Another man. Another interaction: I see him bee bopping all over the front of his parked truck; windows down, music blaring. I walk across the parking lot, headed to my destination. He looks up, grins wildly and yells out his window, ‘I don’t care who sees me! When it’s a tune you like, you gotta listen, man!’
Something makes me stop. I stride over. ‘What are you listening to?’ He cranks it up. I say, ‘I don’t recognize it, I’m old school…man’. ‘Me too, me too…’ he grins. ‘But I really like this one, I’m old. I’m 49!’ I point at him, ‘I’m older!’ He guffaws loudly. ‘You don’t look it!’
At this juncture, I realize I’d probably better drift off…man. He starts up again. ‘I act like a seven year old!’ I find that I can’t help myself. I respond, ‘Well, I think like a five year old!’
This week’s theme has centered around my age, as I consider the recent conversation had with a neighbor, a retired marine who insisted that I could have been a marine as well. That was a circular conversation.
The man in the truck laughs. ‘It’s all good, man! I mean it’s not ALL good; people are getting sick and stuff, but most of it is (expletive)!’ I nod, ‘Could be, could be’. He continues, ‘I don’t watch the media no more; they control everything! It’s all (expletive)!’ I choose to end this conversation in a cowardly manner, ‘Could be, could be’. I start to wander back to my car, thinking I will shop later. Enough excitement for one afternoon.
He hops out of his truck, puts his blue mask on and heads in the opposite direction across the parking lot. He yells back, ‘I’m going home now, mow the lawn and have a drink!’ I think that what he REALLY said was, ‘I’m going home, having a drink and then I’m going to mow the lawn!’
Now that sounds to me like some trouble up ahead…man.
His final words echo across the lot as he yells, ‘We’ll see how shaky I am tomorrow’. With this statement, I feel safe to say that the drinking will occur first, followed by the lawn mowing.
I get back into my car and consider that I may need to stay home more…
690 Saint Paul 