The craziness...

I was on my way home a few nights ago and I stopped in this little convenience store near my house to get some energy drinks because I usually drink a monster every morning when I wake up and I was completely out of them. So, I'm waiting in line and this young guy - probably around 8 or 9 years old goes up to the counter with a yoo hoo. He's standing next to an older guy, I was assuming they were maybe brothers or the guy possibly could have been his father. I don't know. Anyway, the older guy buys his drink and then the younger boy dumps out a ton of change onto the counter and starts counting the nickels and dimes trying to figure out if he had enough money for the drink. I thought it was a bit odd that the older guy paid for his own and the younger boy had to pay for his separately, but whatever. Luckily I was in a pretty good mood or else I would have been totally irritated about having to wait for this kid to count a bunch of change. At any rate, he fell about 20 cents short and the older guys says "well, you don't have enough - let's go" and they were just going to leave. The older guy got his drink, but he wasn't even going to help his friend/brother or whatever with the extra 20 cents. I'm like "what the hell?" Poor kid - why is this guy not giving him the extra money? So, I pulled a five out of my wallet and bought the kid's drink and then I let him keep the change. I mean, jesus - it's hot outside - he might need another drink some other time. And really, what's five dollars to me? If I didn't give it to the kid I would have probably spent it on something totally ridiculous like a slot machine, candy or a magazine. The kid's face lit up like a christmas tree when I gave him the five bucks. It was really heart warming. Except for the fact that I had this nagging feeling that the poor kid has bigger problems.

I don't know. Is it just me? I mean, what kind of person takes a kid into a store and buys themself a drink and then doesn't buy the kid one? You take a kid up to the counter, let him count out his change and then when he doesn't have enough you say "too bad - let's go". What kind of shit is that? That's just downright mean. And like, it was almost midnight. Why was the kid out so late? And the guy, he looked a little shady to begin with. The whole thing just didn't sit right with me.

I dunno - it's just weird.

Over the weekend I was watching the Joseph Fritzl story on MSNBC. Holy crap! He's the guy in Austria that built a sound proof fortress underneath an apartment building he owned. He started building it when his daughter was 12. When she turned 18 he freakin kidnapped her and kept her underground for 24 years! He fathered 7 kids with her and nobody knew. They all thought she ran away to be in a cult. It was the most bizarre, sickening, mind numbing, disgusting and fucked up shit I have ever seen. I mean, you had to literally walk down a ton of stairs to get to the basement. You had to go through 8 locked doors and then a final door that was hidden behind a bookcase to get to this hidden room. He planned this shit for years before he finally executed it and his wife lived upstairs the whole time and had no idea. There were like 100 tenants living in the apartment building above her and nobody had a clue.

And then when it got too crowded downstairs, he took a few of the kids and dropped them off on his doorstep upstairs in the middle of the night with a note that he made the daughter write saying "I can't take care of these kid's - I'm so sorry - please raise them for me". So, his wife raised three kids upstairs and his daughter raised four kids downstairs and he was the father of all of them! And on top of it, he got financial assistance from the goverment because he was like a foster parent. Holy crap! It was so bizarre.

Anyway, happy hump day!