Cliff is one of the most gentle men I’ve ever met in my life.  He rarely ever raises his voice, or gets angry.  He always let people cut in line in front of him, and never takes advantage of anybody.  He’s always the one telling me not to be angry and not to over react.  I’ve always been concerned that sometimes people treat him like a doormat.

Two days ago, he showed me there is a side of him I haven’t seen before.

After dinner, we were heading to the small park behind our apartment for a walk and some play time.  It’s a chance for Joshua to run off some energy, and for Sam to get some exercise.  We were coming up to the alley behind our building, and we can see a car coming our way half way down the block in the alley.  We figured we had enough time to cross the alley, so we held Joshua’s hands and started crossing.

Joshua got a bit distracted, and we slowed down for maybe 2 or 3 seconds to re-group.  In that short time, the car came upon us.  We were in the middle of crossing the alley, and somehow we both assumed the car would stop and let us finish crossing.  But the driver decided otherwise, and squeeze in right between us and the other side, missing hitting us by about 2 or 3 inches. 

I was so mad.  Usually in a situation like this I would have reacted, and Cliff would have tried to calm me down.  If I was by myself, I would have flipped the bird and shouted profanity to the dumbass driver.  But because I had Joshua with me, I was a bit at a loss as to how to react.  Giving someone the finger and swearing is probably not the finest parenting example.

What surprised me was that before I had a chance to do anything, Cliff already reacted.  He leaned in close to the driver’s side window, banged on her window, and yelled at the lady.  He didn’t flip the bird or swear, but he gave her a piece of his mind.  I was so stunned that he actually took action, that I kind of just stood there holding Joshua’s hand and Sam’s leash.

The look on the lady’s face was priceless.  I think she was quite afraid.  She drove off, and we went on our way to the park.  Cliff was still steaming, saying that he should have kicked her car for almost hitting our baby. 

I must say I enjoyed that little incident, or at least seeing this side of Cliff due to the incident.  I think when duty calls, he is one very protective papa bear.