Yesterday, Sunday, I rushed home from work to catch the remainder of the Cowboys ultimately get a whipping from The Philadelphia Eagles. I was home for about 15 minutes and the doorbell rang. It was almost the end of the 1st half. I was a bit irked by the intrusion, but not enough to ignore it. So, I answered the door to a slim black woman, who was out of gas and needed money to get back to Weatherford. She said that she had reported to work in the neighborhood as a home health care worker to find that her client had been taken to the hospital earlier that day. It was payday for her. She was certain that there would be a message on her answering machine at home advising her not to come today. She had not been home to get it. She hedged and hummed about what her purpose was. I finally asked her what she needed. She said $20. I know how far away Weatherford is and I knew $5 would get her back there. I told her as much. She then informed me that she also needed to buy formula, a $7 item. She gave me two telephone numbers. One was suppose to be her employer, the other was her home. I checked smartpages.com and neither was assigned. Also, the number she gave as her home number was 817 625-1001. I know that is a Fort Worth exchange and told her as much. All the while I was missing the football game. She insisted that it was her Weatherford number. Finally, I decided to give her some money, more to get rid of her than anything else. It was not the $20 she asked for. It would have been $5 but I did not have that denomination in my purse. I gave her $10, with her promise to return it to me the next day...today. I got back to the TV to see the Eagles score a touchdown. With that touchdown I won $100 in the football pool. I decided it was my good karma, for being so generous with my visitor. During halftime I dialed both telephone numbers that she had given to me. Both reached a disconnected number recording.
In retrospect, I am sorry I gave her the money. But I am glad I did not receive the same demise as this lady. I resolve to not be duped again.
On May 30 I blogged about sad stories. The story got sadder last Sunday. Jim Davenport, a genuinely nice person, died. I received the work email entitled "death notice" when I arrived at work on Monday. I knew it was Jim, but hoped it was not. We had gotten an update on Jim the week before. He had been moved into hospice care. I wanted to visit him, but I was so busy. I thought after this week, I would make time next week. Next week did not happen for Jim. Before he became ill, his desk was on my path into work to my desk. He always greeted everyone with a smile and a hello. I looked forward to his smile and hello and missed them when he went out on disability. His forte was SOLID fallout. SOLID is a system that programs DSL. I cannot remember how many times, when I was encountering SOLID errors that Jim came to my desk to help. Also, Jim was the go to person if you were having a problem getting a SOLID order to complete. He was always eager to solve the problem. He also told me that he was going to the gym, trying to improve his health. He went before work, very very early in the morning. And he looked so healthy. I am sorry for his family, his friends, and me. We are all going to miss him terribly.