Today I went with oldest sister-in-law to LaGrange to her cataract doctor. She drove there and I drove her home. Was a little apprehensive to ride with her after she had a fender bender on her own driveway, but after her promises of driving 45 miles and hour and being very, very careful, I got in and buckled up in the passenger side. We did fine. Did not have to clinch my pearls once. Clinched them a lot on the way home, though!

We get to the doctor’s office a little early and we chatted in the car till she walks in for her appointment. We parked under a large oak tree and a cool breeze was blowing so I sat in the car and watched a squirrel and two doves. She went in about 11:30 and at 1:20 she was finally called to an examination room. Man…but I wasn’t hot and I enjoyed watching people walk by. Hard to believe what some people wear! Enjoyed watching them park, too. Little old man in a crayon red Kia was trying to parallel park in the handicap parking and everybody was impatient and honking their horns at him. His little old wife got out to direct him and helped him squeeze the little car in the parking place. She called him “Baby” in a sweet voice and said, “I knew you could do it!” Made me smile! She gets his walker out and off they went with a squeaky wheel to their doctor appointment.

The world is full of impatient people, mad at the world because they are miserable and want everyone else to be miserable, too. After her appointment, I drive because her eyes are dilated, and we go to TJ Maxx to spend our gifts cards we’ve been hoarding and then to Home Depot for a few flowers for my mailbox garden. At Home Depot I ran into the another miserable person. I paid for my flowers and asked the clerk if they had poles to hang bird feeders. Yeah…I know I don’t need another one but… Had to ask her twice because she had a foreign word for aisle. I could not understand her. She tells me aisle 58 twice and jabs her finger two inches from my nose to point in the direction of aisle 58. She disgruntledly let me leave my buggy of flowers near the cash register as I went in the direction of aisle 58.

Took forever for me to untangle the poles and get one out. Course the clerk would never think to come help me after I’d been gone forever. I could have had a heart attack and someone could have taken my buggy of flowers but she didn’t care. Get the pole, pay for it, get the buggy of flowers, get back to sister-in-law’s car where she’s happily been sitting in the air conditioning and we can’t get the trunk to open. I swear it happens every time I go off with her. I jinx the car trunk. She folds the backseats down and we put the pole in and the four pots of flowers and we’re on our way home.

But on the way out we see McDonald’s has a Grandma McFlurry! No self-respecting grandmother could pass that up. We had to get one so we get in the drive through line and wait forever to place our order. We ask what’s in the Grandma McFlurry and the lady says, “Well, I don’t know…wait let me see. Okay…ice cream with caramel syrup and little crunchies like butterfinger candy.” We had heard enough, then she says, “You can get chocolate or butterscotch syrup on top.” So butterscotch for me and chocolate for sister-in-law.

Then we get to grouch number three at the pick-up window. She had a tirade about the chocolate and butterscotch on top of the flurries. “Y’all sure you want two squirts of butterscotch and chocolate. It’s really sweet. They let us taste a little when we started selling them. It is so sweet! You better be sure before I take time to make it. It is really sweet.” I kept interrupting with, “We like sweet, we want two squirts.” Anyway we get them and in my sweetest “kiss my grits” voice I profusely thank her for the two squirts. I wanted to give her a squirt! And it was so good!! And I know why! The Grandma McFlurry has 600 calories and 86 grams of sugar. My bad…won’t eat another one! Could have had a miniature Snickers blizzard at DQ for 370 calories and 40 grams of sugar! Thank God Roanoke doesn’t have a Dairy Queen.

Anyway, we got back on Roanoke Road heading home and the cars in front of us slow down and stop and we could see way ahead what looked like a house trailer had fallen off a truck and was stretched across both lanes of the road. We had to turn left and follow the cars back to reroute and we had no idea where we were or which way to go. I’ve never driven 1 mile an hour but we did it. I kept looking at the speedometer and we were one line over zero because the traffic was backed up as far as you could see, both sides of the road. I told sister-in-law it would be okay we’d just follow the cars in front and maybe come to a place that looked familiar. She was really frazzled and scared by the detour so I called on Siri and opened Maps and we followed Map’s directions and after a long, long time of creeping 1 mile per hour sister-in-law says, “Look, there is the Dollar Store where I like to shop!” Praise the Lord we had made it back to Roanoke Road.

Half way home she says, “Thanks! That detour scared me. I felt like I was a child and you were the adult. I’m so proud you knew how to handle it and use the Maps app.” Have to say it warmed my heart to hear those words. It’s always an adventure when I go off with her. She’s a sweet soul and I love her!

“Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.” ― Martin Luther King Jr