Yesterday I arrived early like always for a routine home inspection.  It was in a Boston neighborhood -- a side street off of Dorchester Avenue in Savin Hill, for those who know the area.  And then I survived a shooting.

It was a beautiful day, about 70 degrees and sunny in the early afternoon.  I’m standing at the trunk of my car, messing with my tools, getting ready.  Two guys pull up on a motorcycle directly across from me on the other side of the street.  Making a ton of noise, revving it.  Kids.  They’re both young skinny guys wearing hoodies and surgical masks.

One gets off, starts walking away, looks at me real hard.  I look back, like whatever, no big deal at all.  I figure his friend dropped him off at home, but then he’s pacing a bit.  This gets some side eye from me.  Then the driver gets off and leaves the bike running and they both start walking away.  Side eye changes to alarm bells.

I go across the street, past the motorcycle and away from them.  Then BAP BAP-BAP BAP-BAP-BAP BAP!  I turn and see one of them shooting.  It occurs to me later, remembering the rapid sounds, that they both had guns, but I saw only one at the time.  The only good part for me was they were aiming away from me and across Dot Ave.  I turn and run and hide behind a car.  They get back on the bike and haul ass.  I stand up and try to get a photo but they’re too fast.  Gone.

Police show up, people coming out of their homes.  Two different cops interview me.  One officer stops to talk to me. I lean in his window to give a description and direction they went and he takes off looking for them. Maybe 6 or 7 police there, 3 or 4 cruisers that I could see.  One cop made a comment to me about how the place I was inspecting probably just dropped 10K in value… Hmm…  They tape off the scene with me and my car in it.  Dang.  At the time, I felt like I wasn’t as shook up as maybe I should have been, somehow, but it was quite something.

There are other parts to it, but that's the gist of the thing.  Took all of 20 seconds or so.  On a small world side note, a young couple there recognized me from doing their inspection a couple blocks away last October…

No one was killed or even hurt.  I survived easily, luckily, unlike so many other innocent victims.  Many people live this violent reality on a regular basis; this tiny little story among countless thousands is not special in any way at all.  I’m just one in a sea of others, but it was a first for me.  After having been through that, though, I still cannot begin to imagine being in the total horror of a mass shooting.  I certainly didn’t have to smear the blood of a dead classmate on myself and play dead, as an 11-year-old survivor in Texas did a few days ago.  But the whole scenario of being involved in a shooting certainly became a bit more real to me.

What’s my point?  You just never know what will happen from one second to the next.  Literally.  To me it was a reminder to try to enjoy each moment in the moment.  And to not waste time or energy being negative about stupid meaningless shit. Embrace life in a positive way, and live every second as fully as possible!

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