I only feel it fair to warn you that this is a rant entry. I'm upset and Partner is at work so I only have you guys to vent to.

Most of you know I go into town on Thursdays for our weekly groceries and to check the mail. I usually take my lap top and sit at the coffee shop to use the wireless there. Well today the coffee place's internet was down and I needed to get security updates for my lappy. I knew there was an unsecured network at the high school so I went there and parked in the lot. I hooked up and began my downloads.

After a while a little white car pulled in next to me with a lady and her daughter in it. When the daughter got out she smacked my truck with her door. She looked right in my eyes but turned around and started walking off. I rolled down my window and said,

"You know, when you hit someone's truck you should say you're sorry."

The girl just blinked at me like I was speaking Chinese. Mom heard this and stepped up. She asked what was going on and I said,

"Your daughter hit my truck with her door and I told her she should say sorry when she does something like that."

The woman replied,

"It's my fault for parking too close to you."

Now I was tempted to say her parking had nothing to do with her girl's lack of manners but I simply said,

"It's ok but she should know that an apology can go a long way."

Mom and daughter walked off without another word and I went back to my downloads. A few minutes later a man comes out of the school and makes a bee-line for my truck and I thought to myself.

'Mike, you dumbfuck, you shouldn't have drawn attention to yourself.'

Sure enough he asks me what I'm doing there. I told him I was borrowing his wireless. He looked uncertain like he'd expected me to say,

'I'm a pervert checking out all the kiddies and jerking off.'

I told him I paid taxes to the school district and felt the least I should get out of it is the occasional use of the wireless. He said that someone had reported a stranger in the lot and I knew it was the woman and her daughter. I told him what had happened with the car door and he said,

"Well, they called the police."

Sure enough, at that very second there come the cops and now I've got to convince two very suspicious police officers that I'm not a Chester-the-molester. I showed them my computer screen which was displaying the download progress. They told me to shut it off and leave.

Humilated and embarrassed, I did. I'm not mad that the school was keeping it's eye out for potential predators or that the cops responded quickly to a call about a problem. What I'm mad about is the lesson that teenage girl learned today. She learned that when you make a mistake and someone points it out to you, you don't take it to heart and make an effort not to do something like that again. What you do is go out of your way to make trouble for the person who called your attention to your rudeness. Is it any wonder that with parents teaching this kind of lesson to their kids that so few ever learn to accept responsibilty for their actions?

Needless to say, my highly identifiable truck has now been flagged by the city cops and if I so much as look cross-eyed at them there will be trouble (remember, this is a very small town). Here's a perfect example of why I can't let it get out that Partner and I are gay. Do you think they would have let me go if it was commonly known that I'm a fag? Nope, I would have been arrested for trespassing and suspicion of misconduct. Sometimes I truly hate the world.
-M