Monday 3 Women OT – Not the Movie, But Yes, I Do Like the Movie

One Saturday morning (doesn't matter which Saturday, but it was wet and cold and not this past Saturday) whilst warming up the car, a beautiful vintage Bentley pulled up alongside me. The young woman behind the wheel gestured and mouthed "Are you leaving?" with a sorry-to-trouble-you smile. I said I was waiting for my kid but could pull forward, although she had ample space already. 

Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall in 3 Women, Robert Altman, 1977

She parked carefully. Took forever doing it. The headlights were a custom Lemonhead Candy yellow. About a foot off the curb and a three foot space both fore and aft. As daughter in her SWORDS uniform got into my car, the woman got out of the Bentley. Baggy flannel. Buzzcut and smile-dimpled, a profound roundness. Adorable. A baby panda granted her wish to become a human girl for a day. As I pulled out, I saw her in the rearview giving a Buddhist standing bow and mouthing "Thank you." Whatever the circumstances which led an ex-baby panda to don lumberjack clothing and drive a Bentley is a mystery for you to solve, dear reader.

Genma Saotome from Ranma 1/2

After dropping kid off at her class, I stopped at the bodega for snap peas, a red pepper, and a bottle of wine. Exchanged a few pleasantries with the familiar clerk, a native Spanish speaker, when she suddenly rattled off questions in her native language at me. I took a class for one year when I was thirteen so I replied in English. How are your daughters? Fine. Is this a good wine? My wife likes it. The other place I work has the registers on the other side! So confusing! ... What country did you orignally come from? Oh, I thought you were Chinese.  Then back to English to ask if I needed a bag. No thank you. Have a good weekend.

Last stop before having to pick up the kid from SWORDS was the library to pick up the Jean Stafford collection on hold for me. As I got to the door, an elderly woman in prescription wraparound sunglasses walked out through the IN door, IN door, and stopped me to ask politely where I got my boots. Hideous slip-on shitkicker Bogs. But they're slip-ons, and they become more desirable as you get older, as I understand it. I told her where my wife got them and made fun of my Frankenstein shoes. She reassured me they weren't ugly at all. She told me way more than I wanted to know about her life. I am, however, chuffed to be considered a Trendsetter to the Widowed Octogenarian Set of the Greater Chicagoland Area. I'll always have that. I might put that on a t-shirt.

these are they clomp clomp clomp

On the way to picking up the olde kid, I wondered if they were avatars of the Erinyes, spec. the ones from The Sandman. Or maybe I'd encountered Mmes Who, Which, and Whatsit. Whatever the case, I think it was a good idea to be patient and kind with strangers.

BE PATIENT AND KIND. You have no idea who or what you're dealing with.  Have a good evening.

Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope – Hüsker Dü, St Paul, 1987

EDIT – I washed three heads of butter lettuce, purchased from the farmers' market, and prepped salad for the hot days this week. They finished it within three days, and today it's 95 in the shade. I got one bowl on Saturday.