Catching up! Because if Bill mentions “poor neglected Snerkology” one more time…
A few weeks ago Bill and I were at the grocery store. I left him in the junk food isle while I went to the lady’s room (as is my habit) and was in the stall doing my thing when I heard someone come in. There was only one stall operational and I was in it, so I hustled because I heard a conversation between a lady and a little girl to the effects of, “But I don’t think I can hold it…”
When I opened the stall door I saw a woman and a little girl of about five standing near the door, which was cracked open about a foot. The lady was peeking out and speaking to someone, then closed the door and hurried into the stall with her daughter. I figured maybe it was her husband telling her to hurry it up, but when I left the bathroom I had to step around a cart in the alcove. A cart with a boy of about two strapped into the seat.
Alone. In the shopping cart. In a dark corner of a very busy grocery store at 8:00 on a Friday night.
Did I mention ALONE? And TWO?
There was no way in hell I was leaving him by himself, so I stood there and chatted with (well, at) him while he stared at me with big dark eyes and gnawed on a cookie. I was out there for six minutes – I looked at the store’s clock when I stepped out, and again when the boy’s mother and sister came out of the bathroom. SIX MINUTES she was going to leave him there by himself, in the alcove, parked between the door to the lady’s room and the door to the men’s room. She didn’t even peek out the door the entire time I was standing there.
Did she even realize all of the things that could have happened to her two-year-old son in six minutes??? He could have been kidnapped, or molested, or somehow fallen out of his seat, or choked on his cookie. At the very least he would have been frightened and anxious.
She gave me an odd – wary, distrustful – look when she stepped out and saw me talking to her son. I told her, “There was no way I was going to leave him here by himself. Anything could have happened to him.” Then I turned and walked away before I gave in to the urge to slap her face.
I mean, what the fuck lady?
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Okay! Jeepin’ update (click any photo to see a larger version).
The last adventure I mentioned was the East Verde River Trail on February 11th. Since then we’ve driven the Montana Mountain Trail (February 26th), the Table Mesa Trail (March 4th) and the Box Canyon Trail (March 17th).
The Montana Mountain Trail is off of US 60 between Florence and Surprise. It’s got a difficulty rating of 5 out of 10, and we were on-trail for seven hours. It has become our favorite trail – the scenery was incredible (yellow wildflowers were carpeting the hills), there was just the right amount of a challenge, there were some interesting ruins to explore, and the start/end of the trail is only 45 minutes away from our house. On this day we took Bailey with us, and she was incredibly well-behaved. We stopped a bunch of times along the trail, let her off the leash, and she stayed right by us. The strange thing was (and is) that she refuses to pee until we’re back home again. No matter how much she’s eaten or drunk, she’ll only potty once we’re back home. Since on this particular day we left the house at about 8:00 in the morning and we weren’t home again until almost 5:00, I’ve gotta think she was in a desperate way by the time we got home. She never acted like she was distressed, though. And she LOVES to go Jeepin’ with us.
This is a WAY photo heavy entry, so check out two more Jeep adventures, a neighborhood party, and some more general updates after the break.
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