Theresa and I and the Mannheim Steamroller

Theresa and I went to the MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER CHRISTMAS concert at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte last night, 11/23/14. It turned into quite am adventure, rain in Biblical portions on the trip down, then I could not find the parking garage I had prepaid for and we parked 4 blocks over and 4 blocks down from the theater.. To add insult to injury, I turned the wrong way when we came out of the parking garage and we walked two blocks in the wrong direction until we went into a liquor store and asked for direction. He sent us back the way we had came, but he had misunderstood when we wanted to go and we ended up at the wrong theater, which was closed which we found out when we tried the door.

Fortunately, there was a guard on duty who walked over and unlocked the door to see what we wanted. We told him that we were there to see the Mannheim Steamroller, he informed us that we had arrived at the wrong place, but kindly gave us directions to the correct theater. 2 more blocks up and 2 more down, and we went trodden off in the rain, it was not a heavy rain like it had been on the trip down, thank God, but we got wet because I had left the umbrella in the car.

I will be lucky if Theresa ever goes anywhere with me again but in spite of all this we got to our seats, which were dead center in the top row balcony, just as the band was starting their first number. It was a very enjoyable performance mixed with a very creative use of lights and projections and movies being shown a large screen behind the band.

Now, the concert is over, and we have to find the place we left the car. I let Theresa take the lead on the search. We found the wrong theater without a problem, but this is where Theresa took us on a wild goose chase, by taking what she thought was a shortcut to the garage. It wasn’t. When she picked the block to turn left on I said that I thought is was one more down that we should make the turn, but since I had led us wrong to start with we would go her way. After about 10 minutes of walking she confessed that none of it looked familiar, and wanted to turn back and retrace out steps. I persuaded her to let us walk one further block to the left before we did all that walking, which was a good thing because as I was talking to some folks outside of a hotel to see if they could help us get our bearing Theresa espied our garage on the other side of the street.

We walked up to the car, paid the parking fee, and drove home in no rain. It was a very pleasant drive holding Theresa’s hand. As she was committed to a 5am trip we kissed goodnight and she drove home with my heart.

Compassion

Let me tell you a true story about a baby rabbit I stomped to death out of compassion when I was about 13. I was walking down this street that had no sidewalk, but did have a deep curb. I come upon the baby rabbit, only a few weeks old, who had gotten himself in the road, and could not climb out over the curb. It was in my idea to catch him, lift him over the curb, and set it free. 

With this in mind, I sped up to gain on him, licked split we were both running with me being the fastest by a little. When I had almost cough up with him, he stopped dead in his tracks, and before I could stop my foot struck him in the head, knocking out one of his eyes. He no longer tried to get away, I picked him up, and looked at his damaged eye as I contemplated what to do. 

I was not going to take on the burden of taking him home and trying to care for him, it was beyond my ability to give his that kind of care. I also knew that if I turned him loose that his changes of a slow, lingering painful death were much better than his surviving to adulthood. So I put him back on the road and stomped his real hard and went on home. 

I have killed many rabbit since then intentional, and not of them stay in my memory like this guy does.