ForumGarden

So I pull into the parking lot of a local grocery store, pick a parking lane. I'm behind a family (mini?...They're not so mini) van and the driver in the van choses her spot leaving me the spot closest to the entrance. I wonder if she didn't see the closer parking spot. There are only 4 or 5 spaces separating the two of us, but it grabbed my curiosity. I exit my vehicle and by then the 30 something year old woman is about even with me and the conversation goes as follows;

ME: Thanks for the closer spot!

HER: Huh! Oh...I like to be near the shopping cart recovery thing.

ME: Ah! Good idea! I try to to pawn my cart off to others when I'm done.

HER: That's okay, too, I guess...Do you leave the cart in a space if nobody takes it?

ME: No no, I walk it to the drop.

HER: Well then that's okay!

ME: So I'm okay?

HER: (she chuckles) Yes!

ME: Happy New Year!

HER: Yes, you too!

We also crossed in the store and had a nice chuckle.

See, that's what life should be about - shopping carts and parking spaces.

Would anyone else like to share a similar type of casual encounter?

I was waiting at the cash machine outside the supermarket with two or three others when one of the deaf people pulls in to a nearby parking space in a really glaringly horrible bright yellow seat ibiza. - you know the kind I mean by deaf people don't you? teenage kids in cars with the stereo so loud you can hear bunga bunga from a mile away even with the windows shut. Personally I can stand rap only on small doses. Anyway this numpty drew up baseball cap, bunga bunga, (may be cool in downtown LA but in believe me it's really naff in central scotland) and we all turned to look and probably all thinking the same thing. A few seconds silence then one of the older guys pipes up, poor little bugger, imagine being deaf AND colour blind. Ah the shared companionship and joy of laughing at teenagers who think they're being cool and how soon you forget flared trousers and shoulder length hair.

On my last trip home, at Chicago O'Hare, our flight was delayed, first because the incoming plane was delayed by air traffic, then the flight crew for our flight was on another incoming flight, also delayed. Make that two incoming flights, the flight crew on one and the attendant on another.

So, we are all standing there, reflecting on how it sucks to be a passenger these days, and I decided to talk about some other adventure, and before long the whole group was involved in story telling, about interesting flights we'd had, and places we had been, before we knew it, the flight crew was all assembled and it was time to board.

We all got on the plane with smiles and laughter, and forgot, for the moment, what a PiA it is to travel by air these days.