Up here in this parking lot cell coverage was never very good. I wonder if she knows about the improvement (no one who knows this neighborhood would have even attempted to make a call up until September of this year) or just happened to be making a call and it went through.
A senior citizens community bus pulls in and parks right in front of the store, in a place reserved for handicapped drivers. No one gets out for a minute or two. I get out of my car and walk closer so I can see who will get out. I leave my clipboard in my car and go to the newspaper racks as though I'm deciding which one to buy. A white-haired man who is thin and wears a Hawaiian shirt drives the bus. He looks back at the two passengers as if to say, "We're here." The first to emerge down the two steps is a heavy set older woman in a light green "schoolmarm" type dress. She carries a cane and gingerly walks up the short ramp to the sliding doors of the grocery store. Her left wrist and hand shakes as though she has Parkinson's. In a minute the other elderly woman eases down the steps of the bus. She has a walker and is very adept at keeping it in front of her. She is an attractive older person, wearing a soft shade of red lipstick (which contrasts dramatically with her white hair) and a bright sunflower pin on her blouse. She has a necklace made of smooth colorful stones it appears. It surprises me that the driver doesn't get out and make sure his elderly passengers make it safely into the store. He reads a newspaper that he has kept in the seat behind him. He looks at me. I wave and smile and he returns the favor.
Across the narrow street a UPS truck pulls up at the business center. The driver jumps out (wearing brown of course, brown shorts, brown shirt) and skips into the business center.
Out of the door of the grocery store comes a heavy-set bag girl pushing the cart for an attractive woman in her 30s. The customer is very stylish and beautiful, wearing white short shorts and a striped brown filmy, clingy top that is very flattering to her figure. The bag girl makes...
I walk back to my car behind the bag girl and the gorgeous customer (who walks like a super model on a runway) and record what I have seen on my clipboard, before I lose some of the details that I have witnessed. As I walk behind the two, I can smell the scent of perfume and I'm guessing it is a Chanel brand, and that the bag girl isn't the one wearing it.
I am only back in my car for five minutes when I see the two elderly women returning to the senior citizen bus. The driver still doesn't get out and help them up the two steps, but they both make it. They both carried plastic grocery bags with a small amount of items in the bags. The woman with the walker has her grocery bag in the basket that is built into her walker. The wording painted on the bus reads, "All Drivers Are Volunteers" and below that it reads "Neighbors helping neighbors." The license plate is 7G4532. I have no doubt that the drivers are volunteers because if the current driver had been professional he would have jumped out to assist his passengers as they got off and then got back on the bus.
The senior citizens bus backs out very slowly and leaves. A man with a gray ponytail and a black vest over a white t-shirt parks his Honda Accord and enters the store. He wears faded jeans and clean white sneakers. He parked across from me but glanced over to see what I was doing sitting in my car. He was only in the store for a few short moments and he returned with an item in his hand (no bag) that looked like a box of graham crackers. I couldn't see for sure. But I did see tattoos on his left arm and his sneakers were Nike brand.
Normally this parking lot is swept clean, but this morning there are couple plastic bags blowing around and I can see someone has spilled what looks like light blue granules from a powered detergent box near the curb. One day soon the government will probably ban plastic bags. But they're still there now, blowing around in the wind and looking ugly.
