Meeting A Lot Of Acquaintences

Today was one of those days when it seems like too many people know who you are and have something to tell you.

At noon, L and I went to the BBQ fund raiser for Relay for Life. One of the local accounting firms has been sponsoring the event for years, making it one of the more successful events. Probably 500-600 people eating a hot dog or hamburger and some sides, watching the dunk tank (which I was not in this year - thank heavens - two balls for a buck). From the time we arrived to the time we left it was one person after another saying high and talking. Since L is so seldom in town during the week, all of her acquaintances and friends were saying hi and likewise without the excuse of absence for me.

So after a visit to XXX to remove the nerve block canula and a therapy session, I headed to Wally World for groceries and to fill some prescriptions. I swear that there were people lurking in the aisles just waiting for my appearance.

I went first to the pharmacy to drop off the prescriptions and ran into Steve, who I haven't seen in close to a year. Steve is someone who went to high school with me and is not noted for being the crispest cracker in the box. A nice guy, just very dense between the ears. So a conversation with Steve oft times is like trying to talk a river into running uphill - the information is present but not ingested. The clerk is trying to explain to Steve about the pricing of his prescription and his insurance coverage and made the mistake of telling Steve to work out which way of filling his prescription is best. This left Steve trying to decide which was better between $119 for 60 days or $57 for 30 days twice. I left off my prescriptions after talking to Steve. He was still standing by the counter trying to do the mental arithmetic. He was still standing there more than an hour later when I finished grocery shopping. I took pity on Steve and told him he could save $5 if he accepted the clerks 30 day version. That made him happy.

Then as I am heading down another aisle, I ran into Terri who wants a full update on how the Son is doing and how L is doing and what I am doing. Then she wants to plan a get together of the old club that L was a part of. I finally escape as her ice cream begins to drip out of the box and onto the floor.

The story was repeated aisle after aisle as I shopped. Most of them were people I hadn't run into in months. I usually count on losing 40 minutes or so on any visit to the store as someone will want to talk about city business, But today it was at least an hour of just random "How are you?" conversations with people I haven't seen in a while. Pleasant, but it shots the heck out of scheduling.

The whole effort is complicated by the fact that our Super WalMart is being remodeled and so nothing is in the same location two days in a row. Add to that the fact that I have two grocery lists in hand since Mom is still not up to hitting the store yet. I dream of the day when I can organize the lists so I can just walk a straight path from item to item and be done. Only another 30 days or so according to rumor. Of course, rumor had it that the bakery part of the remodel would be done two weeks ago (OK, not a rumor, but a sign on the plywood construction barrier from Wally World themselves.). It's still not done.

Hopefully I can mow the lawn in peace tomorrow.