count to ten b4 you act...

For once, actually twice in one day, I thought before I acted:
Used to always launch at this run-down ramp, it was pretty bad,
but it was free. Had been free for as long as I had been fishing, far
as I knew. TVA used to run it. Well, one day after a long while fishing,
I had loaded up and pulled up under a shade tree to put away my stuff,
and this really flaky looking man and woman walked up to me and proceeded
to ask me for 4 dollars for the use of their boat ramp.
Just so happened as they walked up, I was stuffing my life jacket into the
same compartment where I kept my .45 auto... I thought seriously about
just showing it to them and telling them to take a hike. But they looked
like they could really use the money, so pacifist that I am, I reached in my
wallet and gave them the money. When asked to explain, they gave me a
story about how they had leased the rights to the ramp from TVA. It just
sounded fishy, and they didn't look like they had two pennies to rub
together, let alone lease a boat ramp. But I went on home, but just
couldn't get it out of my mind. I called TVA, and they acted like they had
never heard of such a thing! So now I'm boiling mad, and thinking hard
about going back up there, taking my money back, the rest of their money,
their clothes, and making them dance a jig and maybe swim the river...
I called back to the TVA, and after waiting hours to have a call returned,
got a very apologetic lady, who told me that yes, they had leased some
of the ramps and campgrounds to private parties, but they were supposed
to have up signs and drop-boxes at the ramps, not be going around
pan-handling. There were no signs or box up, I am sure. I went back
a few weeks later, and still no sign. I did run into the man again though,
and we had a little discussion about it - he acted po'ed that I didn't want
to pay to use his broke-down dock when for a dollar less, there was
a nice Corps of Engineers dock right down the lake. Oh well, just glad
I checked it out before taking action, might have been hard to explain to
the sheriff! :eek: