Tuesday, May 19, 2020

The Skin Colored Jar




Sunday, I ate my fill last night.  Feast just now.  Famine will return.  I fix myself some yogurt just like I used to eat years ago, with cream on the top that it probably hopelessly fatty but today, I’m not resisting such indulgences.  Blackberries . . . I was at the checkout with one container and she told me they were buy-one-get-one-free and I’d better hurry back and my free box.  I had plenty of blackberries.  There were some pomegranate seeds in the fridge as well and a bit of granola which I’d inadvertently spilled all over the floor as I tried to add.  A cup of grapefruit juice.  I love grapefruit juice in the morning.  I haven’t had much of it in a while as I’m usually skipping breakfast if I'm the sixteen-hour intermittent fasting and I'm not much in the mood for that tart taste in the afternoon.  No need for any such abstinence today.  


I spent much more time than I should have trying to think of something trenchant and substantive to say about the book I’d recently finished “Inhuman Bondage,” until I decided to take a break and see what the Mrs. was up to in the kitchen.  Would I like to go to Lowes?  She needed more mulch.  A lot more.  I can do that.  I acquiesce and in my mind I started thinking of how important it was to make time to be with one’s wife and shop together even though, there was lots more work that needed my attention.  I got my coat and wallet and soon found out that she’d intended for me to head over and get the mulch for her.  She’d be busy gardening in the meantime.  Right. 



Solo mission then.  I was also tasked with finding her some ointment for the poison ivy rash on her arm, so I headed to Walgreens first.  I couldn’t remember the name “Calamine.”   I could only imagine the skin colored jar that my grandmother would have had.  Before long I grabbed what I needed and put it down on the counter, though I was asked to pick it back up again.  Take your products and back up safely.  The guy in front of me hadn’t returned yet.  I read three more pages in my book before he returned with a “ohh, you shouldn’t have waited for me.”   We did.



Over at Lowes I turned off my live Miles from 1960 and locked the car door.   I’ll need one of these massive carts that can take considerable weight.  Pushing it through the door I suddenly realized I had not put a mask on.  In this climate its a political gesture: to wear or not to wear, and I suddenly feel as though I've stepped inside with a MAGA hat on.  I swiftly returned to the car and grabbed the little blue mask and slipped it over my face.  The cart I’d had was gone when I returned, and I found an even larger contraption and went to the back to get my ten bags of mulch. 



Sunday, 5/18/20


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