There was a knock on the door

Or at least I assume it was a knock; I wasn't there to hear it and also I don't have a doorbell.

Well, I actually have two doorbells but they are both sitting with a spool of telephone wire in my rather large pantry. I don't remember how they came to be in the pantry but they seem to get along with the dry goods just fine so I don't see the point in moving them but my story today isn't about doorbells.

It's about the guy that knocked when I wasn't there to hear it.


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I looked out my kitchen window and noticed a big branch on the lawn instead of on the tree so I said, "Hey, we just lost a branch off the tree in front." The reply I received was, "Yeah, some people came to the front door to let us know."

I wondered why I wasn't notified as I made my way to the shed.


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In the shed was my newest gas powered chainsaw which the last time I wanted to use it, it wouldn't start which meant it went unused for probably nine years. I pulled a few times on the start rope and got the same results as the last time I tried to start it; so I went to get my other gas powered chainsaw, mostly because I hadn't a clue as to where the electric chainsaw was.

It's an older, cheaper machine. I had little hope that it would start but I went through the motions: flipped closed the choke, primed the carburetor with that little bulb thing, locked the throttle opened and pulled. Then I pulled again and again and again, which might seem like a lot of pulling but not really for an old rarely ever used inexpensive chainsaw. The engine turned over after a couple more pulls so I opened the choke and pulled again, which made the engine almost kick in. I closed the choke just a hair and when I pulled the rope yet again, I got that familiar chainsaw noise.


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I cut the branch up and then threw it all into that pile of other branches that I run through the chipper every once in awhile.

When I went back in, I asked about the people that came to the door. I was told it was an older Caucasian guy with a young dark skinned boy. I said that I knew the two of them and said that the guy doesn't really look friendly as a confirmation. I was told that he looked like he had the potential to be a mean drunk.

I don't actually, know the guy. I just see him walking every once in awhile with this young boy, who I think is five or six years old. At first glance, they look like an odd couple; but they seem to get along just fine. I think he's the boy's grandfather. I think I've seen the boy with his mother. I've never seen what could be his father.

I was asked why I thought that they made an odd couple seeing how I'm often seen with dark skinned children. I said that I didn't find it odd that a white guy would have a dark skinned grandchild; it's just that I thought it odd that this particular white guy would be walking around the neighborhood just hanging out with his grandson because he looked like a guy that would be pissed off about that type of thing.

After the guy informed my sister of the branch that fell was actually blocking the sidewalk, he went and moved it so it wasn't blocking the sidewalk anymore which is a very neighborly thing to do and I thought that it was even cooler that he had his grandson with him.

And, I'm a bit of an a-hole for judging him like I did.