It Was A Dark and Stormy Night

The news media was going on and on about the waves crashing up against Chicago's shores, and how the bike paths along Lake Michigan had to be shut down.  Big deal.  It's not that hasn't happened before.  I wasn't feeling well when I woke up this morning, so I stayed home most of the day.  I could hear the winds whipping around and the rain falling.  Once again, no big whoop.  Typical Chicago weather.

I felt well enough to go to the gym Wednesday evening.  Jiliberto opened the gym door and asked, "Where is everybody else?"  Normally, a few people other than myself are standing outside the gym, waiting to get in.  "I think it's going to be a small crowd because of the weather," I told him.  It was still raining outside, although the wind had died down a bit.  The temperatures had gone down, too.  Sure enough, the only people in attendance outside of Alan and myself were Colonel, Kevin, Amy, Seth and Reggie.  Kevin brought in a friend of his named Nick. 

Reggie, Seth and Kevin sparred.  Alan asked Amy if she wanted to spar, but she didn't.  Amy has only sparred with her sister Sarah, who wasn't in attendance that night.  I didn't feel like sparring.  I'm still experiencing soreness, and based on the fact I missed work that morning because of illness, I didn't want to chance getting jacked up again. I did a workout, but my mind wasn't totally focused on it.  I should have put more into than I did.

Looks like neither Jacob nor Kenny will fight at Hamlin tomorrow night.  Kenny's not feeling well, and the verdict is still out on whether or not Jacob is able to use his thumb which he injured during sparring awhile ago.  I might still go to Hamlin just to watch the fights.  Colonel was planning to go, too.

Colonel and Alan remind me of my uncles because of the stories they tell about altercations and near-altercations they've been in.  Recently, Colonel had to step to a guy on the train.  "This scary looking MF got on the train acting crazy. . .the guy stood over a woman and was harassing her.  Scared the poor woman to death.  I got up and told the guy, 'Look, I'm the craziest MF on this train', and the guy backed down.  I was ticked because I'm a a buck forty-seven challenging the guy, and nobody else on the train moved to stop him!" "That's how people do," I told Colonel, remembering a couple of times when I came to the rescue of passengers being messed with on public transportation while others sat and acted as if nothing was happening.

Alan told of an incident that happened when he was twenty-nine years old.  The engineer in the building he lived in at the time waited until it was just he and Alan on the elevator.  The engineer locked the elevator car and told Alan, "There are no witnesses, so I'm going to beat you up."  The engineer had earlier accused Alan of disrespecting him.  Alan tried to talk the guy down, but to no avail, so he had no choice but to swing back. The engineer later pressed charges, and lied to the police about Alan using a weapon on him.  This is where the having no witnesses issue backfired on the engineer, and the case was thrown out.