Thursday, November 30, 2017

Shop local and make it fun!

ALL SIGNS LEAD to another rocking Christmas season at Second String Music. More people are getting gifts earlier, while our stock is still plentiful. We had a tremendous Small Business Saturday and also a huge Un-Cyber Monday. Take that, online retailers.

We see it every year after Christmas - grandma comes in with a $30 Amazon special guitar. “And three of the strings are already broke!” she cries. Right. Your grandson will chuck the piece of wood with strings sort of attached into the fire pit after a week of not making music and will never want to learn how to play music ever again.

This week a woman came in with the dreaded “Amazon Wish List” from her kids. But she turned the tables by actually coming to a retail outlet. “I’d rather shop local,” she said. Amen! Sheryl loves to clear those wish lists with musical gear you can touch, see and try out.

You can play or hear what you are buying. If it’s a guitar, I’ll play it for you. With every instrument purchased you get four free lessons from Vancil Performing Arts so your child or grandchild can properly learn a frustration free instrument.

We just became Fender dealers and already The Squier basses and guitars are flying outta here. We have amazing Fender amps I stock, including the Blues Junior tube amp and Rumble bass amp. We. Have. Stuff!


We will make it easy for you. We love our local musicians and the aspiring players. Plus you can say hello to Fast Eddie and Angus. Heaven forbid you have FUN Christmas shopping, but we’ll make it painless and you might actually enjoy it.

Thank you to all our awesome loyal customers, and if you haven’t checked us out, come on down to Fifth and Maine.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Scooping for Tucker

SHERYL TOOK TUCKER, our beloved Border Collie rescue, to the vet this morning. He’s been wheezing and pooping in the house lately. The vet checked him out and said he has allergies and a heart murmur. A heart murmur?

Tucker runs like the wind and appears to be his normal high strung and loving self. We love our dogs but we are not in a position financially to be doing doggie heart surgery. We have faith Tucker will be just fine. Unless he poops in the living room again.

My job is to collect a “sample” so the vet can check for worms. This is a polite and medically approved way of saying I am bringing the vet a bag of Tucker’s shit. We clean up Metric tons of dog poop from the yard every week, so it’s no big deal. I can do it. I have experience in the fecal matters.

It’s not as simple as you might think. Tucker does what we call the Tuck A Dump, where he walks and poops at the same time. It takes balance and patience to Tuck A Dump and his poop gets scattered over a wide area so you gotta watch him the whole time.

So Tucker is on steroids for his allergies, I will develop a heart murmur when I see the vet bill, and soon I’ll be delivering a bag of poop to the vet. Hopefully Tucker feels better soon. It’s all part of having kids. Er, dogs.

Where are my poop bags, anyway?

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

QPD food drive

WITHOUT FANFARE, OFFICERS from the Quincy Police Department organized a food drive last week and handed out groceries to needy families. They have done this for several years, and they do it because they are good people.

You can do all the community relations you want, but nothing works better than public interaction and showing people you care. There were families literally in tears when officers asked if they needed groceries.

Here’s a video about the event. Good for QPD and the volunteers who helped! I love the music, especially the third song .... thank you, QPD!


Monday, November 27, 2017

Ain’t like it used to be

A CRABBY OLD man walked into the store Saturday and said he was “just lookin.” I don’t do well with crabby old men, mostly because I’m turning into one myself. He said, “Things downtown ain’t like they used to be.”

He was born and raised in Quincy and left, came back, and left again. “It sure went downhill downtown. Never came back, either,” he sniffed.

I stared at him and said, “Actually, downtown has come a long way in the past few years. We like it here and we do well here.”

Then I walked away and went to Ally’s next door, but they were so crowded I could barely walk in the door, and they were out of mimosas already. I came back and the crabby old man was still in our store.

I invited him to the tree lighting ceremony in Washington Park. I hope he was there, because the park was jammed and it was very cool.

Look. I get it. Before Broadway, downtown was the place to be. There isn’t as much stuff down here and we have perceived and real issues, like parking and empty storefronts. Long gone are the days of huge crowds spilling out onto sidewalks, and we will never have Black Friday insanity down here (a good thing, actually).

Crabby old man left, and Steve Rees of course calmed me down by pointing out it’s a matter of perspective.

You can sit in glass houses and sing Glory Days until you are blue in the face. Or you make your place the best it can be. Everybody pines for the good old days .... even though they are right here, right now.

Friday, November 24, 2017

Happy Thanksbirthday

EVERY FEW YEARS my birthday falls on Thanksgiving. Two birds, one stone. Or, a bird and a lamb, to be more precise.

Sheryl and I enjoyed an awesome meal and company at the annual Mays family Thanksgiving gathering yesterday. We are honored to call them friends, and hanging with Grannie Annie Mays is the best. She and Bob Mays “adopted” us some years ago and she is always sending us cards and checking up on us. She has been a wonderful mother to both of us orphans.

Then it was off to the annual Noble family and friends Thanksgiving. Cori and I played for them for the third straight year, and I knew it was going to careen out of control when they sang Happy Birthday to me minutes after walking through the door. They know how to have fun and it’s one of the best gigs we do all year.
A Noble Bash.

It helps that Roberto Stellino shows up with a lamb dinner. Yup, the owner of Tiramisu makes us dinner. So let me get this straight - we get hired to play music for a bunch of happy and crazy people, AND Roberto makes us dinner?

Happy Birthday to ME!

Geesh. This birthday on Thanksgiving business is too much.

Anyway, we lived to tell about. Thank God we don’t do Black Friday, just our regular 10 am - 6 pm hours. Steve Rees and I are decorating the store today and we are gearing up for Small Business Saturday. Come on down and help us clear the cobwebs, and recover from Thanksbirthday. The Keurig is on!

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Low carb pumpkin pie

GENERALLY SPEAKING, SHERYL doesn’t cook. We both are lower carb, she eats way fewer carbs than me. I don’t mind making steaks and vegetable meals. Sometimes it can be a challenge finding new ways to cook mushrooms and asparagus. Dessert is really hard to make, so we go our own way after dinner.

We have a Thanksgiving dinner with the Mays tomorrow and we usually just buy a couple of pies to take. This year Sheryl wanted to try to make a pumpkin pie and see if it tasted good enough to share with family. So she found a recipe and tried to make sure we had all the ingredients. (HyVee to the rescue again!)

Sheryl made a test pie last night and bought extra ingredients to make one to share tomorrow. I mixed ingredients because “you have better mojo in the kitchen,” she said. Sounds like a way to keep me from watching the hockey game, but if it keeps her away from Flip or Flop Ursa on HGTV, we both win.

After grinding the walnuts, finding all the spices and putting the new ingredients around our tiny kitchen, Sheryl realized we still needed a few items from HyVee. (“What? We are out of almond flour for the cornbread?”) Sheryl popped her creation into the oven, and she also made low carb cornbread. Both turned out well and we even had pumpkin pie for breakfast this morning. It was guilt free and delicious.

Wow, who knew I’d eat low carb pumpkin pie and enjoy it? I might have to demolish a bag of Doritos to make up for it, but it’s not bad and I recommend it to anybody watching the carbs and eating better.

Can we use almond flour and walnut meal to make pizza?

Monday, November 20, 2017

Recovery, Keurigs and the NFL

WE HAD AN absolute blast Saturday at the annual pre-Thanksgiving party. Our friend Karen Armstrong won the guitar raffle and is super excited about learning to play. The jam session was epic and my fingertips were like raw hamburger after hooting and hollering for eight hours ..... so much fun! Ev Ben had some Cheesey drumming. Thank you to everybody who joined the fray.

We recovered by doing yard work yesterday. Now we can’t move. See what hard work gets you? Nothing but pain and a clean garage, shed and mulched leaves. I’d rather jam for eight hours.

So I watched a lot of football, too. I enjoyed the Lions win and they are so good at teasing us, n’est pas? I am watching other games just to watch. Also, Sheryl bought a backup Keurig because we only have two and you never know when one might break or Sean Hannity might show up for coffee. (Plus they were on sale!) So we are good to go.

It’s going to be a great week at Fifth and Maine, with Thanksgiving, milestones and two HartLyss gigs looming. Come on by for coffee this morning and we’ll both get ready!


Thursday, November 16, 2017

Stranger things in the backyard



WE JUST GOT done watching Stranger Things, both seasons. I liked it because the main characters are geeks and nerds, so I can relate. The story requires you to suspend belief and logic. It’s based in the mid-80s so there’s awesome and awful songs as the soundtrack. And lights flicker. A lot.

The other night we were binge-watching our way through the second season when we hit pause and I stepped outside with the dogs for a minute. Sure enough, the light above the back door of our neighbor’s house flickered on and off four or five times. It happened again last night when we got home late from the store and running errands.

This wouldn’t be so strange, except our beloved neighbor, Don, passed away last month after living in the house for 60 years. I think the light is motion sensitive, so maybe it was the wind, or a critter by the back door, or a loose light bulb.

Or maybe it was Don saying hello and wondering how he was going to get the backyard leaves picked up.

Nah. I don’t believe in that ghost stuff. It’s too strange, and there’s an explanation for everything.

Right. Now, about the light in my mancave doing the same thing .....

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Electric Co. scams

TWO YOUNG MEN from Ameren Illinois were just in the store and are downtown today to warn businesses about scammers pretending to be utilities.

Not a month goes by that somebody doesn’t walk in and ask to see our electric bill. The answer is a polite but firm “no.” I’m sure you are legit and I’m sure you will save us a lot of money, but we are good to go, thank you very much.

This is a brilliant PR move by Ameren. All the major media outlets were down here to do stories. Look! Ameren is warning us about bad guys! It makes them look good and you can’t blame them a bit. When I was a reporter Ameren was one of the best companies to deal with when it came to PR, and they know how to play the game.

When it comes to scammers, it’s like locking your car or front door - a little common sense goes a long way. If somebody calls you and promises you the moon, asks you for immediate payment or your debit card number, it’s obvious something ain’t right. Be smart and always be on guard for people trying to take you for a ride.

In other words, keep the lights on. It’s what you pay the power company to do.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Rare Gretsch find

A FEW MONTHS ago I bought a 1968 Gretsch Cutter. It’s a long story but let’s just say we got a good deal, and Sheryl worked her usual magic to fix it up and get it playable after it sat unused for many years. It’s a single pickup hollow body with all original hardware and it sounds like a choir.

It’s missing the pick guard, and it has the original owner’s Social Security number etched into the back plate. It has a tone unlike any guitar I have ever played and I’m taking it to gigs.

We’ve named her “Stella” after the original owner. We put light gauge strings on her, and she had some intonation issues - shoot, we are about the same age and I have intonation issues too. She’d go out of tune quickly and I’d fight all night to lock her in.

Steve Rees looked her over last weekend and suggested thicker strings. I wondered if the old girl could handle them, but Steve was right as usual, and the tone is even purer coming from the aged wood and chambered body. Stella is staying in tune and I can’t wait to play her more with Cori Lyssy and solo shows, and this Saturday at our store party.

The older the better!

Monday, November 13, 2017

It's party time ... already!

HARD TO BELIEVE Thanksgiving and Christmas are sneaking up on us. It can only mean one thing - store party!

Saturday, Nov. 18 at Second String Music from open to close, we'll be celebrating the arrival of the season and give a toast to our good friend Pat Cornwell, who passed away about this time in 2010.

Raffle on 11/18
We've had various musical entertainment at this party over the years. This time we'll have a jam session starting around 1p.m. and an open mic event starting at 3 p.m. Come in and have a great time showing off your talent or just hanging out at the coolest music store in the tri-states area.

We will have food and libations and plenty of holiday cheer, and a store special or two. The famous raffle item is really cool ... an Ibanez miKro Guitar in Walnut Sunburst (with a gig bag) and a Fender Frontman 10 watt practice amp.

Sheryl and I even bought a new Charlie Brown Christmas tree, three of them, actually. They are small and we put one on a table in our living room - we'll see if it survives Josey The Huntress and our dogs. The other two will go in the store, though I refuse to decorate until the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe we should have a party that day, too.

Anyway, store party! There's no better way to get ready for the season.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Sean Hannity - ICK

I rarely watch ignorant scumbags like Sean Hannity. My head hurts enough just watching the local news and trying to find middle ground. Hannity can say what he wants and if you swallow it up, we’ll rock on, that’s your problem.

I listened carefully to his statements about the Alabama guy. They. Were. Horrifying.

Then came his apology, which was even more horrifying. You make up your own mind.

Screw you, you pontificating hypocrite. You talk out of the side of you mouth and you spew hatred and ignorance at every turn. You just clearly said a grown man groped a 14 year old because she agreed it was okay. The swamp and sewer of Washington hates Roy Moore so they are making a big deal of this little thing. Then you blamed the lazy media for taking it out of context.

I was a full time member of the media, and I’m tired of us getting blamed for everything. This time I couldn’t be quiet.

Let me know what he says next. I won’t bother watching or listening to an idiot like Hannity ever again.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Don’t leave your keys in the car

THERE WAS A misleading WGEM story this week story about car thefts. The station stated that Quincy “residents” are claiming the Quincy Police Department told them they don’t have the resources to investigate car thefts.

First, the story only quoted one person making the claim. I know this person. I like her. But she later admitted her claim wasn’t entirely accurate. People used to call me with wild accusations all the time, and I would always do homework before jumping in too deep.

One other person was interviewed. She made no claims about QPD. She was upset her vehicle was stolen from her driveway. I don’t blame her. 

Look. A dirt ball is a dirt ball. And I don’t know the specifics of the case. But let this be a friendly reminder to lock your car doors and take your keys with you. I'm not even sure why that has to be told to anyone.

KHQA had a story this morning of a similar nature, and quoted a Keokuk police officer telling people to take “the extra step” of not leaving keys in the car. Really? Are people that lazy? 

Yup.

Sheryl’s nephew is living with us. He warms up his car every morning before going to work, while he is inside the house. He will come out one morning to find it gone,  and I won’t feel a bit sorry for him.

It’s the world we live in, folks. 

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

The great new (used) car buying adventure



OUR BELOVED IMPALA will soon be resting in pieces. We took it to a local body shop, and the extensive damage from Sunday’s Fun With Hydroplaning experience was severe. It will cost more to fix than the car is worth.

Our insurance company is awesome - you know it’s good when the adjuster, Marc Meyer, walks in and asks how his dad is doing with guitar lessons. Marc played drums with legendary Quincy band Superimposed, so you know he’s a good guy.

So we are on the hunt for a car. We test drove one last night, taking Angus with us to make sure he could jump up into it. Sheryl is doing all the work and out poking around as we speak and we are getting closer.

She’s a master negotiator. We are trying to do this without a loan and on a budget, and it’s not easy. Sheryl has way more business savvy, so we should be okay.

What’s strange about the whole wreck thing is that yesterday, two days later, I started to get the shakes and see my life flashing before my eyes. I asked Sheryl if it was PTSD. “Nope. It just means you are human,” she said.

A human with a new (to us) vehicle, hopefully.

Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Another great Vets Day parade

WE HAD A blast once again playing in Saturday's Veteran's Day Parade along Maine Street. There were a record number of entries and Pepper Spray rocked and rolled on the flatbed. We represented Six String Heroes, Vancil Performing Arts and Second String Music to salute our veterans.

We always get a huge reaction. People like live music, even if it slides by you and you only see it for a few seconds. Of course, Sheryl says you can hear us coming up Maine from several blocks away, but that's Pepper Spray. We take pride in being loud! Not necessarily all that good, but loud.


This is a big deal for Frank Haxel and we appreciate him getting everything organized. People don't realize sometimes just how much work goes into getting the trailer, truck and marchers all together. He and Pepper Spray keyboardist Adam Yates spent a lot of time Friday night setting up the PA and plugging everything in. I helped by bringing bad stogies and drinking Frank's beverages, but that's just the kind of guy I am.

Adam, a veteran of the Marine Corps, played his heart out from the front of the trailer. Adam, Tim Smith, Justin Sievert, Adam Duesterhaus and I don't get together all that much so it's way cool when we do whamma lamma jamma.

The man in charge of the parade, Dick McKinney, is retiring. I remember doing a story for The Whig many years ago about Dick rebooting the parade, and he'll be missed. Thank you, sir, for your service!

And that goes for everybody who served, all of our veterans. It was our honor and privilege to play for you again. Let's do it next year too!

** Thank YOU to Steve Rees for these great action shots of the parade performance!***

Monday, November 6, 2017

Strangers helping during car crash

HERE IS A story about good people doing amazing things, and not because they were forced to do anything at all.

Sheryl decided to attend a book signing/Keto Talk near St. Louis Sunday featuring an author she really likes. It's part of her Type 1 Grit group for low carb, moderate protein blood glucose managements. She was excited about going. I planned to stay home and sleep away a Sunday afternoon. But she asked if I wanted to go to drive, and I noticed there was a lot of rain in the St. Louis area. So I agreed, especially since we got to stop at Sonic in Hannibal on the way down. The have the BEST cheddar bites in the history of fast food (according to Sheryl). I agree they are professional grade A cheddar bites.

It started raining near New London and by the time we got about a mile south of Eolia, it was coming down hard. We were going about 60 mph and I was trying to pass a truck when we hit a flooded part of the highway, and we started spinning out of control - hydroplaning, to be precise.

Most of us have been in a wreck or two. Is there any more of a helpless feeling than knowing you are completely out of control?

We spun once, twice, and veered toward the right side of the road. Miraculously we didn't hit another vehicle. We hit the shoulder, then shot across the wet grass, and plummeted down an embankment some 70 feet to the bottom of a ravine. Sheryl's glasses flew off her head and stuff spilled out of her purse.

Our seat belts definitely saved our lives.

We hit fairly hard before coming to a stop. We sat there for about 10 seconds, and there was a knock at my window - incredibly, in the pouring rain, five motorists stopped and two guys ran down the embankment to our car, just seconds after the crash.

We got out slowly, shaken. Sheryl doesn't remember being led to a car. I left my wallet and other stuff on the seat, and I was shivering from shock. But we were alive. I got put in a car and they drove off down the road.

The people who stopped were from St. Louis and just finished playing softball in Eolia and were heading to a diner a few miles south. Softball? In November? They got us to the diner and Sheryl called the authorities. The softball team ate lunch and made sure we were okay. Sheryl had coffee and I had tea, and the waitress said it was on the house.

A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper, Trooper Neighbors, met us at the diner and said he counted two places in the grass where we spun completely around. Had it not been wet .... we'd have rolled over. The trooper called a local towing company, and the driver was already out and about in the rain, since he figured he'd be busy.

Sure enough, the trooper said there were four or five reported wrecks reported in the area due to heavy rain. The highway had just been resurfaced and was super slick, and the tow truck driver said the spot we hit wasn't draining properly.

Poor Frank Haxel. Always in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Sheryl called him and he jumped in his truck to head down, about an hour from Quincy. He stopped before getting to the diner and talked to the trooper and the tow truck driver, and told the driver to meet us at the diner.

I thought we were screwed with the car. There was no way it was driveable, no way. There was a lot of body damage, especially under the front of the car. It's covered in mud on top, both taillights are cracked, and the back bumper is all messed up.

We got it off the flatbed tow trailer, and I drove it around the parking lot, and it was fine to drive. The bill was $210. "I'd pay him $500," Sheryl said. The tow guy was awesome, and how he got our car out of there so quickly I will never know.

Unbelievable. The softball team hugged us and cheered that the car was driveable. They were as happy as we were that our wreck didn't wreck our week. They were truly happy to help and be neighborly, just like Trooper Neighbors.

We got it home, with Frank trailing behind us to make sure we were okay. Sheryl drove because I had some "confused" moments and she thought I shouldn't drive.  I got some rock and roll therapy at The Club with the Matt Roberts Blues Band last night, and didn't sleep  much when I got home.

This morning we are both sore. But we are alive.

The car can be fixed. Sheryl can hopefully go to another book signing or grit meet-up in the spring. I can get behind the wheel and drive on the highway again.

And the kindness of strangers and Frank?

It's a beautiful thing, thank God.

Friday, November 3, 2017

Hitting deer

EMILY IS LUCKY she wasn't seriously hurt or even dead after she hit a deer earlier this week. It was on the highway leading out of Macomb to Quincy, and she smacked it going the legal speed limit. It broke the passenger window, showered her with glass and totaled her brand new Suburu.

She was wearing her seatbelt, and she says it probably saved her life.

The deer crashed into her window, flipped around and broke out the rear window with its butt. Emily flagged down another driver, a sheriff's deputy and ambulance arrived, and her friend Dr. Erickson from Macomb came and got her. She was bleeding profusely from the face due to glass, so the ambulance crew cleaned her up and asked if she wanted to go to the ER.

She wisely said no. She was nicked up and very sore but otherwise OK. When she took a shower later she pulled three large pieces of glass from her ear. She was also covered in deer hair and she pulled a tick off of her body later.

The photo doesn't do the crash justice. And I could show you the one of her bleeding face - it looked like Halloween makeup - but I think you get the idea.

The deer didn't make it. Emily said somebody stopped and asked her if he could take it. "No. I'm going to have it stuffed and mounted in my living room," Emily said. Well, she didn't, but she felt like saying it.

I've hit my share of deer over the years and it's an awful thing. Many years years ago I was bombing down a Michigan back road heading to Traverse City when I smacked a huge buck in our Honda Accord. The front end was demolished and incredibly, the car still worked. We got it fixed, and a few years later in Quincy the air conditioner quit. When the mechanic went to replace it, he found it covered in deer hair.

To make matters worse, Emily is being forced to move from her downtown Macomb apartment because it's infested with cockroaches. Yup. Infested, as in, she hasn't slept in her bed for weeks because it's full of  bugs. This has been going on for at least 6 months and her landlord said she was "overreacting."

You know the movie where the father says, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner!" Yeah, well, Emily 1, Landlord 0. Be careful if you are looking for a downtown Macomb apartment. 

So she's breaking her lease and moving to another place, and I'm going up Saturday to help her out.

Hopefully I don't hit a deer.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Renting the winning drum

YESTERDAY ABOUT NOON, an excitable chap wandered into the store, looked around with a wild look in his eye, and said, “Please tell me you have a bass drum I can rent.”

This was a first for us at Second String Music, and we’ve heard them all. A bass drum?

“I need it for a rally we are having at the Oakley-Lindsay Center,” the man said.

Turns out he wanted to be the loudest vendor at the “rally.” It was for a vacuum company. He already had an air horn. And now he wanted to pound on a bass drum.

I wasn’t sure. We don’t rent out stuff like guitars and drums. But we do have a used Pearl set, the four shell pieces. So Sheryl said, “Sure!”

For one low price, he rented the bass drum and a set of mallets. He even thought about buying the four pieces until his wife came in and put his idea to rest. “Like, you really need a drum kit,” she said, with the dreaded eye roll.

It’s a bit risky to do stuff like this for people you don’t know. But he was desperate and we figured, why not? So off they went, happy as clams.

Sheryl figured the wife wouldn't want the bass drum to come back to their home so they would certainly return it to the store. Smart.

He returned at 5 p.m. with a massive smile on his face. “We won! We won!” shouted the man. He pointed to the back of his van. “You should see the trophy!”

Sheryl made him get it out and we posed for a photo. I don’t even know his name, what a rally is or why he was making noises for Kirby Vacuums.

But he was loud. And he won. So we are both happy!

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Suspicious people

THE ATTACK IN New York Tuesday was a terrible thing. I don't even want to know about the POS who did this, but I understand we have to learn more and be vigilant.

The mayor of New York City was on the news this morning, and one of his main points was to encourage citizens to report "suspicious" activity. Just what constitutes "suspicious" is up to interpretation. I certainly understand what the mayor means, and it's the age we live in - his point is that alerting authorities can save lives, and we shouldn't worry if it turns out to be nothing.

Quincy and New York couldn't be more different. I see "suspicious" people lurking around all the time, in my neighborhood, in Washington Park, everywhere. I don't call the cops if somebody looks a little shady, though I won't hesitate if it's obvious something is wrong.

This morning I drove to the cemetery to walk the dogs, and as I was heading up Fifth Street just south of Jefferson, a guy was walking north on the sidewalk. He looked .... suspicious. He appeared to be yelling and talking into his hand. The dogs got riled up (a sure sign something could be amiss) but I kept driving.

Should I have stopped and asked if the guy was OK? Should I have immediately pulled over and called the cops?

We were walking in the cemetery on the northern loop and I looked down to the street, and sure enough, a Quincy Police officer was out talking to the guy. I watched for a while, but it didn't appear to be too serious and the "suspicious" person was cooperating. So I kept walking.

In the end, it makes me feel grateful for living in Quincy. In New York City, a guy rents a truck and runs down innocent civilians, and we wonder why we didn't do something before it happened.

In Quincy, a guy is talking to his hands, and it's just another day in the Hood.

For now.