What Should I Have Done?

Not so long ago, I decided to buy breakfast for a (handicapped) man who is always hanging around the McDonald’s I pass on my way to work, often drunk and often arrested, but not homeless, to my understanding.   I had a cold bottled water and an Egg McMuffin for him.   When I handed it to him, he thanked me…but told me he wanted coffee to drink.   I was on my way to work and a little later than I wanted to be, so I told him the water would have to do.

But yesterday was one of those situations when I didn’t know what to do.

I pulled up to the Wok and Roll, next to the same McDonald's mentioned above.  There was a young guy with his dog sitting against the wall behind the speaker where I placed my order.   He immediately asked me to buy him some food.    I had no problem with that.   I asked him what he wanted, and he said an egg roll.  I ordered him two egg rolls and a drink.   Then he started asking me for several other items…things I didn’t even see on the menu.  

That’s when I didn’t know what to do.   So I ordered him two more egg rolls and rolled up to the window to pay for it.   I told the cashier to put the egg rolls in a separate bag for the guy outside.   She told me others had bought him some food, and that she would make sure he got the drink and egg rolls I bought for him.   I hope she did.  I feel pretty certain the employees chased him off, because they said something about him “still being back there.”   Then I felt a little guilty, like I had tattled on him and he may have no place to go if they chased him away.

What would you have done?

Tuesday's Political Thoughts

This phase of political unrest sweeping across our country is a bizarre time indeed.  We have a generation of extremely self-centered people who fully believe society is indebted to them, and they are unwilling to let opposition have a voice.

But I can sense a growing hope in the midst of the chaos, proving that we aren’t going to hell in a handbasket just yet.   I worry, though, that the people who are weary of Washington so desperately want change that they are putting their hope in a man who is, after all, a mere mortal like the rest of us.  Placing all of our confidence in another human being usually garners disappointment. 

What did we learn from recent history?  I remember eight years ago, then again four years ago, when America was promised change, and voters chose our current administration.  We did see change.  It wasn’t the change most of us wanted, but it was definitely a change…almost a revolution, in fact. 

Something I didn’t expect on the democrat front was the opposition to Hillary Clinton.   The biggest surprise from the democrats, however, was their support of an admitted socialist.   I never dreamed Bernie Sanders would still be in the democrat race, just as I didn’t think Donald Trump would be the frontrunner for the Republican Party.  

I halfway expect some nasty late surprise, in either or both parties.   It would be a foolish gamble, I believe, but the insane choices of the people we have elected to office is disturbing.  

Definitely unsettling,

this peculiar phase in political America.

I comfort myself by remembering God really is in control.  He’s God, you know.  He hears the prayers of His people, and His people are praying.  The remnant.  For the sake of ten, my friend.  

Monday Morning Musings...The Dreaming Edition

Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains

I dream big.   Daydream, that is.    My night dreams get wild.   The other morning when I woke up, I realized I’d just been working on Donald Trump’s campaign.   Sometimes I am glad to wake up.

I don’t snore.   Ole Boy argues about that.   He snores, that’s for sure.  He says I don’t “snore bad,” but I do sometimes.   I decided to try one of those Breathe Right nasal strips while on vacation.   It’s hard to explain what happened that night, but I will try.  I was having an extremely intense dream, and while in my dreamstate (a word I just made up according to spellcheck) I knew I was dreaming, and was trying desperately to wake myself up.  I was thrashing about and moaning loudly in my dream, and according to Ole Boy, in reality, as well.

I didn’t put the nightmarish dream and the nasal strip together until sometime later when I tried the strip again at home…and the same thing happened.   I’ll just snore (but not bad), thank you very little, Breathe Right/Wrong.

My daydreams?  They are so vivid and detailed I don’t even know my own self in my day-dreamland.  I’ve written several books in my head from my fantasies, but since I am AADD and a procrastinator, the real book I have started only has around 5,000 words written.  I need around 45,000 more.   Go me!

Monday Musings: My Buddy Edition

It was a life time ago.  I felt as if my life was crumbled and in pieces at my feet.  My new marriage was suffering major adjustment pangs, my 13 year old daughter seemed hell-bent on destroying her life, and I was employed in one of those positions where you know you surely must be paying dues for that good job to come.    I also worked a second job doing medical transcription from home 20 to 30 hours per week. 

My steady companion during this time was Legend, a black and white mixed mutt who was happy to see me even on my worst days.  He sat patiently at my feet until I could take a break from typing and toss him a ball or scratch behind his ears.  No matter what, he loved me.  Where I went, he followed.   I often told him he was the only one who never gave me any trouble.

One evening as Ole Boy was coming in from work, Legend slipped outside the front door.  I am not sure how he got out unnoticed, but by the time I realized he wasn’t in the house, it was too late.   He had been hit by a car, and he was gone.   I was devastated, and I grieved for that dog.   I thought he was my one constant, and he was gone.

I remember sobbing, asking my mom why God would have let this thing happen, knowing how much I needed my little Legend.   Of course, we don't have answers for such questions; if there were such answers, we’d understand why children die of cancer or other catastrophic diseases.   If we understood these things perhaps we could stop it from happening.   But I digress…though finding out why children die is immeasurably more important than my little buddy dying.

Not too long after losing Legend, I found out that the neighbor’s dog was having puppies…and the daddy-dog was none other than my Legend.  My neighbor promised me the pick of the litter.   I chose one that looked just like Legend, only he was brown and white instead of black and white, and I named him Titus.  Poor Titus never had the personality of his papa, and he had no intentions of being an inside dog.  He went to doggy heaven some years ago, too.

By God's grace, I hung in there.  My marriage survived and we are stronger than ever, my daughter is doing well, and I did get that good job.  God has been infinitely wonderful to me, and I am grateful.

The Daily Post/Daily Prompt

Monday Musings: The Target Edition

Musings are back!…Did you think the A to Z Challenge depleted my brain?  It may have, that remains to be scene…er, seen!

Thoughts on Target ~

I am ahead of the game.  When Target first come to Florence, I boycotted them then.   I was irritated that they plowed down all those beautiful trees (that now no one can even remember!) in the springtime, when mother birds had their young in the nests.   After a few years, I periodically ventured into the store, and I sometimes found a little something to buy.  But I rarely shopped there before the restroom hoopla, and never once, in the times I’ve visited the store, did I visit their restroom.

Since they’ve announced that anyone who ”feels like a woman today” can choose the restroom of their choice, people who disagreed had meltdowns, and people who applauded the free-for-all policy had meltdowns about the people who disagreed.   It was a social media maelstrom for a week or more.  AFA started a boycott move, and as of this posting, there are over 1,200,000 signatures.  

I wonder how many people would be so anxious to sign a WalMart boycott?  

But that would be meddling, then, wouldn’t it?  

My opinion, since I know you all are wondering (or not), I think the safety of even one child or one woman outweighs a man who “identifies as a woman” so much that he wants to use a woman’s restroom.  It's not about "transgender" people.   It's about a sexual predator who would take full advantage of this new way to target victims by simply saying he was more comfortable in the ladies room .  I have to be honest, from what I know about men’s restrooms…t’were I a man…I’d rather use the women’s room, too. 

At the risk of being called sexist {and I roll my eyes as I type that word}, I think females would be at greater risk than males in this situation. 

One final thought about Target:  On their Facebook page, they keep pointing out that they also have a single-stall "bathroom" for people who are more comfortable with that "format."   Wouldn’t common sense dictate that they put this option in all stores and leave the ladies room alone?