So this sort of thing happens to my family all the time, some people would call it coincidence but I maintain that it is providence.
My brother came and visited me from Fresno this weekend and so on Friday afternoon I knocked off work early and we decided to go play some
disc golf at
Sinsheimer park in San Luis Obispo.
While we were walking through the park towards the first hole I saw what I thought was a cellphone in the path. When we reached it I found it was actually a silver zippo in a leather case. It was in good condition and had the Harley Davidson logo etched on it, but I couldn't get it to light. We figured that it was out of fuel, but it was a zippo, so I used the belt clip on the case to attach it to my bag.
We found our way to the first hole and started our game. I was doing worse than usual and my brother was doing o.k. so we reached hole number six with about the same score. We weren't in any rush so it had taken us about a half an hour to get to this point, at around 4 over par for each of us.
Hole six is on the other side of the course from hole 1, next to the railroad tracks. I had seen some people who were much better than me throw from an alternate tee location high up on some rocks much further away from the hole. I had never been up there before so we decided to go up and have a look. Standing on the rocks and looking down at the course I decided that if I had a really good throw I could probably make it past the actual marked tee location, but I wasn't sure how far.
On a whim I decided to try it. I noticed that there was a guy kind of wandering along the bike\jogging path that goes between the railroad tracks and the golf course. I delayed my throw to wait for him to get out of the way, but he backtracked and I would have to screw up my throw to end up towards him anyhow; so I threw. As soon as I let the disc go I knew it wasn't going to reach the standard tee location and as the wind picked up I realized it was headed toward the bystander.
I yelled "Heads up!" hoping to catch the guys attention but because of the wind and the distance I don't think he heard me. The disc skipped on the bike path where it turned towards the course and came to rest in a bush not 5ft. from where the guy was. He turns and looks up the hill towards us and I waved. I could tell from his body language that he was angry, and now that I was giving him a closer look I realized he was probably a member of the homeless community.
The transient stormed off to the right and yelled at someone who I hadn't seen and then heads toward my brother and me as we came down off the hill. My brother Matt had wisely decided to throw from the standard tee and was headed towards it. "Be ready for a fight." I said to my brother as the stranger headed our way.
"Why did you throw a rock at me!" the transient yelled.
"I didn't throw a rock at you, it was a frisbee. We're playing some disc golf." I said holding my bag and walking directly towards him.
"Sorry for the close call."
I don't remember if he said anything to me but he turned his back and headed towards the bike path where he was when I threw. His friend, who he had called over to back him up, was arriving on the scene as I headed over to the bush where my disc had stopped. Now that I was closer I could tell that these two hadn't seen a shower or a laundry mat in a good long time, but were otherwise harmless. As I reached my disc one of the men said something about losing a lighter.
"You lost a lighter?" I asked. "Yeah" the guy I nearly hit said, "I've been looking all over for it I can't find it."
"What kind of lighter" I said.
"A zippo." he replied.
"Did it have anything on it?"
"Yeah, it was a Harly Davidson."
"Here you go." I said unclipping it from my bag and handing it to him.
He took it from my hand and took a few steps away. There was some expressions of incredulity from both him and his friend and then he turned and walked back to me. I stuck out my hand but he wasn't looking to shake my hand so I accepted his hug and returned it. He didn't smell too bad, just like old sweat and cigarretts. I had experienced far worse body oder from college lab partners. I shook his friends hand noticing that he had an interesting sore on his forarm and wondering how he got it. His friend said "God bless you man. You're gonna beat that guy," referring to my brother. They watched me take my second throw, which was pretty good, and the friend said. "You're gonna win the whole tournament." I smiled, told them "God bless you guys." and went to take my next throw.
Matt smiled and said "Pretty, cool," and then mentioned something about providence. Funny how we think alike.
