Carl Levitian
member
Today was Karen's sister's 60th birthday.
Diane is my better halfs youngest sister, and this afternoon we had a day out to celibrate Di's birthday. Karen and I, and Di's fella Roy, and Di drove over to Annapolis for the afternoon for a boat cruise up the Severn and lunch. I wasn't sure about the what kind of security was going to be on the boat, so I left even my small lockblade home, rather than make a scene on Di's birthday cruise. The knife of the day was a sak bantam in the dockers pocket and a sak classic on the keyring. For non-firearm weapons I just took a nice extra sturdy blackthorn stick. Di's fella Roy had been having a little trouble with his lower back so he's been using a cane he got from a medical supply place. I'll be making him a nice hornbeam for his birthday, but on to the cane we had to use today.
Since we were going to be also touring the chapel at the Naval Acadamy, I knew security was gong to be tight. It is the U.S. Naval acadamy after all. After the cruise and a nice lunch of Maryland crab cakes, we walked around the downtown area of Anapolis by the city docks. This is a tourist area of some moderatly expensive shops and stuff, so like the inner harbor of Baltimore, sometimes there is some unsavory types lurking around hoping for a score on an unsuspecting tourist. The girls of course had to do the maditory browsing in the shops, so Roy and I hung back waiting outside while we had a nice after lunch smoke. Roy had a nice cigar he brought along and I had my pipe. As we talked and sort of followed the girls at a distance from shop to shop while smoking our cigar and pipe, we noticed that a couple of street types that didn't look like tourists were following Di and Karen, who were walking along in la-la land. Both Di and Karen had thier binocular cases strung over shoulder, and purses sort of loosely the same way. Since we'd been out on the river and the girls were looking at the oprey nests, they had brought thier binoculars along. Both were carrying expensive German brand glasses. Leica compacts in nice black leather cases.
So Karen and Di come out of a shop and Roy and I watch these two street guys start to follow them, and Roy and I fall in behind the two guys who havn't spotted us yet, thinking Di and Karen are just a couple of tourist ladies mindlessly brousing the expensive shops. Of course thier half right. Okay, mayb e about 3/4 right.
As we're closing up on them while they're closing up on Di and Karen, they look around and see us following them and the girls, and unexpectedly, Roy is hefting his cane and yells at them, "Yeah, don't even "effing" think about it!"
The two guys take off even though they haven't done anything yet. me and Di and Karen are looking at Roy with surprise because he's usually a quiet spoken guy, not given to loud shouts or agressive behavior. Di looks at him and askes "Are you my Roy, or somebody else?"
His answer was surprising.
He said that while normally he'd be wondering what to do, having a nice sturdy cane in his hand made him feel more sure of himself. Like if all else failed, he could just start swinging. This is telling, because Roy is normally a retiring kind of shy person, but with a stout cane in hand, he was ready to take on the street guys.
What's more important, again the street guys took off from a couple of 60's silver haired "older" gentlemen with canes. The bad guys didn't see the canes as a sign of being weaker, but as a threat. Maybe enough of a threat, they were willing to pass up trying to snatch a pair of binoculars they could hock for some drug money. Okay, to admit it, both Roy and I had kind of choked up our grip on our sticks as we closed on the street guys, and I guess we really were ready to start swinging. I don't want to have to buy Karen a new pair of Leica binoculars too often.
Once again, carrying something that went right through a cruise boats security was good enough for the street.
Diane is my better halfs youngest sister, and this afternoon we had a day out to celibrate Di's birthday. Karen and I, and Di's fella Roy, and Di drove over to Annapolis for the afternoon for a boat cruise up the Severn and lunch. I wasn't sure about the what kind of security was going to be on the boat, so I left even my small lockblade home, rather than make a scene on Di's birthday cruise. The knife of the day was a sak bantam in the dockers pocket and a sak classic on the keyring. For non-firearm weapons I just took a nice extra sturdy blackthorn stick. Di's fella Roy had been having a little trouble with his lower back so he's been using a cane he got from a medical supply place. I'll be making him a nice hornbeam for his birthday, but on to the cane we had to use today.
Since we were going to be also touring the chapel at the Naval Acadamy, I knew security was gong to be tight. It is the U.S. Naval acadamy after all. After the cruise and a nice lunch of Maryland crab cakes, we walked around the downtown area of Anapolis by the city docks. This is a tourist area of some moderatly expensive shops and stuff, so like the inner harbor of Baltimore, sometimes there is some unsavory types lurking around hoping for a score on an unsuspecting tourist. The girls of course had to do the maditory browsing in the shops, so Roy and I hung back waiting outside while we had a nice after lunch smoke. Roy had a nice cigar he brought along and I had my pipe. As we talked and sort of followed the girls at a distance from shop to shop while smoking our cigar and pipe, we noticed that a couple of street types that didn't look like tourists were following Di and Karen, who were walking along in la-la land. Both Di and Karen had thier binocular cases strung over shoulder, and purses sort of loosely the same way. Since we'd been out on the river and the girls were looking at the oprey nests, they had brought thier binoculars along. Both were carrying expensive German brand glasses. Leica compacts in nice black leather cases.
So Karen and Di come out of a shop and Roy and I watch these two street guys start to follow them, and Roy and I fall in behind the two guys who havn't spotted us yet, thinking Di and Karen are just a couple of tourist ladies mindlessly brousing the expensive shops. Of course thier half right. Okay, mayb e about 3/4 right.
As we're closing up on them while they're closing up on Di and Karen, they look around and see us following them and the girls, and unexpectedly, Roy is hefting his cane and yells at them, "Yeah, don't even "effing" think about it!"
The two guys take off even though they haven't done anything yet. me and Di and Karen are looking at Roy with surprise because he's usually a quiet spoken guy, not given to loud shouts or agressive behavior. Di looks at him and askes "Are you my Roy, or somebody else?"
His answer was surprising.
He said that while normally he'd be wondering what to do, having a nice sturdy cane in his hand made him feel more sure of himself. Like if all else failed, he could just start swinging. This is telling, because Roy is normally a retiring kind of shy person, but with a stout cane in hand, he was ready to take on the street guys.
What's more important, again the street guys took off from a couple of 60's silver haired "older" gentlemen with canes. The bad guys didn't see the canes as a sign of being weaker, but as a threat. Maybe enough of a threat, they were willing to pass up trying to snatch a pair of binoculars they could hock for some drug money. Okay, to admit it, both Roy and I had kind of choked up our grip on our sticks as we closed on the street guys, and I guess we really were ready to start swinging. I don't want to have to buy Karen a new pair of Leica binoculars too often.
Once again, carrying something that went right through a cruise boats security was good enough for the street.
