Tag Guillermo del Toro

Just so you know, I had put over an hour into this post before my computer decided that it had enough of my drivel and spontaneously shut down. It was disheartening.  I will now save often.
The cops went into the diner and I had half an instinct to follow them in. I wanted to ask them if they knew they scared us. I wanted to ask them if they knew of us. I wanted to buy them lunch. I wanted to ask them what they thought of us. But we decided to “Let the cops go.” That’s a switch, huh?
We continued to travel along previously uncharted areas. Actually, it was a different end of Washington Blvd. that we just hadn’t been before. Sometimes we took breaks.
Everyone was doing their part. I tend to take the lead and keep up the pace, since I walk fast. Often, Misery White is side-to-side. We’re also there for public relations and diplomacy. She’s also so quick to spot nuances on the street. People in a situation or someone to immediately help. At the rear, we keep our brute force and tactics. Razorhawk and Blue. Typically, we’ll have Arctic Knight somewhere in the middle, ready to go with his Mad Martial Arts Skillz as he sees fit, but he couldn’t make it for this mission. I don’t think we gave him enough heads-up about it. Communication isn’t one of our strong-points and Minnesota is a bigger state than you might realize. Both metro and urban distance.
So we’re walking down Washington Blvd,, and being waved at, honked at, stared at and also being asked the cool standard questions by people. Everyone is responding so positively to just us being there. But it’s the frequency of it that has me realizing that walking down a street in daylight is so much different than walking down the same street at night. We also ended up waving at at least two sets of police officer who were making arrests. They waved back.
We met a lot of people. Some curious and others in need. If they were in need, Blue was at the ready with food and water for them. He carried the supplies and was always at the ready with them for anyone in need.
Razorhawk was always kind to the street-folk with a listening ear. I don’t think they could believe that this “Big-tough-wrestler-guy” would take the time to listen to their troubles. He has that kind of heart. That’s part of what makes him so invaluable on the streets.
We met a lot of people, had some photos taken, with our permission. It became night.
And just when Blue was asking if we needed to buy more supplies, we found a middle-age couple in the plaza and in real need. They were sleeping on a bench that night. Misery and Blue passed out the last of their supplies to them and gave them her pamphlets and cards.
They were so grateful for what I think was maybe so little. And they hoped it wouldn’t rain. They had nowhere to go.
As we walked out of the area, out of supplies to hand out, it began to sprinkle rain. We decided to head back to my car. By the time we pulled out of the parking garage, it was pouring rain. I know that each and every one of us was thinking of that loving couple we met on the park benches.
God Bless Them.
 
AFTERMATH: The books…
So the next day, I’m telling a family member, who knows all about me being Geist, about the patrol. After awhile I ask her about the detective series that she thought I would enjoy reading. So I’m like, “Hey, maybe tonight I’ll start reading that first Jack Reacher book. Where is it?” She says, “Oh, it’s in a bag in the trunk of my car. I’ll go get it.” And I hesitantly say. “Wait. Uh… no it isn’t. I gave those away. I thought you put those in the trunk as part of my donations to the shelter.” She was livid for a minute and says, “No, I didn’t. Those were supposed to go to a family friend.  They were promised. I never said you could take the books in the trunk. I didn’t say anything about books.”  She calmed down, understood my over-chartibleness and we’re hoping that the family friend will forget all about the promised books. Or I’ll be doing some apologizing.  ;|

Saturday I headed north to patrol with some of my teammates of the Great Lakes Alliance. First, I headed to a medium-size college town where Blue and Misery White reside. Blue had planned a drop-off at a food shelf that closed at 11:30 a.m., so time was an issue. My drive was about an hour, but thanks to taking a turn that my GPS didn’t recommend, I had to do some high speeds on some dusty gravel roads to get back on track. Too bad the car had just been washed. Oh well… Only I can get lost with a Garmin.
I wasn’t too late and when I arrived at their apartment, I knew that it was the right one because there was a Spider-Man doormat at the base of the stairs leading up to their place.
Blue was all geared up and ready to go. Miz offered me some homemade chocolate chip cookies. I rarely eat cookies and find sweets easy to resist, but these were wonderful and I had to have more. I was quickly addicted. (Gotta get that recipe.) I was partly in-gear and finished off the rest pretty quickly. It was hot that day. Really hot. I didn’t even consider wearing the coat. It was Geist-lite weather. As I awkwardly worked on putting on the gauntlets / bracers, Blue offered to help me. I kind of overreacted and said “No!” a little too loud. I said, “I’m sorry, Man. But this is part of the ritual for me. This is me getting in the right mind-set to prepare myself for what we’re about to do. This is what I need to do on my own to be a better person. The best person I can possibly be.” Which isn’t saying much, because in regular life, I can be kind of a jerk and I know it. But a step up is still a step up, y’know?
Blue had a huge box of groceries that he and Miz had stockpiled and I had a couple of bags of the type of food that can go a long way. Blue and I headed out, leaving Miz to attend to other things. It was time for some guy-talk. Blue had a lot of questions about how I’ve been. He worries a lot. He’s a good friend. He doesn’t need to worry about me, but he does anyway. We swapped some stories and advice on the way to the food shelf.
When we got there, there was a nice lady arranging and stacking things. Like a lot of Minnesotans, she didn’t seem too shocked to see two costumed goofballs carrying loads of food. If I remember right, she asked if we wanted a receipt and we said, “No, we’re Real-Life Superheroes.” She said, “I thought so! I think I’ve seen you in the Star Tribune.”, indicating to me. Which is odd, because I don’t think I’ve ever been in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. We headed back to Blue’s and Miz’s place for a fantastic lunch with them and Miz’s very hip, smart and cool teenage daughter.
Then Blue had some training for me. We went out to the yard with Miz’s daughter and between the the two of them, they demonstrated some escort, handcuff and takedown tactics while allowing me to inflict a lot of pain on Blue. Good times… And good info from Blue, who clearly knows what he’s doing in the field, despite his regressive, but charming sense of humor.
We hit the road to meet up with Razorhawk. In RH’s driveway, we spent some time chatting, dispelling superhero gossip and experiencing the increasing Minnesota heat. Did I mention it was hot?
We got to Minneapolis in the mid-afternoon and went to a family shelter, People Serving People, where we dropped off toys and huge stacks of comics for the kids, clothing, and a bag of books that was in my trunk. I didn’t know what the books were doing in my trunk, but figured that they were donatable. More on that later. The security guard recognized us from previous visits. That’s always nice.
Then, we immediately headed to a known homeless camp under a bridge. There was no one there, but Misery White left some nice donations for when they would return. She also had some very cool fliers made up of the phone numbers and locations of various social services in Minneapolis. She continued to pass these out throughout the day. What a great idea!
From there, we walked to areas we hadn’t been before. It was daylight and we had people honking, waving, cheering and asking us about ourselves. And then, Miz said, “Geist!” And I turned back to see that two police cars had rolled up on us. The cops were getting out in a hurry. I stammered something that might have come out like, “Hi.” Misery stepped forward and cheerily said, “Hello, officers! How are you?” At that point, they said, “Fine, thank you.” and walked through the door to the diner that we happened to be standing next to. THEY WERE TAKING A BREAK FOR LUNCH.  Razorhawk said, “Y’know, sometimes I think we’re all too paranoid.
(To be continued.)