There are all kinds of people everywhere. I like to pay attention to what is around me where I am living and characters seem to crop up all of the time.
This evening I was out running some errants, recycling, mail drop-off, and a run to Home Depot. On my way back home I was looking for the plastic recycling drop off that I thought was by the Uptown Shopping Center. I was running low on gas so I stop in the the Exxon, swiped my credit card and started to gas up. Well almost. I’m just about to put the nozzle in my tank and an older woman, probably in her 70s, walks over to me with a cigarette in her hand. Fortunately, it wasn’t lit (he you can never be sure). I was thinking she was going to ask me for a light and I was going to have to tell her that she had a death wish. Instead she tells me that the man over by the phone wanted her to dial a number on the pay phone for him. She obviously wasn’t comfortable with the situation as asked me if I would dial the number for the man.
I agree to do it, start filling my tank and walk over to the old man. First I though he didn’t have any change (I didn’t either). He had money, but said that he glaucoma had gotten so bad that he couldn’t see the number on the pay phone and made it a point to call his paraplegic (he might have said paralyzed, I forget) son every week. This is no loss for me or my time so I dial the number as he recites it and he just gets the money in the slot in time. The phone rings on the other end, I hand off the receiver, he thanks me and starts his conversation. Everything seemed normal to him and the woman had walked up the ally (well the space in between the gas station and the building next door) and lit up.
Yes, friends that was the most exciting thing happening in Richland, Washington at around 6:30 pm on a Sunday. Though, Home Depot was quite busy. Holiday shopping I guess. Humm, feels just like home.
