Random Acts of Kindness

As some of you know... there are only things that happen to me. It is plain and simple. I am one of the few percentage that is bound to get the adverse side effect or the 1 in 100 that statistically, gets the odd thing! Trust me, it sucks!

Random acts of kindness are something that each one of us, as a decent human, being perform on a regular basis. It makes us feel good. It makes us a good citizen and a good person, on a whole. However, for those that "things just happen to", those random acts of kindness often backfire! And it usually happens to me...

Yesterday, while sitting in traffic (taking my older girls to my mom's), Stacy spotted a little pick-up (driving next to us) with a full-size wallet on the rear bumper. Me, being the "do-gooder" that I can be (sometimes), honked my horn at the little old lady driving it. She looked up, startled, and Stacy and I started pointing to the rear bumper and shouting. I doubt she heard us... maybe she can read lips... after all, in all of this heat (yes, yesterday was cooler, but we're now kind of spoiled), everyone's windows (including the truck's) were rolled up. The lady acknowledged us, stopped her vehicle, as traffic began moving [she was now holding up traffic] and then proceeded to drive. After she caught up with us, she pulled into a parking lot.

Stacy sat up in her seat (yes... she was wearing a safety belt!) and watched, as traffic inched again. She turned back around with a look of disbelief on her face. "OMG!" she said. "What?" I asked her. "She locked in keys in the car!" Hmmm... should we go back and let her use the cell phone? Stacy told me she probably has a cell phone. I reminded her that if the woman locked her keys in the car, and her wallet was on the bumper, she probably left the cell phone in the car! YIKES! I quickly asked Stacy if there were other people and cars in the parking lot, to which she replied, "Yes." Thank goodness! I would let someone else handle it.

You see... even though I try to do good, chances are... that lady would have been very angry and placed her anger on me. As it were, the wallet had appeared to be staying complacently on her rear bumper, and had I not made a big deal out of it, she probably wouldn't have pulled over, gotten out of her car, left the car running, and automatically locked her keys in. It's all my fault! LOL!

Actually, it was rather comical. Stacy even felt bad. Rey thought it was hilarious and would only "happen to you, Mom!" Gee thanks!

A couple of weeks ago, we were coming back from somewhere. It was dark. The neighbor's front door was wide open. There were no cars in the driveway and no lights on in the house. Complete darkness.

I tried to call the house number, but had the wrong number. I tried to call the cell, but had the wrong number there, too. So, I walked quickly up to the Head of the Neighborhood Watch and told him the situation. He rushed down, did not go in, but called from the walkway... No one answered. So he called the police.

The police quickly arrived (a miracle here... I guess they really have upped the amount on the force!) with 5 patrol cars. They walked up, flashlights in hand. After a couple of minutes, an angry person came out of the house, talking on the phone. It was the niece of the neighbor.

She was very angry with me and informed me she did not like police. I explained, which I shouldn't have had to... The front door was open, no cars were around, no one was answering. She told me she had been home all day, that her car was in the garage, that the air conditioning was broken... I told her there have been a number of break-ins and I would never have forgiven myself if the house was empty and I didn't do something about my neighbor's house.

"Whatever!" she told me and called me a list of names. Ummm... hello! Does she not know there are windows and back doors to open? (None of which were opened, so I'm not sure I believe her...)

When the neighbor came back, I talked to her about it. Her niece had never mentioned me, but did mention the police incident, telling her that she was "asleep" when they came in. Hmm... uh, you sleep with the front door open? Yeah right!

Like I said, things often backfire on me... lol! Sometimes it's funny (like with the little old lady... Hey! I'm not being mean. I'm sure she got help right away). And sometimes it's anger-inducing. But eventually, things end up fine... I hope...

Well, that's my bit for yesterday (a day late)... I was WAY too tired from over 4 hours of traffic-driving... Toodles for now! lisa