The exact opposite of brain freeze

Thermometer (Photo credit: steven and darusha)

It has been so hot these past few days that it has felt as though my brain is melting.

It is amazing that I was able to function even a little bit at work these past few days. Air conditioning is the only possible explanation for that.

Today as I left the office, the car thermometer showed104F. As I drove a few miles, the temperature did go down a bit. By the time I reached home, it read 94F.  With the exception of the thermometer, there was no real difference. 94F feels remarkable similar to 104F.

Somewhere in the middle of my drive home, in an area where the thermometer registered approximately 100F, I could see a vehicle pulled off on the shoulder. A long line of cars slowed as we approached. Soon I could see that there was a white pick up truck and two men getting out of the vehicle.

“Uh, oh!” was my first thought. “It would be horrible to have a car break down on a day like this”. Our son’s car did break down on the 4th-when all repair shops were closed. That was not pleasant. I figured this truck also had a break down.

But as I got closer, I could see that just behind the pick up truck was a bicycle. This was not a regular bicycle, but a three-wheeled bike. A large adult-sized tricycle. This was the kind of bike that is used by folks who are not physically able to ride a two-wheeled bicycle.

It was being ridden by an elderly gentleman. It looked like he was at least in his mid-seventies.He was actually still on the bike, struggling to pedal up a very slight incline along the shoulder of the road.

The men from the pick up truck had lowered the truck’s tailgate. They were talking to this man, obviously trying to convince him to allow them to load his bike/tricycle into the truck and accept a ride.

As I drove by, I could see a logo on the front door of the truck. It was a commercial vehicle of some sort.The men were on their way home from work in their business truck.

These men had seen the elderly gentleman riding this tricycle along a highway in 100F and were giving him a ride.

At least that’s how I saw things as I drove by.

In my thoughts, I congratulated these two guys for being good Samaritans. They saw a person who needed help, and they stopped and helped. Bravo!

There are good people in this world!  Yay!!! I gave them  a little award in my mind. Maybe they should receive a blue ribbon for good deeds.

Am I terrible person that after I drove on a bit further, I doubted them? What kind of person second-guesses a good deed?

I realized that I didn’t read the business name on the side of the truck. If something bad happened to that gentleman, would I be able to provide a description of the truck? A description of the two men? Should I have tried to get a license plate number?

Now, as I sit in my blissfully comfortable air-conditioned home, writing about this little scene, I am still not sure.

Either I am a good Samaritan at heart who recognized the good deed that was being done, or I was lulled into assuming the good while not acting in a reasonable way to ensure that this gentleman was truly in good hands. Perhaps this is comparable to someone being assaulted and no one doing anything to prevent it. Maybe it wasn’t a good deed at all. Could it be some type of  John Quinones situation……but for real, and I was one of those people who did not step in to help?

I suppose that there is a third option.

The heat has in fact melted my brain completely.