don't send it to me C.O.D.)
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DIGGER
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« Reply #13 on: July 12, 2021, 06:22:19 PM » |
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small town.......I thought when you asked the waitress if she was gonna be ok you were gonna say she responded......"who...ole Uncle Joe?.....why he wouldn't even hurt a fly"
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