The Yeti Encounter

It seems to me that anytime I meet someone new, I'm never bored. Even if the person himself is dull, monotonous, and talks about nothing I can relate to, the experience of meeting him is always exciting. But just recently I've encountered a meeting with someone I swore I'd never be lucky enough to meet again--especially if I moved out of my condominium.

Of course he's not the actual Yeti described in many forms of fiction and tall tales. If any ape-like creature wore tight wrangler jeans and steel-toed boots, I'd be shocked--and impressed at his sense of style. But his big frizzy beard, red braided pigtails, and gangly smile peering out from his beard always leave me wondering. This groundskeeper is loud and full of energy when I see him. When involved in conversation, he moves his hands and head as though he was on a caffeine high. When he smiles, his teeth become the majority of his face and its as though through his smile, he's revealing a little bit of his secret. I could swear the wranglers are just a cover up for what he really is.

On a hot spring morning, I walked out to my car only to find the battery was dead. This was to be expected, actually, since my car had been having troubles the night before. After calling many of my friends for help, I realized I'd have to rely on somone else if I wanted to get going before dusk. I never thought of asking a Yeti for a jump. Who would have thought that a gangly-toothed creature native to the mountains of Tibet could have helped me out with such an advanced piece of technology. But I overcame my initial hesitation to ask and went down to the maintenance office where he was telling jokes in his low, rumbling voice. I asked if anyone of the maintenance people had any jumper cables and could give me a boost. His beautiful daughter offered his services right in front of him, to which he belted out a hearty laugh and grabbed his giant ring of keys. Within minutes he had his little Toyota truck parked right next to my old Nissan Sentra and got me on my way.

Before this incident, whenever I saw Groundskeeper Yeti, I'd simply smile to myself about seeing a woodland creature here in my own city. I thought it was great he could find work cleaning out gutters and unclogging the hair from bathroom sinks. Such simple tasks for a simple-minded creature, right? But as it is with any person I meet, I found out that Yeti has more of a heart than I gave him credit for. He not only wants to adapt to the lifestyle of us Salt-Lakians, but he's more than willing to lend a helping hand to those who need it.

Besides, this Yeti is probably the most skilled of all his legend brothers--how jealous the others must be knowing that he has figured out how to operate and manage the horseless carriage.