A DAY OF ODD OBSTRUCTIONS

light from the window







The snow is icy and stuck to the road so well the drumptruck that went by yesterday cleared the snow off the ice stuck to the road, making it all the more difficult to drive. This year they were conservative with the salt. Only put it on patches of ice instead of driving and slinging it wherever it falls. The temperature never reached above freezing today, but the sun and the salt together melted the roads fairly well. I drove in to the grocery store and Selma's coffee shop. The only ice was on the gravel part of the road going down the mountain, and it wasn't bad either direction, up or down. Highway 18 was completely melted and white from the salt, like in Sparta.







I was the cause of a young guy twenty-something in a ball cap and gold SUV completely losing his cool. Turning into Farmer's Hardware parking lot, the entrance near Halsey Drug, the car was parked in the middle of the exit/entrance. I saw I could make it by a frog hair. Didn't see any point in parking in the road with right blinker going, waiting for him to find an opening to pull into to make a left turn at the worst possible place in town and time of day for a left turn. By now I know the Catfish well enough to know where the corner of its bumper is. I swung a right turn into the space between car and the brick wall like it was wide-open and clear. It was. He started waving his arms, screaming, windows up, at me to watch what I was doing. I saw what I was doing, needed to see it to do it. Didn't touch his girlfriend's mother's car, or maybe his wife's. From the corner of my eye I caught a look at him as I drove by. He was in post-hysteria red face, red ears, looking daggers at me for nothing.







Earlier, at Food Lion, I pushed the buggy around the corner into the Mexican aisle aiming to get some corn chips, and an abandoned buggy was parked in the middle with a display box making it impossible to get around. The woman with the buggy was about 15 feet away talking on a cell phone. She came and pushed the buggy out of the way and went on. I went around the corner into the next aisle and she was in that aisle standing beside her buggy taking up the whole aisle. I turned around and went to the next aisle. When I came to the end of it, she was turning into the aisle. Still on the cell phone. Next aisle she was parked in the way again. By then, it seemed like we knew each other. Then I saw an entire family turn into the aisle completely blocking that end. I turned around and got out of there fast as I could go. Went to the catfood aisle and the dairy aisle, the home stretch. At the end of that aisle was the woman with the cell phone. She pulled the buggy out of the middle of the aisle and it was a clear shot to the register. By then we were almost acquainted. I'd never seen her before, assuming she was from Away.







In one of the aisles I was standing picking up a package of Bigelow green tea bags and a man I'd never seen before walked right into me. Didn't see me, wasn't looking. I turned just enough to make it a ricochet instead of a thud. By the time I came up on the guy in the middle of Farmer's parking lot entrance/exit, I was ready. Did what I had to do. As I passed him by, I projected a thought to him: 'If you wouldn't park in the middle, I wouldn't have to scare you so bad.' I'd already resigned myself to this being a day of heedless people out and about. Time to get home, though not without a latte at Selma's amid her good vibrations.







Allan, next door, has a long driveway made of solid ice. I knew he wouldn't be able to get out, so I called this morning to say I'd be making a town run if he needed to get to town. He needed some groceries too. He was sitting in the car when I turned into Farmer's parking lot. He didn't let out a peep. Good self control. My driving has always scared him. One more scary moment is just another in a long list. I'm mortified of his driving too. I don't like to get in a car with him any more than he wants to get in one with me. In fact, I've got to where I don't like to ride with anybody any more. Beginning to understand why Jr always wanted to be the one driving when he was in a car or pickup with anybody else. It's a belief that I trust my own driving. Never had a wreck. Came close a couple times and got out of it. I was glad to settle for a bit at Selma's in the good feeling in her place.



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