Dan the Man...

06/06/2007

If you read my last post, you probably know this one is written the same day.  I checked into a hotel in Milwaukee about 5pm.  I did some work (my company requires it) and then went to look for a place to drink beer, and maybe get a bite to eat.  There are only two eating establishments – if you don’t count McDonalds – within walking distance, and I am on foot.  So, I investigated the closest and quickly ascertained the beer selection rated somewhere on the scale of “really sucks” to “really sucks, absolutely.” I did a 180 and visited venue numero dos: Houlihans.  The beer selection at Houlihans is about the same as the first place I visited.  Bottom line is that Houlihans does not offer a beer I like, but I did have a Beck’s, which means four, because I didn’t want to walk back to the first venue.

I bellied up to the bar and almost immediately got to meet the guy standing next to me, a rather inebriated gentleman who was there with his wife and some relatives.  He introduced himself as Dan something or other and shook my hand as I told him my name.  With a couple of minutes I found he was here in Milwaukee attending his wife’s grandmother’s funeral.  The grandmother passed away about a year ago (?), and she would have been 102 tomorrow.  He lives in Burtonsville in Montgomery County, Maryland and is retired from the some kind of security job within the State Department.  He is fifty-five years of age and wants to move to Charleston, SC.  His wife works for some other federal agency and can retire in four years.  He was divorced and single for twelve years before he married his now wife, Carol.  Shortly after they were married she was diagnosed as having Lupus and some of his friends were surprised he stayed with her.

Dan could hardly stand up and I was somewhat afraid he was going to fall over; he kept weaving back and forth.  His wife asked me if he was bothering me.  Actually, he was entertaining.  Dan is probably about five-foot, eight, and may weigh in at 150.  He had problems staying with our conversation and seemed not to remember what he had told me – I guessed that when he looked at me inquisitively and suspiciously as I asked about stuff he had already told me, like is Burtonsville in Montgomery, County?

Dan and I probably talked for about thirty to forty-five minutes.  I was standing next to him waiting for a seat with some space around it for me to sit and eat.  I had my right hand in my pocket, along with my cell phone.  Dan kept looking down at my hand in my pocket (I hope).  All of the sudden he took hold of my wrist, drew my hand out of my pocket, took my cell phone from my hand, pushed my cell phone about a foot out from my hand and said I was making him nervous and not to put my hands in my pockets.  I had to chuckle and it seemed to set him off.

Dan told me not to mess with him, and then he asked me if I was threatening him.  Now, I am a pretty big guy…235 (I am being kind to myself) and 6’2”.  I could have picked this drunk up and flung him over the bar, but being the kind, wonderful man that I am, I simply told him not to think I don’t love him, but I was going to sit somewhere else…and I did.  But I noticed he kept looking at me.  At one point his wife must have realized Dan was crocked and near passing out, and she took him away from the bar, hopefully to their room and tied him to the bed.  Dan the Drunk had to hold onto her shoulders as she guided him out of the bar. 

Shortly after Dan left, the guy sitting on my right told me Dan was muttering to himself after I moved.  I told him Dan had been over served.  He told me Dan kept looking at me and mumbling “I could kill that guy” and said it several times.  Perhaps that is why Carol put him to bed.

Fortunately, Dan knows nothing more of me than my first name.  He is in one hotel and I am a couple of blocks away in another, and that lends me a great deal of comfort.  Dan is either unstable, psychopathic or just plain drunk.  He didn’t frighten me, but I had had enough of him.  I certainly didn’t want to attempt to eat next to some wacko from Maryland.

Dan obviously has some underlying issues. I believe that he was reaching out for help, and I hope he finds it.

And that is all I have to say about that…