Blanket Man

I am always a bit freaked out when I walk so early, and it's dark and worse, foggy. Especially, if it's so cold I have to pull my two sweat shirt hoods over my head, to keep my ears from freezing, but that muffles anything I might be able to hear coming up behind me.

So Emma, Sarah and I are walking on a long straight stretch of sidewalk. I can see ahead of us a lumpy thing. At first I thought it was one of those construction diamond signs, standing up, but then I realized it was something walking.

Now I say something, because it very much reminded me of some kind of creature you'd see if you watched Labyrinth. At that moment, Emma jumps about a foot and turns backwards to stand at attention. I stop walking, look, see nothing, but hear the sound that freaked her (and Sarah too) out....someone was scrapping their car window.

Keep walking towards the lump. It keeps walking towards me. How to handle this politely? In the dark, it could easily be a fat lady, bundled up, trying to exercise. Or it could be a crazy guy wrapped up in a blanket, from head to knee, yelling at passing cars.

I guess we're going to go with the second option.

I got all the way off the sidewalk and walked in the road a block before we even had to, with my don't mess with me face on, and this is why I love my dogs, both stayed in the grass as we walked, keeping themselves between me and the blanket man, and they were very menacing, stiff legged, fur up, Emma was doing her growling woof thing and Sarah was backing her up with a mean dog stare.

And wouldn't you know it, the crazy guy decided not to yell stuff at us. He just kept going, but I could tell he was staring at us, not because I could see his face (that was too much in the shadows of his blanket cape) but because the blank spot where his face would be was turning to watch us.. We picked up our pace, even Emma was racing ahead, to get away from him, and to get home.

I kept my eye out for him when we got closer to home, but I didn't see him, until I was walking in the alley and heard him start yelling again. He was crossing the street towards downtown, just across the road from our house, and I forced both dogs into the house and locked the door behind me. Some crazies are harmless, but some give off a bad vibe, and I am a firm believer in trusting your vibes. He gave off a bad vibe. He's long gone, didn't even glance at us again, but it was still very unsettling.

I miss day light!