Sunday Stroll

I have a new rule which is that I will not buy cigarettes unless I walk the three blocks to the Tobacco Outlet store. Since my nicotine addiction is such that I won't do without, I figure that I'm at least getting some needed exercise. Plus, this place is much cheaper than your garden variety convenience store. Plus, my car is unreliable and it seems a shame to waste perfectly good starts on driving just up the street.
So, today, I need to walk up the street. Halfway there, it starts to rain.
At first, it was bothersome, but I soon rediscovered the joys of walking along with the smell of wet sidewalk and spring greenery hanging in the air. Eminently enjoyable.
Except the temperature dropped about 15 degrees at the same time. Not quite so pleasant as before, but, being the type of person who insists on perservering when smokes are in the offing, I plodded along.
On the way home, it started raining harder.
And then this guy pulls up alongside me wearing a polo shirt, white shorts and sandals riding a Schwinn single speed bike. He's breathing hard and starts to tell me that he rode all the way up to his bar just to find out it was closed. He said his name was Ernie. And he is openly and obviously leering at me! Now, this is a new one on me. Especially while walking along in the rain and cold. Luckily, I had a loose denim shirt on or he might have construed my chestal perkiness caused by the weather as an added invitation. I mean, I've had the look of interest, the nods and the flirting from both genders through the years, but I have never had a complete stranger approach me and ogle me so blatantly.
So, while he is raking me up and down with his hungry stare, I'm trying to steer the conversation into either a dead end or into something innocuous. No luck, so then I'm stuck trying to decide how to ditch this strangoid.
I mean,it isn't like he was all that creepy to look at or be around and he wasn't reaching over to try to fondle me or anything; it was just the penetrating stare.
"Oh, boy", I thought. "Is this another Dahmer or something?"
Anyway, he must have either taken the hint by my definite lack of interest or there was too much traffic on the road for him to do anything dastardly so he finally kicked up his pedals, called "See ya around" and pedalled off. I made sure he was down the road quite aways before turning onto my side street since I have no plans to see him around.
And the moral of the story, people, is that smoking will not only make you wet and cold, but will also attract the weirdos that are in the vicinity.