Ninjas
I have had a couple of encounters with ninjas. The most memorable was the time that I was sitting out on a bench smoking on my 1 AM break. There is a line of trees and bushes across from this bench about 20 yards away. I heard something over there and I turned my head and looked over but I didn’t see anything. I heard something again and looked back again and there it was, a ninja. It was a guy dressed in all black (black hooded sweatshirt, black jeans, black sock hat, and carrying some sort of black bag) just standing there not moving. I kind of turned so that I was facing him just in case he tried to plant a ninja star in my neck. We kind of starred at each other for a while and then I decided to break the silence by waving and saying “Hi”. He did not respond. After another 30 seconds of uncomfortable silence he started walking down along the row of trees and bushes. He never took his eyes off me. He walked about 30 yards down and then jumped back into the bushes. That’s when I had seen enough and ran back into work.

Getting Shot
One night I was sitting outside on the same bench that I was sitting on when I encountered the ninja. All of a sudden I heard a sound like a cap gun and felt a stinging pain in my arm. I instinctively did an army roll off the bench and ran back into work. After inspecting my arm, I deduced that I had been shot by a pellet gun. I called one of the third shift supervisors and asked him what I should do. He told me he would be right up to check it out. Well on his way up, he called the cops. So by the time he got up there the cops were there too. They looked at my wound and kind of laughed at me and then looked around in the direction that the shot came from. They didn’t find anything, and I never figured out who did it or where it came from.

Drunks
Being that my lunch break starts right around the time that all the bars close, I have had many many run-ins with drunks. One of my favorite drunk encounters was when I was walking home for lunch. I was kind of just looking down at the ground, minding my own business, and all of a sudden I hear “Hey!” I kind of scarred the shit out of me. I kind of took a panicked step back and said “Shit. Hi. What’s up?” I then noticed that this guy was stumbling hammered drunk. He said “I need to go to the hospital.” I asked him why he needed to the hospital, to which he replied “Cause I’m drunk”. I kind of laughed and told him that it would probably be better if he just went home and slept it off. He told me that he lived on the other side of town and that he didn’t think he could make it. Come to find out this guy had started walking home from the bar, but he started walking the wrong direction and was lost and had decided that he better just go to the hospital. After he filled me in on all that his stumbling got a little worse and he started to do a fall over. He caught himself a couple of times, then started to fall backwards, caught himself on that, and then did one of the most horrific face plants I have ever seen right into a street sign. I looked down to make sure he was still conscious, said “maybe you should go to the hospital”, and continued walking home. On my my back to work he was gone, and I never saw him again.

Getting Harassed by the Cops
I have learned that the police do not like for people to be out walking around at odd hours during the night. One time I was walking back to work from lunch on a Saturday. When I am working on a Saturday I don’t do my normal dress up routine. On this particular night I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a backwards hat. I was also drinking a giant can of Monster, which to the untrained eye might look like a giant can of booze. So as I am walking I notice there is a car coming up behind me. I then realized that this car wasn’t passing me, it was following me. As I looked back to see what was going on I stepped in a pothole in the road and did a little stumble. The cop immediately flashed his lights and pulled up next to me. He shines his super bright flashlight in my face and starts asking me where I’m going. I tell him that I am going to work. He very obviously does not believe me because his next question is “you been doing any drinking tonight?” I kind of make a joke and tell him “I’m on the wagon, I’ve been sober for 6 days, anybody can do it.” He doesn’t find this funny, and asks what’s in my hand. I tell him it’s one of those new energy drinks, and he asks to see it. At this point this whole thing isn’t really funny to me anymore so I pull out my work badge, show it to him, point across the street, and say “I work right there. Can I go?” He nodds, puts away his flashlight, and speeds off like he has something important to do.

Wondering Children
I have actually come across 2 kids wondering around aimlessly in the middle of the night. The first kid I found was wondering around in a coat and a diaper in the middle of December. I was heading back to work after my lunch break and right in the middle of the road is a two year old kid. This kid just looked happy as could be until it saw me. I had this freaked out look on my face and I think the kid sensed it and immediately flipped out. I picked it up and started kind of looking around to figure out where this kid came from. At first I tried asking the kid where it came from but it was to busy screaming bloody murder. At the end of the block I saw a house with a door open. I walked down there and knocked on the door, knocked on the door, and knocked on the door again. Just when I was about ready to give up and just call the cops some lady came to door looking all crazy, but as soon as she saw her kid she flipped out and started shaking like a leaf on a tree. Apparently the kid has some kind of serious sleep walking thing, and will wonder around the house. The mom explained to me that they normally have to lock the kids door when she goes to bed, but this time she happen to forget and the kid wondered right out of the house. The second kid I found was also found on my way back from lunch. This one was just playing in the grass on the street corner about a block from work. I estimate that this one was about 4 because it could talk. I said “Hey, what are you doing?” It replied with “Ball”, and pointed to one of those giant bouncing ball things. I asked where it’s mommy an daddy were at and it pointed at the ball again and said “ball”. At that point I decided we weren’t getting anywhere so I picked the kid up and started walking down the street. There was one house with the lights on so I walked up to the door, which was wide open, and yelled “HELLO?” Some crazy drunk lady came to the door, I set the kid down, and she started yelling at it like it was his fault. I just shook my head and walked away.

When Animals Attack
I have had several potentially dangerous animal encounters on third shift. Several dogs, a possum, but most recently a bat. I was standing outside smoking when all of a sudden I start hearing this chirping sound. It’s not in a centralized place though. Sometimes I hear it farther away, and other times it sounds like it is right next to me. The all of sudden I hear flapping and hear the chirping sound very loudly right over my head. I have an “ah-ha!” moment and realize that it must be a bat. I’m looking around trying to see it when all of a sudden it slams right into the side of my head. I start flailing my arms and screaming like a girl. I look down and see the bat starting to get up, so I ditch my cigarette and run inside. I go into the bathroom and make sure I’m not bleeding or anything. I don’t see any visible fang marks on my neck so I assume that I’m ok, and go back to work. I tell a few co-workers about this, and before long I have a new nickname over the whole ordeal “batman”.

Arson Suspect
A couple of years ago, a house that is between my house and work caught on fire. Apparently this happened around 3:30 in the morning, which just so happens to be right when I am walking back to work after lunch. Around 4 AM at work, one of my co-workers who is also a volunteer fireman tells me that there is a fire right next to my house. I walk down there to check it out. I’m standing across the street and I see the police talking to some people, presumably about the the cause of the fire. Then I see a couple of them point at me, and the the police look over at me. They walk over and ask me if I was in the area between 2 and 4. I get a little concerned and start to wonder if I need a lawyer, so I ask the cop if I am a suspect. He replies “I don’t know…. are you?” I decided that I am definitely innocent of any wrong doing so I go ahead and tell him that I walked home at 3, and back at 3:30 and didn’t see anything. He takes down all of my information and tells me “Don’t leave the country… Just kidding.” ha ha really funny asshole. A couple of days later two policemen knock on my door and tell me that it was a dryer that caused the fire. I thought that was pretty nice of them to let me know that I was not a suspect in a fire investigation anymore.

Challenger Fail

The little circus town of Peru is often lacking in excitement. However, over the weekend there was a little bit of excitement when a furniture store next to one of the city’s only monuments, the circus building, caught on fire. You see, Peru has very few things that they are proud of. It is home to the Circus Hall of Fame, and every year puts on the Circus City Days festival. During this festival a full three ring circus is held in the circus building. So you can imagine what would happen to the town if this building burnt down.Although any fire isn’t funny, I did find a little humor in this one. When I heard about it and went down to see it, I was shocked by the amount of people that had come out to see it. As you can see from the picture there is a large crowd gathered watching this all go down. I bet there were at least 150 people that I saw in total.

[UPDATE] Don’t worry people, the show will go on! As reported by WISH TV 8, The Peru Amateur Circus will go. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to here this. I was laying awake at night wondering of the Peru Amateur Circus (that I never go to) would go on or not. I wonder how much longer I am going to have to hear about this? My guess is at least 8 more months.

[UPDATE 2] It’s all over YouTube. Somebody shoot me.

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

I only managed to snap one picture from the parking lot as we were leaving because I was too busy burning up the slopes to stop and take pictures.

Perfect North Slopes - Ski Trip at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

Wow. This is pretty clever. It took me a while to see it but once it clicks, you will be amazed.

I had a better time seeing it on a smaller version of the picture.

First let’s talk about why these two streets are so dangerous.  First the street that runs East and West, 6th Street, is pretty busy. The street that runs North and South, Tippecanoe Street, is also a somewhat often used street, but it has what I like to call a “double danger bonus”.  First of all 6th street has lots of houses on it, and thus lots of cars parked all along the street.  This makes it somewhat hard to see if you are trying to cross 6th street.  Then, the street before it crosses before crossing 6th has no stop sign, but 6th does.  So what happens is that people cross the first street and don’t really think about there being a stop sign at the second street since there wasn’t one at the first, and they run right through it.

So with that in mind, here is how it went down.  I was screwing around on my computer which is right in front of the door.  I hear honking with a slight Doppler Effect so I know that this car is moving while honking.  I spin around in my chair and leap to the front door just in time to hear a nice crunching sound and see one car spinning around and another screeching to a halt in the neighbors yard.  A Taurus with not one, but two old people had ran the stop sign heading down Tippecanoe and got their grill ripped off by a Jeep Cherokee that was roaring down 6th street.  I tried to run and get my camera but by the time I did they had already pulled up and off the road.  So I started calling people to tell them that it finally happened.  It was like watching the birth of a child.

I get to the door, open it and this younger girl is staring at me kind of funny just as the words kick in “Close your eyes, give me your hand” (don’t act like you don’t know the words). She’s just giving me this funny look and says “is the lady of the house home?” With the straightest face I can manage I say “There is no lady of the house”. Then she asks if I own this house or rent just as I hear “You belong with me. Do you feel the same? Am I only dreaming, or is this burning an eternal flame.” I’m laughing so hard inside that I can hardly stand it, and I have the feeling that this girl is about ready to bust out laughing too.

She starts asking me some other questions, and I can’t really here her because the music is so loud. I have to keep asking her to repeat herself. I finally come to the understanding that she and her husband are in some kind of landscaping / lawn care business and they want to do some work on my yard. Just as the song is finishing with “Say my name, sun shines through the rain. A whole life so lonely, and then you come and ease the pain.” She gives me a weird look (one of many that she gave me during this conversation), tells me to have a nice day, and then walks away.

I closed the door thinking to myself “This is going to be an interesting story to tell.” But then I thought about how she is probably thinking the same thing.