Desperation

Now that Steven is back in school (stay tuned for more details, he's promised to blog about it), I've gone to pretty desperate measures. I'll tell you about my day today so that you'll understand what I mean.
After taking Steven to school and coming home to get ready and get the laundry all packed up, I headed out to run errands. First stop was the post office. the closest post office is just across the bridge in East GF. It is a small place, and all the parking is the same...for the Mail trucks, and the public, and the workers---all intermixed. Also, the LLV's (mail trucks) all have to be plugged in (Dad Dorn- I'll take a picture for you next time I go there). Anyways, I go into the post office (which is probably like 100 years old-everything is a historical building here in the downtown area). I start making friends with the woman at the desk...kind of. All that changes when an old man (probably 75-80) walks in and goes right to the desk. In Phoenix, he would stand 5 or 6 feet behind me tethered off in the rope things and never say a word to me. In GF? Well of course he started a conversation. We talked about the CDs I was mailing (of family pictures). I taught him that you could put a CD in a DVD player and the pictures would probably scroll through. He told me he finally broke down and bought a CD Player this last year...but then he said it was because his sister bought him some old Johnny Cash tapes he wanted to listen too---I think he meant CDs. He told me a DVD came with the set, but he gave it away because it wouldn't work in the CD Player...sensing a trend? Then he went on to tell me that he had 3 phonographs (spelling?) so that at least one at a time would work. He also defined what they were for me...because 'old youngin's like ya probably never seen one'. Then he told me about some of his classic albums that he had. He told me he gave a phonograph to the lady at Amazing Grain (a local bread store) that bakes for him. Then he proceeded to give her a stack of records *this high* in the past year or so. The post office clerk told him he should have sold them on eBay. He didn't understand and she looked at me and said, ya, the baker probably sold them on eBay. ANYWAYS...the point of this story? That old man was the highlight of my morning.
But that's not all! My next errand was to find the laundromat Steven told me about...Well at one point I ended up at a stoplight that was on the side of the road, like where a stop sign would normally be. When I almost died slamming on my breaks, the man who wanted to turn in front of me wanted to go. Then, I realized the light was green and started going, almost hitting the other guy waiting to turn (luckily he knew what was going on) I was visibly getting very frustrated, I about wanted to bang my head on the steering wheel and shaking my head. The man just waved to me and mouthed, "it's Ok"--a new friend.
Next, I ended up in a random place on a two way street that turned into a one way street with no notice (or the notice was covered by snow). I was able to turn through the neighborhoods and eventually found the laundromat...but I couldn't figure out where to park and gave up after seeing it surrounded by piles of snow. I went to the original laundromat from last week.
After getting my laundry into washers, I met my third friend of the day. Another 80+ year old man. I'm pretty sure he was a widower because he carried his laundry in, in a box...and I'm not sure if he had soap. We exchanged friendly hellos. Then when I was switching my laundry to the dryers, he asked me what time it was...told me his watch was fast. Then he asked me if his was done because he couldn't hear it. While mine was finally drying and his was about done washing, he came to the front where I was sitting. He looked out all of the magazines (they have AVON, visitor's guides to the city, and a bunch of random city newspapers, etc). He asked me if any of them were new...told me they should put some new ones out, did a double take at the top AVON magazine, and ended up taking one or two *new* ones. He then looked at me and said, "You're sure a nice *pause* person. Have a good day" And left...without drying his clothes. At least friend number 3 of the day made me smile :)
And, for friend #4- While I was folding the last bit of my laundry I met friend #4. Another old man probably only 65 or so this time. He stopped off to the side of the road in front of the laundromat. At first, I thought it was friend #3 coming to dry his clothes. But no, friend #4 came in, stuck his wet clothes (which were in a laundry basket) into the dryer, popped some quarters in it, started it, said, "have a good day" and walked out to his car (that he left running and unlocked outside) and drove off.
I told Steven I met a man at the laundromat today (not intentionally to worry him, it just came out that way) and he dropped his pen and looked up from his homework.
Now you see, my desperation. I need a friend and/or a job that gets me out of the house regularly.