Wednesday, June 13, 2018

WWU - Drugs Are Bad, Mmmkay?

After the craziness of last week's long run, I only wanted to run 3 miles on Saturday, so that's what Diane and I did.  It was hot but not as bad as the previous week, plus limiting our mileage helped.  When we got back to the clubhouse, I pulled our our tub of cold washcloths from the refrigerator and wow, that helped so much with cooling down!  I made sure to drink plenty of water afterward, and overall I felt about a million times better than my birthday run.
If you look closely, you can see a bit of grass between Logan's teeth - he'd crawled over to it earlier and had been pulling it (and apparently eating it too). 
Playing with all the runner things - my water bottle, as well as the tub of cold washcloths.  He splashed in them for a few seconds before deciding it was too cold.
He is starting to pull himself up to standing, and gets the biggest grin on his face every time he does it, proud little guy!
I didn't get pictures of it, but he played with Mason at breakfast, which was adorable - our Renegade babies are becoming friends!  Later on, he just passed out.  Don't you wish you could sleep as hard as he does?

********************

For our run yesterday, we walked - it was 79 degrees, with a feels like temp of 87, and that's just a no for me for running.  Diane came over and Jeff was finally able to walk with us after getting some relief for his back pain.  We walked our usual route at first, but changed it up a bit and walked to where the street exits out to the access road to the highway - there are no occupied businesses there currently, so we only do this when it's light and we have Jeff with us.  After we'd turned around, a man walking a dog suddenly appeared behind us.  Diane noticed him and said where did he come from - which, yes - where DID he come from?  There's no sidewalk on the access road, cars are hurtling down it at 60 mph - no one walks there.

He caught up to us, and in response to our "good morning" said "I think I'm in trouble" - and then got ahead of us and quickly crossed the street, glancing back several times at us or someone who he thought was following him.  He was in jeans and a polo shirt and was really sweaty.  He did not look like right, and because my best friend Barbara has instilled in me to look at and be wary of people acting oddly, we slowed down to get some distance between us.   (There is a large population of homeless drug addicts in the beach town where she lives and while I used to assume everyone was fine as we'd walk in the downtown area, she showed me how erratic some were acting, so now I'm on guard whenever I see anyone acting in a not-normal way).

He turned down one street so we kept going straight - the neighborhood makes a square, and we were heading to where we'd be parallel to him.  But when we made the turn, he came out between some houses ahead of us - he was cutting through backyards!  We watched him as he went up and down into other yards, slowing down even more, and then called the non-emergency number for the police to report him.  He disappeared behind some houses ahead of us and we got back to our house, went inside and closed the garage door.  A few minutes later as I was walking Diane out to her car, we saw a police car drive onto our street, suddenly stop, and get out - and then we saw the suspicious guy hiding behind a car two doors down!  Was he following us?  YIKES.  We hightailed it back inside and then went into the garage where, thanks to our new door with windows, we could see what was happening.  OK I had to stand on a stool, but still.  Two more police cars showed up and they questioned him for about 25 minutes.  THEN THEY LET HIM GO.  Double yikes. 

The police were still there, so after we saw the guy turn out of our street, Jeff walked over to them to see what was going on.  They said he was tweaking* which, see?  Barbara was right - when someone seems off, chances are there is something going on.  Now, we don't have tweakers in our neighborhood normally, and the police told Jeff he's not from around here.  But I hate that he's roaming around our neighborhood while high, though, and I hope that the police will continue to patrol the area and keep an eye on him.  And for our run (or walk, depending on the weather) tomorrow, you can bet we'll be on heightened alert, as well as carry our pepper spray.  Ugh.  Drugs are the scourge of society.

*A tweaker is someone who is a meth user.  A tweaker may appear relative normal to the passive observer. However, upon close inspection, one may notice rapid eye movement, a shaky voice, and quick, jerky movements.  Symptoms include agitation, paranoia, loss of sense of identity, intense itching, insomnia, psychosis, hallucinations, and disconnection from reality. (taken from addictshelpline.com)

18 comments:

  1. I'm glad Jeff was with you and Diane when you encountered that guy high on drugs. Good job listening to your instincts.
    Yes drugs are a scourge on our society all across the country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Believe me, we were really glad Jeff was with us - safety in numbers, at the very least!

      Delete
  2. Ok, I thought I was hip but I had to look up tweaking. I didn't know what it was. Now I do. Gosh, that makes using drugs sound like fun. NOT! Glad you were ok.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now that you know what it is, I wonder if you'll notice anyone acting like that now?

      Delete
  3. Of course living in more of a cityburb, I see things like this all the time but I think it would scare me if I kept seeing the same person. Always listen to your gut instinct! There have been several times when I went out to run and just felt uncomfortable - even without seeing anything - so I turned around and went home. You just never know. Glad you guys were OK and hell yes to walking in that sort of heat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm convinced listening to your gut instinct is always the best thing to do, even if it doesn't seem entirely logical at the time.

      Delete
  4. Ok so what is tweaking?

    I am always suspicious of people who are walking on my trail or island in plain street clothes. I know that doesn't always mean anything but it's just odd when someone is walking in jeans. It's like they are there for another reason. Good thing to always be on heighten alert !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I put a definition at the bottom of the post - I thought it was common knowledge, but I guess not...which is a good thing? You haven't had a lot of meth users in your area; again, a good thing.

      And yes, I'm suspicious when people are wearing jeans while out for a walk, especially here in hot Texas.

      Delete
  5. Pictures of baby Logan are much more comforting than a TWEAKER following you!! He probably thought you were besties because you said good morning to him :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, I'd much rather have a post full of Logan pictures than a story about a tweaker!

      Delete
  6. Scary story - I'm glad you all were safe. But I have to say, I laughed at the visual of you and Diane spying out the new garage window with you on a stool - it is just not easy being among the Legion of the Short, is it? But we are resourceful, gotta give us credit for that! Be careful out there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL, you understand the plight of the short person! Recently I was reaching for something nonbreakable high up on a shelf in my kitchen and grabbed our BBQ tongs to get it - Diane watched and commented that she'd never seen someone do that. It's my daily life!

      Delete
  7. I am glad your three miler went better and that Jeff is feeling better! I love that the babies are becoming fast friends. I think it's so neat when people are friends with someone since they were babies.

    GAH, good call on calling the cops for safety. I hope you don't see that guy or anyone like him again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Believe me, I was really happy that I had a run where I didn't feel like death afterward, too.

      Delete
  8. Wow, that is super scary and YOU WERE WITH PEOPLE. Would hate to be in that situation alone. Thanks for the definition of tweaker, never heard of it. New side blogs.... Shelley’s hip lingo, and Jeff’s Craft Corner;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the way you think with the side blogs!

      And what happened on Tuesday is pretty much why I never run alone.

      Delete
  9. Wow!! Glad Jeff was with you! And the second post I’m reading today that has subtly reminded me to take pepper spray when I go out running alone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Diane and I both carried our pepper spray this morning, and I really didn't notice the strap on my hand. I should get in the habit of doing this all the time, really.

      Delete

Comments are now moderated to prevent spammers from leaving, well, spam - but rest assured that as soon as I read a real comment, I will publish it. So please, comment away, even though the blog is officially closed. Thanks!