Our story takes place at the grocery store built on unflat land. Going into the store is easy, it's all downhill. However, when your food-laden self comes out of the store, you're forced to push your cart up a hill. Depending on how much food you've purchased, coupled with summer heat and humidity and black asphalt, this can be quite a feat. I haven't had to make this climb with one of those "kid-friendly" freaks of shopping cart nature, and God willing, I never will.
But, the real fun starts when you reach your car. Now, you need to figure out how to keep your food on wheels from rolling back down the hill while you use both hands to transfer your food into your car. The cart design (and gravity) works against you as the wheels automatically and continually turn into the path of least resistance, in this case, the bottom of the hill. Here's another reason why people get married: So someone can hold the cart while the other puts the bags in the trunk.
My strategy for preventing Rolling Blunder is to put the groceries in the passenger side of my car. That way, I can brace the cart against the side of the car while I unload, being careful not to scrape the paint on my car. Alas, some single shoppers have yet to figure this out.
Case in point: As I pulled into a space this afternoon, I noticed the woman next to me loading groceries into the trunk of her car. By the time I parked and got out, she was trying to execute the "hold the cart with one foot while balancing on the other, and continue to load groceries." I've seen this maneuver before and one needs more balance and flexibility than this woman had. The main problem with her approach seemed to be that she didn't have a firm hold on the cart. So, as she stretched, the cart wheels, and all forces of nature, worked against her. As the cart slowly inched its way back toward home base, she found herself in an ever-widening and precarious stance.
Rather than waiting to see if she'd split herself in half, I offered to hold her cart while she unloaded. You'd think that I'd offered to carry her first-born. "Why, you're just an angel. An absolute angel!" she gushed. I wanted to say, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Could you hurry up?" but I didn't think that sounded very angelic.
Perhaps this current photo of me helps to explain the woman's reaction.
1 comment:
that's a very good likeness. Although maybe "angel" isn't the FIRST word I think of when I think of you.
Did you just ask yourself "what would a nurturing person do?"
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