\nI awakened earlier this morning than I needed to rise. I remembered the\n weather expectation was for cooler temperatures today so I checked at \nweather.com before rolling over. The current temp was sixty-one which \nwas about as high as they expected it to get. I didn’t bother looking \nat anything other than the predicted temps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it came time to \narise and get dressed I chose to forego the usual short sleeved tee \nshirt in favor of a long sleeved alternative. I got outside in time to \ndo some reading and say good-bye to Kelli. It’s Kelli’s first day at \nschool with students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ambient air was a bit less \ncomfortable than I had thought it would be. Sixty-five to me is \ncomfortable in short sleeves. I thought surely four degrees couldn’t \nmake much difference. It seemed I was less than correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I \nneeded to be at the Post Office early this morning. I dragged the bike \nout of the garage and tied the package to the risers. It would’ve been a\n good morning to wear a jacket but I didn’t. I was only a half block \ndown the road when I became aware of the error of my way. My nipples \nwere beginning to stick out but I decided so long as it’s not raining \nthe short two miles to the Post Office shouldn’t be a real issue. It \nwasn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the Postal Office I waited in line with six foot \nseparation and my cloth face mask in place. There were only two clerks \nat the counter this morning. I drew my favorite, Suzanne. When I \napproach where she serves my mind always begins to sing, “Suzanne takes \nyou down to her place by the river.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I handed her the package \nand she commented on my mask. It has on it a message indicating how \nunnecessary it really is and pointing out a similarity to our state’s \ngovernor. I commented to Suzanne that I believer we’re being \nmanipulated to be afraid of something that was occurring to fewer than \nfour percent of the population. She agreed strongly from behind her own\n mask. I told her I wasn’t so much concerned about what was happening \nnow as I was for what we were being conditioned for in the future. She \nsaid she agreed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We finished our business and sent the package \non its way. Outside I began to think. Walmart is just around the \ncorner. My life partner, bless her heart, had told me we were on our \nlast roll of toilet paper. I might as well pick up a package and take \nit home. It would be a little large but I could get out one of the \nbungee cards that I carry under the seat and tie it over the rear \nfender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pulled into the Walmart parking lot and noted the lot \nwasn’t quite as full as it normally is later in the morning. I usually \npark toward the end of the line of cages preferring a space that allows \nme to pull through so the bike is facing out the back of the slot. I \ndidn’t find a pull through space where I wanted it but there was one \navailable right next to a curbed island. By cutting across and turning \nhard left over the spot I was able to park cross ways with the nose of \nthe bike aimed just past the curb on the way out. I put on my mask and \nwalked toward the store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I entered on the only side still open \nwhich is on the grocery and household side of the store. I headed down \nthe aisle on the right side as we are in America and was about to turn \ninto the aisle labeled for paper products along with other things when I\n noted the next turn was signed for bathroom tissue. Now what does \npaper tissue have to do with bathing? Why do we seem to go to great \nlengths to refer to things by names that make no sense? My drill \ninstructor always referred to it as ass wipe. That seems to be a lot \nmore straight forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I usually buy Charmin extra strength. It was pretty expensive here at the Walmart. Next to it was the Great Value generic brand. It was less expensive. It was hard to find the labeling indicating the price of the Great Value paper but I was finally able to find one for $14.67 for the twelve roll package. It was a good price but I couldn’t bring myself to buy a package that would last us for several months. I couldn’t find a marker for the nine roll package next to the twelves but I though surely it must be about three quarters of the cost of the twelves. I picked up one of the nines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On my way\n to the front I crossed in front of a young lady pushing a cart with a \nlittle girl in the front. She caught my eye. She smiled and I did but I\n wasn’t sure the smile was transmitted from behind the mask. They \nturned out behind me and I reached into my pocket to see if I could \nisolate a dollar coin. I did. When I looked over my shoulder they had \nturned into another row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I passed the Scan and Go section to \ncheck out with a human being. I’ve told them before that if I wanted to\n check myself out I would have ordered online. At the register I was \nable to use a two dollar card that Walmart had given me as a refund and \nput the rest on my own bank card. The price was $11.90. I questioned \nmy decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was walking toward the door when I noticed that \ncart with the little blond headed girl was coming into the Scan and Go \nsection. I turned and went back. The mother was beginning to scan her \npurchases. I looked to the little girl and addressed her mother. I \nheld out a coin. “I want you to give this to her and tell her she makes\n this world a prettier place. And here’s one for her little sister.” \nShe told me thank you more than once and once more as I walked away and \nlooked over my shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pulled off the mask as I exited the store.\u00a0 I felt drops of something cold on my face.\u00a0 Oh no.\u00a0 As\u00a0 I walked toward the bike I decided that I would tie the package of paper to the risers with the small bungees that I keep on the front.\u00a0 It was a large package so it might take three of the five.\u00a0 I got to the bike and unlooped three cords.\u00a0 I placed the nine roll package over the front blocking the speedometer and tach.\u00a0 I wrapped the cords around the load and discovered three were too many.\u00a0 Rather than take the package down I creased the package to place two on it and worked under the tied load to replace the extra tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The saddle was covered in droplets but not so many as my jeans would absorb. I wanted to get on the road and headed home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay, so it was cold and a little bit wet but as I rolled past the more than a couple of green traffic lights I thought to myself that if those are the worst things that happen to me today it will still be a very nice piece of the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that’s how the morning goes.
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I awakened earlier this morning than I needed to rise. I remembered the weather expectation was for cooler temperatures today so I checked at weather.com before rolling over. The current temp was sixty-one which was about as high as they …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions\/1586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowinthewind.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}