We all have our special purpose in life. Mine involves keeping Farmer H from doing (too many) stupid things, keeping The Pony alive, and interacting with weirdos and randoms in my quest for a daily 44 oz Diet Coke.
My back is better! Several hours of OPC (Old People Chair) heat and vibration, and probably the passing of four days since my initial injury, combined to make me whole again on Tuesday! It's great to feel like a normal person. As normal as Mrs. HM gets, anyway.
I had some items to pick up at Country Mart. Farmer H's Diet Mountain Dew was going off sale Wednesday, so I had to procure more. Bananas, hot dog buns, wine, limes, Ritz crackers, frozen french fries, and of course scratchers. I hadn't been able to buy them since FRIDAY!!!
Anyhoo... I was scanning some previous winners into the lottery machine for credit. An Old Man walked along behind me. He stopped. Muttered through his mask, "Huh. I haven't done that in quite some time." He doddered over to the other lottery machine on my left. I got two PowerBall tickets ($570 MILLION on Wednesday, I think!) and two Cash4Life for The Pony, and a mini crossword for me. Then I headed over to the other machine. You can't put all your eggs in one basket!
Old Man was fiddling around. I parked my cart and leaned on it, checking my phone for Pony notifications, while I waited for him to be done. It was hard to say if that would happen, or next Christmas would arrive first. Old Man turned to me. Beseeching.
"Can you tell me how to buy a ticket out of here? I put in my dollar."
He had touched the screen for the ticket he wanted, and the choices popped up. All he had to do was touch the circle for ONE, and the machine would spit it out. But in turning towards me, the machine thought he was done, and closed up the choices. He looked back at it and was baffled.
"Sure. Touch that ticket you want. Again. Because the machine went back to the beginning. Your dollar is still in there."
He poked it.
"Now, touch where it says ONE."
He did, and his ticket came out. I hobbled back to my leaning cart. Old Man was going to scratch it right there.
"Can you tell me how to play it?"
He shuffled over to me at my cart/walker. Closer than six feet! But he was a man in need, so I helped.
"See these two top symbols? You scratch them off to see the winning numbers. Then you scratch these five symbols to see if you have a matching number. If you do, you win."
Old Man started scratching with his FINGERNAIL on the end of the index finger of his arthritic hand.
"I got a 1. And a 14. Now these? I matched. No. Wait. That's a 13."
"Here. Uncover that whole number under the 13. You can't see what it is. OH. It's a 14. You win. Scratch there where it says PRIZE. See? You've won a ticket. You can take that to a store to cash it in, or you can scan it at the machine, and it will give you a dollar credit to buy another ticket from it."
"Can you show me?"
"First you have to uncover the barcode on the bottom of your ticket. Here. Let me scratch it. There! Now stick it under here, and the red light will shine on the barcode. No. Hold it closer. Hear that beep? See on the screen? It says you have won a dollar. Do you want to spend it in the machine? Push the green button that says YES. Now, there's your dollar credit. All you have to do is pick another ticket."
Sweet Gummi Mary! Bless his heart. Old Man was poking a $2 selection. That was grayed-out and said SOLD OUT.
"Oh, you have to pick a ticket that costs a dollar. One of those two on the bottom right."
Old Man picked the same ticket as before. He was looking it over. I stepped up to the machine.
"While you're doing that, I'm going to scan my own now."
"I have a 5 and a 14..."
"Play it the same way as before."
"I'm going to be here all day! Uh. I didn't match the 5 or the 14."
"Well, you didn't win this time."
"Okay. Thank you."
I didn't really mind helping Old Man. It's my calling! What I was meant to do! I told Farmer H about it when I got home.
"Why do these people always pick ME?"
"They sense that you'll help them, HM. They can tell."
I guess you can take the teacher out of teaching, but you can't take the teaching out of the teacher.
4 comments:
They SENSE it? No wonder people are always asking me to help them. But less often now since I learned to say no. I would still help with a lottery ticket situation though. I just say no to helping people with kitchen and bathroom cleaning.
River,
That's a good policy. Always help with the lottery, because you never know when karma will repay you. Kitchens and bathrooms are a chore for the messer-uppers.
You are a kind soul! Farmer H is right about people sensing those who can help them. At least once every shopping trip I have someone askng me for help. Mostly in Walmart. I do lnow where everything is and can usually direct them where they need to go. I think this is sad for some reason!
Kathy,
I don't think it's sad, because you HELP THEM!
One of my teaching buddies (the Learning Disabilities teacher) said a guy came up to her in the grocery store, holding a box of cake mix. "Ma'am? I want to bake this cake, but I can't read. Can you tell me what to do?"
She showed him the back of the box, with the pictures of the water, oil, and eggs. Then the temperature and time. So I think he probably baked that cake okay. Then again, he might have had an IQ of 140, and was trying to pick her up!
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