Ro and I were loading groceries and stuff into the back of the truck the other night. The Wal-mart parking lot was full.

A 20′ish woman comes up to us. Let’s call her Sheryl. She was clearly embarrassed. (Or was she?) She’d locked her keys in the car. Had only $60.00 on her, and needed only $6.00 more for the locksmith to get her into her car.

I’ve locked my keys in the car before. Easy enough to do.

Ro mentions she should get a magnetic hide-a-key. Sheryl, without hesitation, replies that her Ford key is too long for the boxes. (Or is it?) And being my wonderful wife, Ro proceeds to tell Sheryl that I work for KAFE  and that she should listen to the station. So there we are. The 3 of us. Chatting. I even queiried Sheryl about this being a ploy. She pointed to her car. (The one I couldn’t see because it was wayyyy over there, in the dark.)

I felt bad for Sheryl. She’d locked herself out of her car. She was in need of a quick, small amount of cash.

Ro and I gave her the money.

Sheryl disappeared to her car that was over by the Taco Bell.

As we finished the offloading of the rest of the food and goods, my mind starting admiring the scam. If that’s what it was. I admired the creativity and/or the self-congratulatory fact that Ro and I were kind people.

* * Dark, busy parking lot.
* * We were halfway through putting groceries away. Not likely that we would just ‘up and follow’ her to confirm her story.
* * She needed a specific amount. A ‘panhandler’ says “can you spare some change”?
* * She just made 6 bucks. WOW! If she could repeat 3-4 times an hour, she’s making up to $24.00 an hour!
* * She could stay in that parking lot all night, for numerous nights in a row to ‘mine’ the available kind people like me and Ro. (We don’t go shopping every night. More like once a week.)

So..did we get scammed? Or did we just ‘help’ someone?

Okay. The other day, I admitted it on the air that I nearly put my Jeep in the ditch. While driving, I may or may not have been using a texting device. At the last minute, I was able to save myself a lot of pain and heartache by NOT going into the 3 foot deep drainage ditch. I HAVE NOT since, and WILL NOT text while driving ever again. 

 So, today..I’m driving from home to my wonderful job here at KAFE. I see a nothing-short-of-spectacular sunrise coming on over the Twin Sisters casting a wonderful pink glow on the front of Mt. Baker. I’m NOT going to miss it.

 I exit the freeway. Find a place to view it. Free from lots of traffic. I call my buddy  (incidentally, the one I alledgedly was texting) to tell him about the beautiful sunrise. Mike took some great shots of that majestic mountain in the same place I was about to park. I thought I’d rub it in that I was seeing something he couldn’t see in the fogged in Spokane.

Maybe that’s it. I was doing a “nyeh nyeh”,  and I was about to be paid back. While talking to him on the phone (this time, I don’t mind telling you, it was on my blue-tooth hands free devise)… I WENT INTO THE DITCH ! ! ! ! !

 Well dang. Undaunted..I stepped out to watch what I set out to see. Mt Baker was gorgeous. The line of the Cascades is amazing. People would pay good money to see what I was seeing. Except for the few harried county-ites who were driving past me at that corner..oblivious to the miracle before them. And oblvious to the fact that my Jeep was resting on only 2 opposing wheels.

To the young guy who was the only one to stop and ask, I thank you. It was a very simple tug and I was free.

 Richer for the experience.