Calmly Taking Care of Business

I'm in serious bear mode - eating way too much, sleeping way too much, watching way too much TV.  Gaining weight.  Happens every time I get stuck inside.  I need sunlight to stay mentally healthy and being out in the sun hasn't happened much recently.

Ran through all of Tom Selleck's "Jesse Stone" movies that Netflix has up this week, despite the TV room being cold cold cold.   Stone is one of those characters who, despite problems, is good at taking care of business.  Or at least good at doing what most of us have wanted to do now and again.  Like knock some obnoxious SOB upside the head and calmly walk away.

That thought reminded me of an incident years ago.  I was down in D.C. for some reason and it was getting on towards dinner time so I called my daughter and said hey why don't you hop on the Metro and meet me at The Dubliner, which is an Irish pub just down from Union Station and the Metro.  She had just gotten her driver's license so she would have been 16ish.

It was busy, and we had to wait for a table.  There's a couple steps up from the bar to the dining area, with an iron railing, close to but not against the wall, so we slipped back in the little space created by the steps and the railing to get out of the crush as we waited.  As we chatted, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was a guy about my age drifting around the room and staring with great interest at my daughter.  As he drifted our way I changed my stance so that I was completely blocking our little space and continued my conversation with my daughter.  He drifted off, but his stare remained focused on her.  After a bit he swung our way again.  I changed my position from casually relaxed and in the way to less casual and more clearly blocking the alcove and calmly stared back at him.  He drifted off again.  This happened several times, until I was clearly blocking, my posture was anything but casual, my stare was a glare, and I was thinking that enough was enough.  At this point on his outward wandering loop around the room he joined a group of three couples and put his arm around one of the women in the group.  A moment passed, then you could see it dawning on the group what had just happened.  And suddenly the nuisance was being rapidly propelled through the room by the scruff of the neck by one of the guys from the group.  I thought for a moment that the nuisance was going to exit by way of one of the nice stained glass windows but instead he was ejected through the door next to the window with emphatic force.  It all only took a moment, the guy returned to his party and conversation resumed, with a few smiles from those who had seen what happened.

No muss, no fuss.  Just business calmly taken care of.  The memory still makes me smile.