Welcome To The Frontier

(Mr. Moon, Jessie, and Baby Owen in front of the Post Office)

Well, there were big doin's in Lloyd today. My yoga teacher called me around ten to ask why the road by my house was blocked off with police tape and why there were police cars all over the place.
I had no idea.
I'd taken the dogs to see their beloved groomer, Miss Beverly, but that was down the same road the other way. I'd heard no disturbance of any kind, no wreck, no shots but then again, I had been gone for a few minutes.

After Lily dropped off Owen we strolled down to see what was happening, maybe go to the Post Office where they know EVERYTHING but I couldn't get to the P.O. It was blocked off. Before I could figure out what to do, two of the neighborhood guys came up and they said that there'd been a shooting.
"What?! You're kidding me!" I said.
"Yep," they said, nodding and agreeing. "Someone got shot."
"Who?" I asked.
"Don't know," they said.
A Highway Patrol guy came through and told a guy in a pick-up truck who was in the intersection that he had to move it. "What happened?" I asked the officer.
"There's been an incident," he said. And that was all he said which sort of pissed me off. I mean, I live here. I would very much like to know if there were fugitives with guns running around my neighborhood. Ya know?

Owen and I strolled over to Ms. Fleur's house to see if she knew anything but she didn't and she hadn't heard anything indicating an incident either.

We chatted for awhile and Owen gazed at four-year-old Harley with worshipful eyes. He thinks Harley is like a god or something because he can tell he's a kid but he can run! and talk! and sing! and jump over things! I want to do that too! God! I want to do that too!

Harley gave a toy to Owen to keep. "I never play with it anymore and it's a baby toy," he said, which I found charming.

Anyway, after we left Ms. Fleur's house all the tape was down and the cop cars gone so we walked on down to the Post Office to see what was what. Miss Martha, our second-in-command post mistress was there looking a bit flustered.
"What happened?" I asked her.
She told me that a guy had claimed to be shot in front of the post office but that they'd found him down by the dump. "He didn't ever make it into here," she said fairly indignantly as if he'd been bad-mouthing the post office.
"He's still alive," she said. "He said that two guys in a gold pick-up truck shot him."
"Huh," I said. I could tell that Miss Martha was not in the mood to discuss the issue any more. They had shut her down and she was behind in her work. Now Martha is usually excellent for relaying news but I could tell she had no more to say about THAT at this particular time.

So we came on home where I talked to another neighbor and he said that the guy who'd been shot is a guy I see frequently on my walks as he walks these roads too. I think I've even discussed him before. He has one real leg and one artificial leg and he gets along pretty well and he always seems like a very pleasant man and we exchange greetings and how-ya-do's and pretty-weather-today-isn't-its and I was sorry to hear he'd been the victim. And then my neighbor told me that he'd been the first responder when that man had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident wherein he'd lost his leg years ago at almost the same spot.
What?

Well, craziness. I hope he's okay. I'm ashamed to admit I do not know his name but I don't. We're just people who see each other out walking. I'd be completely shocked if he knew MY name either.

Lloyd had a very bad drug problem years ago but it's been pretty much cleaned up since then. I hear, though, that there has been more drug activity lately and I wouldn't doubt it. If I was going to run a meth lab, I'd do it in the woods around here somewhere. Jefferson County only has a few cops and we're a huge county, geographically, stretching from the Georgia Border down to the Gulf. I had never gotten the feeling that this walking man was any sort of a drug guy but you never know. Still, though, I don't think he was.
But why?
Why was he shot?
I suppose we'll get some answers soon or maybe we never will. I hope we do and it's something that doesn't make me feel skeevy about taking my walks.

Anyway, besides that incident, it's been a beautiful day here in Lloyd. Owen was just the most fun. We went out and fed grapes to the chickens and he's started laughing out loud now at things which strike him as funny, which feeding grapes to the chickens obviously does.

"And now a grape for MABLE!" I'd say and she'd beak it from me and he'd laugh and laugh. "And now a grape for pretty MISS BETTY!" and he'd laugh again as she gobbled her grape. He really liked Red and watching her jump for her grapes. That is a jumpin' chicken, Miss Red.

I found another thing that delighted him to the point of hysteria which was bamboo kicking. Do not ask me why but as I held him on my hip and kicked bamboo saying, "Kick the BAMBOO!" he'd just lose it, laughing that deep baby laugh, that chortley giggle.

I can sort of understand why the grape-eating chickens would make him laugh but bamboo kicking?

Well. He's obviously a smart boy and one who is highly entertained by his grandmother's hi-jinks. Or perhaps he just understands the esoteric humor in trying to keep the bamboo at bay. Who knows? Not me. But he delighted me and did not fuss at all and I gave him a little bath in my tub before he left. I took pictures, of course, but in defense of his modesty, I will only give you these:


And I probably kissed him a million times before I had to take him back to his mama and he kissed me a few times too, that open-mouth-baby kissing that he does. He plants his mouth right on mine and I am in heaven.
"Oh Owen!" I tell him, "I love you so much!"

He loves me too. And the chickens. And bamboo kicking and Harley and Greek yogurt and I don't think the incident upset him one bit.

And that's what happened in Lloyd today where, despite the fact that it's only a block long and that block includes both the post office AND the dump, we do get some excitement and I surely do hope that man is okay and that he'll be able to come home and walk again because he seems like a nice man and I'd miss him and besides that, it's just wrong to shoot people. You hear me? You can't just drive around and shoot people!
Well, you can, but it's so wrong.

Sigh.

Drugs and guns. They're not just urban evils, believe me. We have them right here in paradise, too. And insanity. The guys at the scene who told me there'd been a shooting said, "They's some crazy people in Lloyd," and the way they looked when they said it made me pretty glad I don't know exactly what they're talking about. I mean, there is crazy and then, there is CRAZY!

Ah-lah.
Life goes on.

I hope. I sincerely do hope because like I said, I would miss Walking Man. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.