Home Depot Excursion

This morning we had to make a trip up to the new Home Depot that opened it's doors a few months ago. This was the first time I had been there. Hard to believe, I know. Herm needed some tomato stakes and a few other things. As I was heading up to the cash register to ask the clerk where the Osmocote was hidden, I noticed (out of the corner of my eye) a portly man in his late fifties staring at me. While I know I look particularly fetching with my new hair doooo, it's been a while since I've turned anyone's head who isn't old enough to have fought in WWII, and too blind to pass the vision test at DMV. So, I took notice, feeling pretty darned good, I must say.

Once I turned my gaze directly toward the scoundrel, I instantly knew why he was staring at me. It was someone I know, but haven't seen in a very long time. Have you ever been caught off guard? You know, you see someone you haven't seen for awhile, someone that you were not expecting to see. You've known them pretty well, but no longer travel in the same circles. You have a bit of a past with them, and used to have friends in common, and still know some of the same people. You find yourself face to face in the middle of the begonias and hostas, and attempt to get yourself together, and make nice conversation, and just when you think you're doing fine, his wife comes sauntering into the garden section. Omigod!

So then you stand there and pretend to chat and enjoy it, knowing that she doesn't want to be talking to you at all, in fact, she would rather be doing something much more fun, like having kumquats shoved down her throat till fructose shoots out her nostrils like a fire hydrant on the fourth of July. You can see this in her eyes, and you try not to look away.

We talked, we smiled, we said good bye. The garden center at Home Depot looks the same as it always has and life goes on.