The village idiot of Las Vegas runs into a homeless philosopher...

My grandfather, God bless his soul, would always tell me the best way to get over being angry was simple, "walk it off boy" were his exact words. Well, earlier in the evening I was pissed about something. So I started thinking about what grand daddy told me and decided to heed his advice.

I was standing at the corner of Flamingo and Durango when I heard a voice say. "What's wrong Rob? You look like you want to punch something." I turn to my left and there sat my favorite homeless guy in Las Vegas. "Johnny, you startled me. I haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing?" The story of Johnny and I is fairly unique. I first ran into him a while back when I saw him holding a sign on a corner that said, "I'm not going to lie. I need a beer." I admired his honesty so I stopped and bought him a beer. A few months after that I saw him holding the same sign at a different intersection. I was going to buy him a beer again, but before I could, he tapped on my window and told me to pull over. He said it was his turn to buy the beer.

"Rob, if memory serves me right; it's your turn to buy the beer this time. Get a couple of hot dogs while you're at it." I know that Johnny is just a bum on the street and I probably shouldn't be buying him a beer; but for some reason or another he brings a smile to my face every time I see him, and I needed a smile. "OK Johnny, just wait for me here. I'll be back in a minute with a few beers and some dogs." I walk into the store, grab a six pack and a couple dogs, walk-out and head back over to Johnny. I then hand him a beer and a dog. "God bless you brother, now tell me why you are so angry." I then gave him the rundown on all my problems and such. 

"Brother, I can tell you two things are a certainty in life. It either gets better or worse." Johnny is kind of out there, so anything he tells me I tend to take with a grain of salt, but that statement made a lot of sense. Now, last time I ran into him I asked him why he lived on the street. He told me that his family had abandoned him after he got back from the war and he didn't know any other way to live. I decided to keep the talk on a lighter note. So I asked him to tell me something funny about living on the street. 

"I'll tell you something that you'll get a kick out of. The other day I was panhandling on the corner of Jones and Durango when a blue SUV pulled up to the stop light. I walked out between the two lanes with my sign in hand and started my march. When I walked past the SUV, I noticed a couple of feet pressed against the window in the backseat, so I took a closer look. It turns out two people were screwing in the back seat and a guy in the front was filming it. Well, about an hour after that. I get hit in the head by a burrito. Some guy threw it at me as he was driving bye. Good thing it was a burrito or it would have done some damage. Do you want to know the ironic thing about it? I was hungry at the time so I picked up the scattered pieces off the sidewalk and ate it for lunch."

I like to end every post of mine with a thought I'm having...Call it the village idiot thought of the day. "How many people do you know can honestly say that running into a bum on the street actually brightens their day?"