DHJenkins said:
I just have one question for everyone in the thread - why aren't you getting your gas during the day? I honestly can't remember the last time I had to buy gas at night, other than a 21-hour marathon drive from TN to TX a few years ago.
You get your gas at night because you need to drive at night and don't have enough to get where you are going... pretty simple, and I do it all the time (I'm a night person)... same reason anyone does anything with any amount of risk involved... because the rewards outweigh the risk in your mind....
I accidentally bluffed a weapon to a criminal once.... here's the story....
Walking to the corner mart at night (I know... lol... NEVER go out at night!...lol)... on the way there a person steps out of an unlit door entry right behind me and starts walking behind me... I turn in such a way as to make it obvious that I see him, and he starts in with "whatchu lookin' at!".... so I pull to the side of the walk and let him pass and walk behind him.... he goes by slowly and eyeing me up.... keeps looking back at me...
I go to the store and buy what I want and leave.
As I am walking back home the same person is in the middle of the walk in front of me, so I casually go to the other side of the street... he crosses as well, still in front of me.... so as not to look 'scared' I continue to walk towards him, intending to pass him (looking scared around here is a bad idea... a literal invite to criminals)....
As I close in on him he shouts "I AM ZANE AND I CAN DO ANYTHING!".... I stop 10 yards short of him and start re-calculating.... not looking scared can only go so far..... I reach into my pocket looking for my knife (knowing my gun was resting at home).... it's not there!!!
At this point "ZANE" shouts at me to take my hand out of my pocket, and puts his hand into his pocket.... I verbally refuse and tell him to get lost.... he repeats his rant about being "ZANE" and doing anything.... and he begins to close the gap insisting that I remove my hand from my pocket.... I again refuse and start to step back to keep the distance... "ZANE" is cautious, but clearly not afraid of my hand in my pocket, as he is still trying to close on me...
This is when "ZANE" decided to pull his large knife and charge me... I removed my EMPTY hand from my pocket in the form of a fist, cock my arm back and said loudly "ONE MORE STEP AND I BREAK YOUR JAW!!!!".... he stopped... said something about "thought you were gonna attack me"... called me some sort of name.... we circled each other slowly like boxers, him with his knife and me with my fist cocked, and then I cautiously walked home, being sure he wasn't following me..... and called the cops....
After talking with the officers, I went home and armed up and nervously walked around my house and yard for 2 hours letting the adrenaline die down... I thought about what 'could have happened', and I still do today...
The point here is that a bluff doesn't always work... even an unintentional bluff.... like when you think you have the flush, but you really a diamond mixed in there.... and when/if it doesn't you might be left as the guy who is clearly on the weak side (such as I did), at which point there is little reason for a criminal not to proceed...
Lucky for me, "ZANE" thought that there was a real chance that I actually could break his jaw (and I sure would have tried), or I would be robbed and or stabbed right now... had he had a gun instead of a knife, it probably would have ended a LOT worse for me... had I had my gun on me, "ZANE" would probably have been running down the sidewalk away from me with a clear line of piss behind him....
I believe there are times to bluff your ability to defend yourself.... but those times are at the end of the rope.... when you have nothing to loose... who knows how this might have turned out had I not accidentally bluffed this guy.... he might have seen me as the easy target I was, or he might have taken my age, size and alertness into account and left me alone.... but he was clearly not in a right frame of mind, or he would have left me alone in the first place because I don't look rich, old, or 'easy to take'....
This guy was ready to battle it out with me no matter what he thought I might have to defend myself.... the only thing that stopped him was the fact that I WOULD defend myself, despite being underarmed.... had he realized his advantage, or had more of one, I might be dead right now, if I had simply tried to continue to 'back down' he likely would have continued his assault...
Just food for thought....