Family 1: I stopped in a convenience store yesterday to refill my coffee cup. I grabbed an impulse packet of those little mini-donuts that were on the counter for .50 cents. As I was leaving a 30-ish looking guy with 3 little boys was approaching the door. The kids were in front so I held the door open for them. The dad told the boys, "That was very nice of him to open the door, huh? What do you say?" The two older boys, maybe 10 and 8, both gave the perfunctory "thank you" and walked inside. But the little guy, almost 4, stopped, pointed at the package of donuts I had in my hand and asked, "May I have one of your donuts, please?"

Very funny and very cute, I thought. How the hell do you say no to that? I figured it was someone telling me I didn't need mini-donuts. Dad was mortified and kept apologizing for his son..."I'm so sorry, he's only 3, he'll be 4 in a month, we're trying very hard to teach him manners", etc. I assured him it was fine and asked if I could share a donut. He said it was OK with him. So I told the little boy I'd give him the donuts if he'd share with his brothers. He said he would. Everyone was happy and I left with a smile on my face...even though I didn't have donuts.

Family 2: I had a stop on my route at an older but well-kept and neat, single-wide, owned by a local church in an outlying logging community whose best days are long since gone. The church maintains this place as a temporary home for families in need and I've been there several times.

When I got there I noticed a lot of trash in the yard, the grass wasn't cut, junky car...typical "I don't give a shit" look about it.

The "needy" lady of the house (turns out she was 22) came out to greet me while I was filling the tank. 3 dirty little kids, youngest was just past toddler stage to about 5 or 6 for the oldest (mom started very young apparently...but never confirmed they were all hers, either) were outside, running around out of control...trying to climb on the truck, crawling under the truck (PTO shaft spinning and all) and just generally being a nuisance. The girl started talking...boyfriend/baby daddy was 25, suffering from some illness that didn't allow him to work, she didn't work, just moved to ID from WA, hate it here because public assistance (she used that term) was hard to get, can't "smoke" like she did in WA, church was letting them live rent free and paying for propane delivery, empty toy boxes trashing up the yard were donations from church members, blah, blah, blah.

Being polite I mentioned I had recently moved to the area as well from CO and loved it. She got very excited..."That's where we're going as soon as we can get gas money! It's easy to get public assistance there and we can smoke without getting arrested."

My first thought was asking her how much she needed for gas. Then I thought, that's they type of person flooding into CO.

You guys are so screwed.