This took place about an hour ago. So there's a young guy (27y/o) walking from Jacksonville FL to San Diego CA while dragging a 12ft cross on wheels. He knocked on the door of my Fire station and asked to set up his tent in the lawn. Me being a crew supervisor (station officer) I'm ultimately responsible for either way this pans out, negative attention for turning away a foot traveling Christian bearing cross or positive attention for kindness and risking liability on government property; big trucks moving around often that could smush him if he wanders. So I take the risk, fuck my life. We end up feeding the guy. I gave him my portion of grilled chicken the probie(newest crew member) just cooked for the crew. While conversing with him in between his mouthfuls I told him I'd try to figure out how to turn off our station's irrigation system (fancy ass multi-zone gadget) tonight so his tent and cross don't get drenched. Well what do you know, after some life story chatting he returns to find his open tent and sleeping bag actively being blasted by our commercial grade sprinklers. I rush to that fancy irrigation control gadget to shut it off and find the panel door locked. We have no key, it was lost, we're firemen it happens. I spend the next several minutes picking the cheap wafer lock with paper clips. Meanwhile my probie helped the urban outdoorsman retrieve and start drying his tent with a leaf blower and tossed his sleeping bag in the dryer. I was able to take the lock with my rusty NDE (nondestructive entry) skills and finally turn off the irrigation system. I shook his hand and told him there will be no more surprises tonight.
Short story long: My procrastination countered my generosity with a traveling cross bearing guy on a mission.
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