This past weekend.

April 17, 2006

The weekend is gone and things went well. My workout consisted of some functional exercises.  I built a swinging gate for the side of my house (with the help of my twin boys). Cut wood, drilling framing and the whole honey do project thing. After that I did some trail running for about three miles.

Among the other things that I experienced this weekend was this little episode. I went to put some gas on my car at the local gas station ($2.79 a gallon). As I was getting ready to pump the gas an old woman arrived at the gas station. She got out of her car and I noticed that she used a walker. She slowly made her way to the ATM machine to put her money in to pay for the gas. As I observed, the money was not being accepted by the money machine at the pump. At this point I had this sudden urge to go help her. The thing is that in a just a few seconds this big debate went on in my mind. If offered to help would she take it as someone trying to steel her money (I�ve read about such jerks). What if she refused the help and told me to bug off. What if�?

She finally put her money in the second money machine and she struggled back to her car I could not stand it anymore. I mustard the courage and offered to pump the gas for her. Why I felt so nervous is beyond me.  But alas! I tell you she was so appreciative, her smile was more than any reward I could hope for. She thanked me, I pumped the gas on her car and she went on her marry way. Sometimes satisfaction comes from small things.

This little incident reminds me of a scene from a Marx brothers� movie. The jist of it is that thinking negatively before letting the other person respond and imagining the worst, a war got started. That was my little struggle, what if�I�m glad I helped.

In other news, the Boston Marathon was run today. Winner at 2 hours and around 7 minutes. Just amazing. http://www.bostonmarathon.org/