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Should hold onto it until the new board drops. Sounds like it would quite the thread to help kick off the new board in style.
OK, here we go...BeTheMatch said:
No, he doesn't have a dad that loves him. Which is why he was in this predicament.
OK, here we go...
My 17-year-old son has been dating a 16-year-old girl for a few months now. They seem to have approached the "hot and heavy" level of their teenage romance. They're together all the time, etc. Every time he leaves the house, I offer solid advice like, "I hope you're wearing a condom. Or six."
Of course, with teenagers, things can turn pretty fast. So yesterday morning, you can tell he's upset about something, and that can only be one thing. So he's stomping around the house, slamming doors, etc. Finally confides in Mrs. BeTheMatch that some other girl contacted his girlfriend to say that my son had been "talking to her." And apparently this is the end-all be-all. So there was some sort of texting flurry that was ongoing, and I just continued to tip-toe around on egg shells offering solid advice like, "So maybe you don't need any more condoms then."
While firmly in the grip of the teen angst melodrama, my wife and I announce that we're going to drive to the coast with the dog for a quick day trip, and did the son want to come with us? Beyond all logic and reason and historical precedent, he says YES! "Maybe you can donate the rest of the condoms to Goodwill," I offer.
So as we're getting into the car, he confides in Mom that it's all fine now between him and the girlfriend. Yet, he's still planning to come with us. Which is.... odd.
Off we go, and he's happily texting away with the girlfriend from the back seat, and all seems to be right in his world again. "I hope you hung onto those condoms then." I can't even get a sideways look from the dog for my ongoing Shecky Greene routine.
About halfway through what's expected to be an hour drive, we have a choice to make. We can stay on the main road, which is not as twisty-turny through the coastal mountains but definitely has more traffic and probably will take longer, or we can take the alternate route, which is very twist-turny, no shoulder, very remote, no where to turn around, etc. And now, pay attention, this is called foreshadowing... the cel service on the remote road is very, very sketchy. At best.
But we took the remote road. Because it said it was four minutes faster. And I'm not an imbecile.
So shortly after making the turnoff into the abyss, the son offers this up from the backseat:
"Girlfriend says there's an active shooter in her neighborhood."
"How does she know that?"
"She got an alert through her phone on that emergency app."
So there's some back and forth over the next couple minutes about, has she called 911? Is this for real, etc.
Meanwhile, the cel service is going in and out. Should we turn around? Should we call the local police department? What do we do? But you can't pull over anywhere. You can't turn around or pull in anywhere. So we keep driving because we're just assuming, well, whatever, I'm sure it's nothing.
Then as they get a couple more texts through, we learn that she's home all alone. Her mom is out of town, and not sure where her dad is. But then there's more alerts saying there are 2-4 people with guns and throwing explosive devices and have taken at least one family hostage. Police units from several towns are en route.
The last text our son gets before we completely lose cel service says:
"There's someone banging on the doors and trying to get in. I don't know what to do. My dad has a shotgun, but it's locked up in the gun safe, and I can't get at it. What do I do????"
And we lose cel service.
So.........................................
Son basically starts freaking out. We're trying to decide is it faster to try to turn around somehow and go back toward cel service, or do we just keep going and get to the next town faster? We're basically paralyzed. And on these roads, you can't go faster than about 35-40 mph.
So we just keep going as on my map app it says we're like 8 miles away from where we hope there will be cel service. So for 8 excruciating miles, we keep going. No cel service. Son going nuts, yelling at us for not turning around, taking this way, all of the above.
So what seemed like about two hours later - it was probably 12 minutes or so - we come to a spot where the cel service picks back up and all of her texts start pouring in that she had sent him. Several more "he's banging on the door still," "I'm hiding under the bed," "I have a knife," "911 says they'll be here any second," etc.
And then finally, "He's gone. Police are everywhere now. Everyone has been told to barricade in their house. My dad just got home. I'm OK."
So, huge exhale, and we cancel the rest of the day trip, turn around and head home.
I suggested maybe we should take the other road back.
So they're texting the whole drive back and then just as we're getting back into town, she says there was a bunch of shooting, and it sounds like they've caught them, etc. She now wants to be in the arms of her sweet baby teen love, so wants my son to come get her. Thinks the one road is open into her neighborhood.
But I say that I'll drive him over there to make sure everything is OK. And I even offer to stop off for condoms on the way over! No comment. Nothing. This crowd sucks.
So we go over and pick her up, talk to her and her dad for a while. Police cars everywhere.
I don't really know what to believe, and the story keeps changing with every news report that comes out. But I guess her uncle is a police officer on one of the neighboring departments, and they were getting a lot of info from him.
He said there was 1-4 individuals that were riding around in the neighborhood throwing pipe bombs of some sort out the window. Eventually, they started trying to get into houses. They may or may not have gotten into 1 or 2 different houses where people were home, including one three doors down from the girlfriend's house where the big finale took place. Not sure what goes on for the next half hour or whatever it was, but eventually, a guy (or guys) comes out naked with a gun and throwing bombs and shooting at police officers. There's a fairly big shootout with SWAT, and many houses in the area were hit by bullets, including my son's girlfriend's house and their big camper parked out front. It's not even clear from what I've read so far whether they killed the guy or whether he was just shot but survived and was taken into custody.
So we leave with the girlfriend and are trying to navigate our way through the neighborhood and its various closed off roads. She's telling me to go one way, and I say, "Well, there's this other route we could take. It's not as busy and it will save us a few minutes."
Finally got something out of my son: "Just don't."
I love my new state!
Something tells me Joe will have a print out of threads to save. But also a big red magic marker to X out threads like these.
In the East, if there are naked meth heads in the neighborhood, the Karens will complain about them. Out West, they're more likely to be left alone.
Hey there fellow Yamhill County FBG - welcome to the party! Don't worry, we're not all meth heads out here - some of us choose to be drunks instead.
True, the OP also put a Placeholder post and then didn't deliver the story until a day later. So, we waited a day for this.....
