Kind of a weird day

Yesterday was progressing by as a fairly normal day in the life of your’s truly, but once I headed out the doors after work a couple of strange things happened.

The first and I suppose most exciting was when I stopped by the liquor store at the Normanview Mall to apply for a liquor permit for the wedding reception in February (I know, on the ball or what?!?). Anyway, I was at the till going through the details with the nice lady helping me out. Several other customers walked up to the till, but as we were going to be a while she directed them to another clerk.

About 10 minutes in another guy walked up, and I never really thought much of it, he put down a 24 of Lady’s light, and a bottle of some orange stuff. Without looking the lady said, “You should go the other till; we are going to be a while”. The guy, with a certain “inner city” look to him said something like “Oh really?.” The lady, who is about 55 years old, and not much more than 110 pounds, looks up and immediately goes off. She yells at him, “HEY BUDDY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!” She runs out from behind the till in front of this guy and right beside me. I have no idea what is going on, but obviously this guy has done something wrong. He immediately gets a deer in the headlights look on his face and starts for the door. She keeps yelling at him “ SHOW ME YOUR POCKETS – WHAT DO YOU HAVE!” He responds with – “What are you talking about?” and makes a move to get by her. This little lady then starts pushing this guy, blocking him like an offensive lineman and preventing him from getting out the door. By his point she is yelling for her manager and this alleged thief looks pretty scared. But this was no small guy- at least my height, and at least 50 pounds heavier than me. He continues for the door, pushing her out of the way and telling her to get off him. She makes another move and pins him up against the wall. All the while I am standing about 5 feet away still not sure exactly what the problem is, but starting to understand that this guy has stolen something and put it in his pants. I did mange to say something like, ‘you should just let him go”, as even though this guy looked more scared than aggressive, I certainly didn’t think a stolen micky or whatever he had was worth her getting stabbed or punched or something. But this little lady won’t back down, she is latched onto his arm, and he is pulling her right out of the building. Her manager, another lady, comes running out, also yelling, but this guy breaks free and stats to jog, not run, across the parking lot to an waiting “getaway car” parked over by the CIBC.Eventually the ladies come back into the store. I am thinking they will call the cops, but instead they all just go back to work! The manager tells the lady at my till that she is never to try and stop a customer like that ever again, but the little lady says “That guy bugs me”. Apparently.

I got to talking to the both of them, and apparently this guy is a repeat offender, usually he comes up to the till with some booze, then says he forgot his wallet and that he will get it from his car, but then just takes off with whatever it is he had in his pockets. Another gentleman came back in and gave the license plate of the car the guy left in, the lady says thanks, but then tells me that the cops can’t do anything, at worst they just get a slap on the wrist. They tell me some other stories, like on time a guy came in with a bandanna across his chest and over his shoulder, with a huge knife in it, right out in the open. They tell me in that situation, they just ignore they guy, let him take what he wants and hope he leaves without creating a scene. They have seen guns and all sort of stuff. They apologize to me for that all happening right in front of me, but I am just happy I have a good story for my blog.

So I went home, had a quick bite and went to the gym, it was chest day so after a short warm up I headed to bench press and threw on two 45’s and did quick set. I sat up, just waiting to for the next, then out of the corner of my eye I see this little kid, about 10 years old, maybe younger, putting the safety pins on the barbell for me. He puts one on then goes away gets another one and goes to hand it to me, I tell him that he can just put it on, so he does and the runs off in the other direction. What is this kid doing I the weight area anyway? Just watching out for everyone's safety? Maybe was he my guardian angle!?!

Then at the same time, just as I turn around, and old man, like really old, wearing the grandpa sweater and everything, is standing right in front of me. He is about a day away from needing a walker, in no shape for any sort of weight training. He says, “90 pounds! You can life that much?” I just sort of laugh and said I guess. He said something else I didn’t understand as I laid down and got ready to start my next set, but I could feel him watching me. This guy sort of reminded me of the old guy from Family Guy, as he was sort of just walking around the free weights areas looking at everyone. Kinda creepy, but definitely weird. I just shook my head and laughed to myself.

What a weird couple of hours..