Huckleberries: Roadside ripoff was a reminder of a bigger truth

A funny thing happened to Keith Boe of Post Falls on a recent business trip to Seattle. Seems he stopped at a deserted gas station in central Washington for fuel for his Subaru, an energy drink and a restroom break. A couple of lowlifes in a trashed silver pickup eyed Keith strangely as he entered the station. Keith shrugged it off. The toughs were gone when he exited the building – along with Keith’s sleep apnea machine, laptop, luggage, toiletries, clothes, et cetera. Take it away, Keith: “It’s hard to get over the feeling of being violated, but it also makes me very thankful. I know that every day I am fed only by God’s own hand personally.” Rather than stew, Keith’s thoughts turned to that Sermon on the Mount verse (Matthew 6:26) that says God’s TLC extends to the birds of the air. Keith’s tale has a silver lining. In their hurry, the thieves overlooked $10,000 worth of Samsung gear in the trunk and Keith’s car keys in a cup holder.

No smoking

Walkabout, a Huckleberries Online (www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo) regular, had a close encounter with a rude smoker while patrolling Tubbs Hill for litter last Sunday. She told the cad that smoking wasn’t allowed on bone-dry Tubbs Hill, which has been hit by a series of fires this summer. “It’s a public place,” Future Cancer Patient growled, followed by some choice words. And that’s the selfish mindset behind some of our wildfires … In the “Clueless Cigarette Smoker, Part 2” category, Jeanne Helstrom of Coeur d’Alene amused herself last week during her morning bike ride by counting the cigarette butts in the gutter along Coeur d’Alene’s 15th Street. In the short distance between Dalton and Margaret avenues, Jeanne counted 43 butts, lying on dead grass or among pine needles. Are smokers missing a common-sense gene or something?

Huckleberries

Huckleberries wonders what’s the back story behind that vanity plate on a gray RAV/4, driven by a young woman at Second Street and Lakeside Avenue in Coeur d’Alene last Tuesday: “YNGLOVE” … Poll: Fifty percent of my blog readers say they’ve changed their camping and outdoor rec plans as a result of the region’s wildfires. Yeah, yeah, duh … Coeur d’Alene PD statistics reveal four vehicle-bicycle accidents in July 2015, double the number for July 2014. That may not seem like a cause for alarm – unless you were one of the four riders involved in the stats … Huckleberries joins the Post Falls Police Department Swing Shift in giving props to a Post Falls boy who handed over a $20 bill to the PFPD that he’d found in his front yard last week. Why? He told an officer simply that the money didn’t belong to him. May his kind increase … Quotable Quote: “WSU doesn’t need a coach, it needs a warden – Herb Huseland of Bayview re: a report that shows Washington State footballers leading the nation in the number of arrests (31) over last five years. No Couging there … Yes, Virginia, a hothead really did punch another guy in the face in a dispute over a parking spot at Coeur d’Alene Costco on Friday.

Parting shot

Gotta wonder what Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, was thinking – or not – when she proudly held a Confederate flag at Priest River Timber Days last month. Scott was so proud of the moment that she Facebooked a photo of her doing so on both her personal and legislative pages. Scott is pictured holding the Confederate flag and grinning, above a campaign banner, with two U.S. flags in the background. She added this message on one of the Facebook posts: “Protecting and promoting our freedom of speech is an honor.” Do you suppose the majority of Scott’s constituents are honored, too?