Just
a quick anecdote today. We spent most of
the afternoon yesterday chatting with Jennifer.
She came over to kill time while her dog was being groomed, and ended up
staying for pretty much the whole afternoon.
Guess it took us that long to catch up on Corona news in each other’s
households …
So
on to the anecdote …
I
made a WalMart run for some printer toner.
All this copying of song sheets for Sunday is taking its toll. And the addition of a Visual Versed on the
back uses that much more.
Ah,
WalMart. Great place to gauge key
cultural mores (no, that’s not a
misspelling of smores. I just don’t know
how to put an accent mark in there. It’s
pronounced “morays.” Means the way people
do stuff) such as social distancing and the like. Well in this case I have to say I saw an
interesting array of masks among the staff.
A few of them even covered entire mouths and once in a while - a
nose. Most were hanging as decorative
necklaces. My favorite, though, was the
lady who had deftly draped one across her right ear. It looked like one of those extra-large
earrings you see.
Along
with the toner cartridge, I happened to stroll past the movie rack, and before
I knew what was happening a wolf leapt into my basket. Well, that’s not exactly accurate. I didn’t have a basket. But the wolf was there, nevertheless. It jumped on me as I tried to innocently pass
by. I did my best to fight it off, but
from the start it had its teeth clamped around my fingers. OK, that’s not exactly accurate, either. It was my fingers that were clamped around
its teeth. See, I was actually the hero
in this scenario. And since we had been
through so much together, I had to bring it on home with me.
The
name of the feral movie was, appropriately, Call of the Wild. Rated PG for all you Moms out there. A classic film based on a classic tale by a
classic author, Jack London. Perfectly
fitting for the classically WalMart event that occurred next. As I scanned the bar code at the self-service
line, the light started flashing and one of those error codes appeared that
requires a checker to enter a special code to clear. I was confused and intrigued. As the young man scanned in his release codes
(He was fully and appropriately masked,
by the way), I saw the problem. The
computer asked him to verify that I was at least 17 years old. He glanced in my direction once. Then he whipped back around a second
time. “Sorry,” he explained. “I just have to make sure.” I chuckled and queried as to the machine’s
choice to card me for a PG-rated movie.
He assured me it was nothing personal.
“The machines do the same thing for Sharpies, you know?” I replied that I knew that one. After all, you can get high sniffing
Sharpies. Then he added, “You’re
right. And last week it caught two
13-year-old girls actually trying to buy … get this … fingernail polish
remover.” I simply shook my head and
offered, “Horror of horrors.”
1
John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us
not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
Father,
please give that young man from WalMart a great day today. He certainly brightened up mine
yesterday. Amen.
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