Beachton Book Works

Pelicans at Port St. Joe, Florida

There was an armed robbery in Tallahassee today. 9:00 in the morning a guy was holding up a Subway when a customer came in. The robber told him to get down on the ground, but the customer refused, so the robber shot at him, then ran away. Word got out fast. The Subway backs up to the office complex of the Department of Revenue and Department of Environmental Protection. Bulk email came out of DOR and was forwarded from office to office like a virus. Radio stations started announcing a criminal on the loose. I heard about it on Gulf 104 on the way to pick up the DEP truck to go out in the field for the day. I can see the Subway from the gate to the truck parking area. I pulled up to the gate like I always do, left my car running while I got out to open the gate. I left it there a long time, loading up the truck with my laptop, iPod, phone, cameras, thermos. Stupid criminal didn’t show up and steal my car. 

I was mad at my car because on the way to work a mouse ran out from under my seat between my feet. I instinctively snatched my feet up in the air, which made the car slow down, which kept the swerving from being catastrophic. When I looked back up at the road the mouse disappeared.

When I came back from a day out in the field, way after dark, about 7:30, there were helicopters with searchlights flying around over the neighborhood of my office. They still hadn’t caught that guy? Don’t they have police dogs in Tallahassee? 

I stopped at the gate and unlocked it. I pulled the truck into its parking spot and got my stuff together. I put my laptop, iPod, phone, cameras, and thermos in my car. I went back for a second load of field notes out of the passenger’s side when a skinny black dude in a hoodie slipped out from under the Suburban in the parking shed. He grabbed the door and poked a .38 at me, sideways like on TV. I flung the field notes aside and threw up my hands, holding the truck keys with one finger in my right hand and my work cell phone in the left. The robber didn’t say anything, and neither did I. He just let go of the truck door and grabbed the keys and the phone. He slammed the door, walked around the front of the truck fast, keeping the gun pointed at me. He snatched open the driver’s door, got in, backed up and almost hit my car! He pulled out of the gate and sped off. 

As I bent down to pick up my notebooks, the cat that lives in the parking shed came out of the shadows carrying a mouse.

I don’t understand flavored coffee. If hazelnuts are so good with coffee, why don’t they just keep hazelnuts out in bowls on the tables in coffee houses? I mean, you never hear about peanut flavored beer.