Going to meet the seller with my $350 in cash hidden in my hand, I walk out onto the CTA platform at Kedzie and Cermak. This area is a high crime area, so much so that my seller wanted me to give him a call when I got there to pick me up at the station for my safety.
A day earlier, I had seen an ad on craigslist for a 10 hp snowblower. Now it is unusual to see a 10 hp snowblower and the price that he was selling it for was equivalent to a 5hp snowblower that was smaller. So I jumped on it. I talked with him for a while back and forth and finally got him to commit to delivering the snowblower to me, because I had no transportation to pick it up. I give him directions, but it turns out that he has never really been outside of chicago and doesn't know any of the suburbs. So if I ride with him and drive out there, he would deliver it. Done and done. I thought nothing of it at the time.
I call the seller and tell him I am at the platform. I'm aware of the man with the tattooed hand who had been sitting across from me on the train following me closer than normal. The seller informs me that he has electricians at his place and cannot come pick me up, so could I walk to his place? Sure. I'm here, and he says it's only 2 blocks away. I stop to let Tattoo pass me by as I'm talking o the phone. I feel a little bit better. My mind is starting to think that this may not have been a good idea. Meeting a seller in a unfamiliar neighborhood I don't know alone, and then getting into his car so he can deliver the snowblower to me? Chances are that it will be fine, but I do not know this guy at all.
Walking underneath the viaduct, I'm aware of the group of men waiting for the bus. They start walking towards me and in a panic, I start thinking about how I can defend myself. Then I realize the bus is coming. I feel foolish.
I met the seller unscathed. In retrospect, I should have realized that for all intents and purposes I wasn't going to get mugged, but your mind does weird things in the midst of the situation. The seller turns out to be a stand up guy, your typical chicagoan, we talk, he demos the snowblower that it works fine, and after a while, we end up working out to get delivery for free, which I was thankful for. The drive was about an hour, so here I am sitting in my car for an hour with a guy I never met before and we talked about life and I thought about how I could bring Christ into the conversation. We talked a little bit about church and God, but nothing really substantial, although I did get a chance to let him know my beliefs about God and morality.
It worked out fine. I had called my sister-in-law to give her the make, model, and license plate of the car, the guy's name, phone number and address, so that they know where to look for the body if I don't show up at home, but obviously I didn't need it since I am writing to you today.
I did some snow clearing for a couple of minutes, because it was getting dark and late and my roommate was having his gf over for a valentine's day dinner and I didn't want to disturb his mojo. I then took off to go to the library to write some more papers till the wee hours of the night.
And that, is how I got my snowblower.
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