So, I’m sitting in a doctor’s office writing because I can. And because this is probably the umpteenth time I’ve waited in a doctor’s waiting room. Or dentist, or…and I need something to do. Well, anyway – is umpteenth a real thing? The spell check didn’t dislike it. Huh. Fun. So, anyway – again – I’m sitting in a doctor’s waiting room writing. I’m not complaining as we’ve had overall good health, especially considering other people who have really suffered physically or had children (the worst) suffer horrendous conditions or diseases. But as I’m sitting and thinking as usual, and depending on how long I sit for each visit, I either find myself flipping through random magazines – mostly a waste of time – because I forgot to bring something to work on, or I start remembering other waiting times. You know, memories of the things we went through during other visits, or conversations I had with random strangers. Some of them ended up being people who knew some of my people (family or friends) and one or two were actually related to me. That’s happened a number of times to me – meeting someone and finding out we are cousins or some such thing. Small town, big family. It’s pretty cool. “Hello, how are you? What? Your great, great grandma is my great, great grandma?” I even got amaryllis bulbs from one of them (although, I didn’t meet her at a doctor’s office – as if that matters) that were descendant bulbs from my great, great grandmother (no, I was not generalizing about the great, great grandma) who brought them over from Norway. Very cool. (I’ve even managed to keep them thriving and given some back to my cousin when hers died off.) It pays to make friends with strangers. Sometimes.
I’m clearly rambling today, but that’s okay, because rambling can be annoying, but it can also be quirky. And I like quirky.
Anyway, there was this one older gal, who I shared a waiting room with one winter day, and we got to talking about how it had snowed in Texas the previous day, and how they had responded to the snow. (It was clearly an amusing and/or interesting conversation as I remember it thirty some years later.) Now, in those days, there weren’t hundreds of TV channels or Google or even internet at that point in time, so when you had a chance to share information between people, it was fun, interesting and sometimes educational, depending on if the person actually knew what they were talking about. So, we discussed how Texas had shut everything down for a couple inches of snow. We both realized that it was probably because they didn’t have the tools to deal with snow – plows, salt, etc. Also, possibly from the fact that they didn’t know how to drive in it...that’s another story for "the next paragraph". It occurred to me on a different day that it could also be from the vehicular lubricants, oil, etc. on the roads as that can make roads extremely slippery when water/snow mixes with it. So, we, as proper Michiganders, chuckled some over their closing everything down because of a couple inches of snow when it takes several feet of snow to slow us down – if the plows can get through, so can we! right on their tails, literally (yes, I followed a big V plow once through at least five feet of new snow – until it decided to back up and we had to back up also to the last plowed side road and make our escape) – but we also commiserated with the Texans because of their predicament of not being able to deal with it properly. It also occurred to me on yet another day, as a true Michigander, that who wouldn’t take a snow day when they could?! Especially if they only get the opportunity, what? Once every couple of years? Heck, yeah.
“The next paragraph”: Tangent Alert: driving in snow. So, about driving in the snow, you haven’t really learned to drive in Michigan (or our sister snow states) until you’ve perfected the art of driving in snow. Ice is a different matter (and very likely why Texas sometimes shuts everything down when they get snow). Ice is ice. It’s slippery. Period. You can only do so much to keep driving in a straight line. Drive as slow as you need to; that’s about it. (Yes, I’ve driven on extremely icy roads and hope I never have to again.) However, there are tricks to driving in the snow. We knew this, but rediscovered this in particular when we visited one of our daughters in southern California. Snow, you say, in southern CA? Nope. It was sand. We took a ride on Pismo Beach after it had rained and we got stuck in the sand. The driver was doing all the wrong things, so my husband talked him through snow driving techniques (don’t spin your tires, go forward and backward…) and lo and behold, said techniques work in sand as well. We were able to get out of it. It’s so nice to be helpful.
In another conversation with a stranger (this time it was two strangers with very different experiences) while waiting in a doctor’s office after the internet was intact, we discussed online ordering. (I know, right? Weird topic for strangers?) Both the gals I was conversing with were a bit older 55 to 65 or so, and both had completely different lifestyles and views on it (ordering online). The less tech-savvy one couldn’t even think about ordering online – or anything else for that matter that had to do with computers and the like, and the other one, I suspected she was a little younger, relied on being able to order online. Due to her medical condition, she was mostly stuck in her house. She even had her UPS driver know to ring the doorbell and then go straight in to bring her packages to her. Part way through the sometimes-funny conversation, I started to realize the reason the more tech-savvy gal was comfortable ordering online was because she had worked in an office setting until she’d been injured fairly recently. The other gal clearly had not worked in any such setting (possibly never worked at all), so she had not kept up with all the changes that had been happening as she aged. She was pretty funny though, so we’ll let it slide. And, oh, man, you’ve got to go to the casino for the country dances, you’ve just got to! (Said the non-tech-savvy, funny gal. She clearly enjoyed life.) The crux of the conversation for me was how very different our outlooks are and how we live based on what we’ve been exposed to. Interesting. And quirky.
My favorite memory, I think, was when I was waiting for my husband to go through a surgery and a friend from my ladies Bible group suddenly popped in with a donut and a smile. It was an unexpected, welcome offering of love. She didn't stay long, but the memory of her kindness will never leave me. She didn't think it was a big deal, but I loved that she'd gone out of her way for me. She herself suffered years with cancer, so she understood the "going through" process and had chosen to pass on the love she had been given.
Some waiting times were tense as I/we were hesitant of an outcome, but many were mundane and seemed a waste of time. But I’ve learned to take advantage of my waits. Be they in doctor’s offices, my car waiting to pick someone up, or just “wasting” time between things. I read or write or pray or think about my people. And none of that is a waste of time to me.
So, rambling done. I hope it wasn’t too hard to follow. 😊
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