u/crowlieb

I was walking somewhere in the Bull Street District and I passed a business with a parking lot right up against the sidewalk. I heard someone calling "Hey!" and looked to see a middle-aged white man in a white minivan with the engine off and windows down in the parking spot right up against the sidewalk, waving me over. I normally would have just shouted across to keep my distance, but there was a tree being cut down nearby and I couldn't hear myself, so I took a couple steps closer. The man was holding up his phone with Google maps pulled up, and he asked if the building next to him was a clinic where he needed to go, saying Google was taking him all around. I confirmed with a quick "yeah it's that building right there" and a point, he thanked me, and I kept walking.

About an hour later, I'm walking back the same way, there's still the tree being cut so I can't hear well, and I hear a shout again. I look over, and the same man is sitting in his van with the engine and windows down, in the same parking spot. To clarify, this parking lot was right next to the clinic, but the clinic's actual lot and front door are on the other side of the building. He smiles and waves me over and I take a couple steps just to hear, and I can make out he's thanking me and wants to offer me a ride for helping him. I refuse politely, saying I was just going a block away. He insists though, keeps smiling and beckoning me closer, repeating he wants to give me a ride, but I just smile, wave, say thanks have a good day, and keep walking.

I'm not trying to accuse this man of anything malicious, but being a short, young woman means I have to consider some things when I'm walking alone and a strange man approaches me. I've been followed home before by a strange man in a car while I've been walking in my neighborhood, and it's not the first time I've been followed home. I did still ask myself after the fact today: why was he still there? Why didn't he go to the parking lot of the clinic if he had an appointment? Why insist on offering me a ride when I said I was walking only to the next block? There are perfectly reasonable answers to these questions. I assume this man was just being kind. But the care I have to give strange men when they stop me feels like I'm talking to the fey.

I want to use this pattern for a hoodie string with aunt Lydia's size 10, but even if I take off the outside 2 columns on either side it's still just so many cards and strings. Anyone know of an alternate narrower deer pattern, or otherwise the best way to truncate this one? https://twistedthreads.org/pattern/2taoQFqbDWr5EaCfD