Saturday Night at the Gas Station

It's around 2am. I'm at Emeryville getting gas after leaving the clubs. I notice this older lady (mid-late 40s?) drives up behind my car, but ignore her and go about my business.

A few minutes later, she walks up to me, and says in a timid voice, excuse me, but I think I lost my wallet and I need a gallon of gas to get back home. She was basically asking me to buy her a gallon of gas.

I remember thinking, I'm having a shitty time now cos my date flaked, so I might as well make sure this lady here doesn't have bad day. I give her a 10. She says she only needs a couple of gallons, and offers to get my address so she can return me the money. I smile and tell her not to worry about it, go home, enjoy the rest of your weekend. She was visibly moved, and gave me a warm hug. For some reason, I'm intensely touched by it. We chat a little. I tell her I'm having a bad evening and I want her to have a good evening. She tells me some stuff about her life. As she leaves, she gives me another hug. Oddly, as I drive out of the gas station, I recall what Ross Jeffries writes about leaving her better than you found her...

Two strangers bonding for a moment at the gas station in the middle of the night. How strange is that. I felt like for a brief moment, I had made a positive impact on someone's life. And it was a great feeling!

Update 10/18: Dad added a comment, and I just had to post it out here for everyone to see cos he really puts it very eloquently:

Life has its twists and turns, and just as you thought the world was crashing down on you, you realised that you, in your own moments of frustrations and helplessness, could actually turn out to be an inspiration and a beacon of light in the dark nights of some one else, and in so enlightening this other person, you have lifted her and yourself to a higher level of appreciation of the simple and good things that life has to offer, and it only costs you? $10!

Come to think of it, I was probably influenced by his earlier actions.

Edible art

Did I mention that mum bakes cakes that look better than I can draw...?

I can't vouch for their taste although Dad says they're MUCH better than the stuff you buy from the stores.

Today, she baked some of that decorative stuff you put on cakes. There's one with a couple of blue sparrows, one with chrysanthemums and violets and one with apple blossoms and roses. Me, I personally like the sparrows. I think they look like those little birds you'd see in a Snow White.

Appreciation

J wrote this really sweet post. How often do you look around you and notice the silent pillars that you build your life upon?

Stop. Look. Reflect. We see the future when we look at the past.

She also wrote this other little thing here. Just a random selection of two pieces of J's writing that I found inspirational.

Recharging the spirit

Dad emailed me this today, and I had to share it with everyone. It's one of those incredibly moving moments in life where you just get a sense that you're just a small tiny piece in the grand scheme of things, and that maybe you have a purpose far beyond what you can see.

This morning, went to Walmart to buy confectionery sugar for mum to practice her icing making. As I was waiting for the car in front of me to back off from the parking lot, another car driven by an elderly lady (like Ah Ma type), drove into the lot which I was waiting for. She probably did not notice that I was waiting, but then as she turned in she saw my car there. She wanted to back off for me, but I waved her on to indicate that I will look for another space.

I found another space about 30 meters away and went into Walmart to buy the sugar. After picking the sugar I thought we lacked some fruits and went over to the fruit section and proceeded to pick up some nectarines. Halfway I saw a lady struggling to tear the plastic bags off the rolls, so I just went to help her. It turned out to be the one who took my parking lot. She recognised me and apologised etc but I said its ok, and all the stuff.

Then as she was trying to pack some nectarines into her bag, she must have bungled by holding the wrong end of the plastic bag cos all her fruits scattered on the floor. Seeing her so "cham" (suffering), I helped her to pick up her fruits, and repack with fresh ones, tie up the plastic bags etc. l

She was very grateful, and just looked at me, very gently touched my left cheek with her right hand, and said "Bless You !". I felt so nice after that, and when I returned home, I told mum about it, and said - ok, I am not going to wait until nextt week to 'replay', but I am going now. Somehow this old lady seemed to recharged me greatly.

Tough guy Joe

If you're not familiar with Joe Arpaio, he's the Maricopa Arizona county sheriff, and he keeps getting elected over and over.

Here are some reasons why...

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (in Arizona) who created the "tent city jail"...

He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights.

Cut off all but "G" movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then he started chain gangs for women so he wouldn't get sued for discrimination.

He took away cable TV until he found out there was a federal court order that required cable TV for jails. So he hooked! up the cable TV again only let in the Disney channel and the weather channel. When asked why the weather channel he replied , so they will know how hot it's gonna be while they are working on my chain gangs.

He cut off coffee since it has zero nutritional value. When the inmates complained, he told them, "This isn't the Ritz/Carlton. If you don't like it, don't come back."

He bought Newt Gingrich' lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails. When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place.

More on the Arizona Sheriff:
With temperatures being even hotter than usual in Phoenix (116 degrees just set a new record), the Associated Press reports: About 2,000 inmates living in a barbed-wire-surround ed tent encampment at the Maricopa County Jail have been given permission to strip down to their government- issued pink boxer shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached 138 degrees inside the week before. Many were also swathed in wet, pink towels as sweat collected on their chests and dripped down to their pink socks.

"It feels like we are in a furnace," said James Zanzot, an inmate who has lived in the tents for 1 year. "It's inhumane."

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and our soldiers are living in tents too, and they have to wear full battle gear, but they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your damned mouths!"

Way to go, Sheriff! Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be p unished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they can get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for themselves.