Target

I was thinking of this last night, hadn't thought of it
in years and years!
Weird what comes to you at weird times.

Must have been 15 years ago, I was shopping at Target in
Pueblo Colorado. The store was very busy. I was finished
shopping and started to get in line, then decided to
park my cart and make a quick potty run before I
checked out. Coming back, I ended up in the wrong
line and didn't realize it. It wasn't until I was
up to the cashier and had taken the items out of my
cart that I realized I had gotten mixed up in the
express lane. I counted my items, I was a few over.
I apologized to the cashier and told her I'd be glad
to pack it up and move to a different cashier, that I
hadn't been paying attention and it was a mistake. She
said no worries, I didn't have that much more, she'd
be glad to check me out.

But the guy and woman behind me started bitching and
grumbling. At first I paid no attention then it got
personal. I kept my mouth shut. As I was paying I
heard him say, "Needs to go back to school to learn how
to COUNT!" THAT DID IT.

I put my bags in the cart and turned to him upon leaving,
pointed my finger and shouted, "AND YOU NEED TO GO BACK
TO SCHOOL TO LEARN A FEW MANNERS!" He scowled and yelled
right back, as well as the woman who was with him.

WTH is wrong with people?

Anyway, last night I wondered how long he lived before
he had his fatal heart attack - LOL.

Keep smiling, keep shining

I read a blog regularly from a young woman who
was recently widowed. She has two young children.
She talks about some of the dear friends who come
through for her. I can relate.

As mentioned before, I was widowed at the age of
24 after living only one year in southern Colorado.
I was left with a business and a HUGE debt load.
The people there were wonderful, some of the
best people on earth. I will always remember those
that supported me and helped me during those
trying years. The thing with me is, I won't ask for
help or tell someone what I want. So the only way
to actually do anything for me is to just go ahead and
take charge. But this is touchy as I'm picky and set
in my ways. A person must earn my respect before
I let them take charge of anything in my life.
These people did the RIGHT things, and
I owe them so much!

Hap - mentioned in an earlier post.

Dr. F - She bent over backwards for me. She scheduled
appointments bi monthly with made up reasons. We
spent many days just talking...not about anything
in particular, just talking. It was a wonderful break
in my day, my health stayed up to par, and my stress
level was down.

K - A wonderful strong woman who owns her own
funeral home. K would just show up around noonish
at least once a week and tell me to get in the car
for lunch. If I was busy doing something she would plop
herself down and put herself to work answering phones,
typing copy, whatever needed done. We had many
a lunch over mexican food discussing the various
methods of embalming people :) K had the best
jokes in the world (she said people grieve in strange
ways) and the cutest kids in the world (until I had
my own). She often told people that we were sisters.

L - This person would call me up to 4 times a day -
every morning around 8, about noon, around 4,
then in the evening.

The best employees in the world - Wow we had fun
at times. We knew when to work and we knew when
to play. We threw a frisbee around out back where
the tower is, we would go out drinking or throwing
darts, we'd eat dinner together, we'd talk. I can't
say enough about the support I had from the crew
I had then, wonderful people! I've kept in contact
with a few of them.

These are just a few of the reasons I made the decision
to stay in Colorado (instead of moving back to
Indiana). Paths cross our life every single day, and
we must make choices. We either live with the results
of those choices or we backtrack and try to get
to that crossed path again. I have never been afraid
of the unknown or of change and I love learning new
cultures and also new experiences.

Hap

I have many dear friends that have passed away.
I was thinking about one of them tonite.
Hap.
Hap was a friend of my first husband. Hap owned
and ran a little-bit-of-everything store in Colorado -
he sold furniture, bicycles, hardware, school
supplies, candy, pictures, cleaning products, you
name it he had it! He looked like Art Carney,
complete with the hat and all :)

After my husband passed away and I returned to
Colorado, I had much wonderful support from
some of the greatest people I ever had the pleasure
of knowing. I remember them all to this day,
although I don't keep in contact with many of
them, and others have passed on.

Upon my return to Colorado, Hap would call me
early in the week and just ask me what time did
I want him to pick me up on Friday. "WHAT?"
Every Friday I was available, he'd pick me up.
We'd go out to dinner, sometimes on to drinking
and dancing. NEVER ONCE did he ever try to
hit on me or anything. We took turns paying
(my insistence) and we had a blast. He was
partial to chinese food, although he'd order steak and
drink coffee there :) On Mother's Day he insisted
on taking both me and my mother in law out
to dinner, as he said he missed his own mother
on that day. After I met my current significant
other, we all three still would go out sometimes,
thought not as often, my bad as my priorities
and schedule changed. And all three of us
enjoyed ourselves immensely! I really don't
remember how old Hap was, I know he looked
a bit older than his actual age.

Hap was brutally bludgeoned to death by
an employee's son early one morning while
he was getting ready to drive to Denver to
pick up goods. The son and his accomplice
were found guilty and are in prison for this
murder. This was all about money - the
$3,000 cash Hap had on him to buy the
goods. Hap would have given the boy the
money if he asked. It was a senseless
and brutal death. His store was closed and
never reopened under that name.