Suspicious alertness
Now that the weather is turning into something resembling spring, I’ve started taking my daytime walks outside. (A bit of background; I have two 15 minute breaks, and a 35 minute lunch at work. I usually spend that time either walking in the hallways of the office building I work in, or on the streets and bike paths around the building.) It’s a way to burn a few calories (hopefully), and get away from my desk, the office, the whole bit. My job pays the bills, but a walk across the parking lot is generally more exciting, if that tells you anything. I usually have my 2m/70cm HT with me; different days I listen to different things. Whatever.
I noticed two things today. The first, was a guy standing on the bike path, sort of meandering and looking at the marsh. He looked out of place; not moving like he was out there getting exercise, just hanging out. Scoping, I thought. Casing, maybe. I didn’t take the leg of the path that goes under the highway, across the railroad tracks, and over to the other side of the highway. I was worried he’d follow me. The spidey sense tingled, and so I went the other direction, towards the next major street over (a few blocks away). I saw the same guy a few minutes later, headed slowly towards the bus transfer point. I ended up passing him again, but this time I had my HT in my hand. He didn’t say anything, but he gave the HT, then me, a serious evil eye. I wanted to tell the security guard about the guy. I didn’t; but I thought about it. Call me paranoid. The guy looked suspicious, though. He didn’t belong there.
The second thing I noticed today, on my afternoon break, was how freaking quiet it was outside. Just… quiet. Two office buildings full of people, next to six lanes of highway, in the middle of the afternoon, and it was quiet. Something just didn’t feel right; not necessarily a feeling of doom, like the calm before the storm, but just feeling that something was out of place. Misadjusted somehow. Too quiet.
If you have any hopes for a dramatic ending to the story, where the thug looking guy in dreds, and the too good to be true quiet were omens, signs that something was about to happen… well, you’re going to be disappointed. I walked back to the office, the suspicious looking guy probably got on a bus, the day went on and the quiet continued. (The only thing that really changed was that a meeting that I was going to attend tonight was rescheduled for next week.)
Suspicious alertness.
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