Dealing With a Threat

"No." I told the young panhandler at the Safeway grocery store door.

"You a rude son-of-a-b$#&$!" he said, lurching forward.

"Say that to someone your age." I said while putting my groceries in my backpack at the bike rack.

Then another twentysomething joined the first as the first continued the insults: "Bring one, you son-of-a-..."

Now, this 62-year-old can take one young punk, but not two. So instead I went inside the store and told the Service Desk. By the time I came back outside, the two punks were gone.

I thought to myself: This assault is in a nice neighborhood, mid-morning, at a nice store called SAFEway... how ironic. There just isn't relief, even on vacation.

Then I bicycled away. Bicycling away from a threat works!

-copyright 2012 by Willy