Yesterday was a beautiful day! The sun was shining so nicely spreading around a healthy dose of Vitamin D. I went for another walk to get back on track with my walking plan, which I had started a few days ago. That first day I managed to walk 2 km, with a total of 4 km round trip. This day I managed to walk a total of 5 km.
As I walked, I prayed for my family and friends and for the survivors in Japan from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Before you know it I had easily surpassed the 2 km mark and was headed for my next landmark for 2.5 km.
When I stopped to catch my breath I took a few pictures. I spotted a black and orange Caterpillar inching its way across the highway.
I couldn’t compare my challenge with that little fellow as his a life-or-death risk of not achieving his goal. At least I didn't have to yield myself to a deadly automobile tire running over me. I was not hurting like I normally would have been; I was actually feeling pretty good until I felt that pain you sometimes get when you take a long car trip.
Why does the need to relieve your bladder always happens at the most inopportune times? Here I am taking a long walk along the countryside 2.5 km away from home with no place to relieve myself other than finding some heavily wooded area or a deep ditch along side of the road. I could see our house from across the large open field.
If it was possible to cut across it I would have been home within 5 minutes. I think you can figure out what had to happen before I got home so if you don't mind I'll skip the rest of this part. The first embarrassing moment of the day has just happened.
After my walk, I needed to drive into town to get some groceries and do some banking. The Town of Tillsonburg is about a 30 minute drive from our house but on this beautiful, sun-warmed day, I enjoyed the opportunity to get out for a drive. I managed to get my banking done and headed to the local Wal-Mart and Dollar Store before going grocery shopping. While I was at the Dollar Store I did something I never, ever, ever do! I took my purse out of my cart and sat it down in the isle I was shopping in. I had been filling my cart with several large containers when I ran out of room. I temporarily sat my purse down on a child-size chair that was in that isle. Then I tried to rearrange my cart to hold everything but walked away without picking up my purse. It could happen to anyone, right? I guarantee it won't happen to me again! I was two isles over when I realized it and then the PANIC hit me! You would have thought I had lost my child in the department store. I started yelling as loudly as I could for everyone in the store to help me find my purse, fearing the worst that someone had walked by and taken it out of my cart. Like the children’s story, Chicken Little yelling “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” I may have actually yelled something like, "Lock the doors and don't let anyone out! My purse is missing! My purse is missing!!!!" I’m sure I started yelling, "Help me, please, help me find my purse!” There was never any doubt whether everyone in the store heard me or not! I was determined that if someone did take my purse from my cart, they were not leaving the store unnoticed so my intention was to make a loud scene and I didn't care what anyone thought of me.
I got a couple of very nice ladies responding to help me. Somebody asked what area I had been shopping in last. While running toward the back of the store peering frantically down each isle to try and spot a thief with a red purse, a lady yelled out, "What color is it?" and I yelled back "Red!"! Then I heard the relieving words, "Found it, it’s over here!" I had been running to the area I was shopping last and toward the sound of their voice. The lady pointed to another woman saying, she said she didn't even notice it until just now when you said it was red. I was so relieved and started thanking everyone near me as I grabbed it and checked to make sure the wallet was inside and that my ID, bank card and credit cards were all there. Such relief, all was well. The second embarrassing moment of the day has just occurred.
By this time, my heart was pounding out of my chest. It hit me pretty hard when I realized I had caused it to happen myself by being so careless. What an idiot! Thankfully a sweet older lady took the time to tell me she knew how I felt because something similar had happened to her. I was talking out loud to several people around me about how there is nothing worse next to losing your child in a department store. I am thankful to God for the empathy and assistance of those few ladies that cared to help me. The saddest part is out of 30 people in the store, including employees, only 3 people reacted to my pleas for help. Everyone else completely ignored me as though it wasn’t their problem or it never even happened. I hate to think what their reaction would have been if a child had been missing. It seems kind of silly now – after all it was just my purse -- but by yelling loudly and making a scene I had a clear purpose in mind. I thought if someone had taken my purse from my cart they were not going to just walk out of there unnoticed because I had drawn attention to the situation even if over half the store didn’t seem to care, a thief doesn’t like any act of possible attention to his crime.
As I walked, I prayed for my family and friends and for the survivors in Japan from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown. Before you know it I had easily surpassed the 2 km mark and was headed for my next landmark for 2.5 km.
When I stopped to catch my breath I took a few pictures. I spotted a black and orange Caterpillar inching its way across the highway.
Why does the need to relieve your bladder always happens at the most inopportune times? Here I am taking a long walk along the countryside 2.5 km away from home with no place to relieve myself other than finding some heavily wooded area or a deep ditch along side of the road. I could see our house from across the large open field.
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| our house from across the field |
After my walk, I needed to drive into town to get some groceries and do some banking. The Town of Tillsonburg is about a 30 minute drive from our house but on this beautiful, sun-warmed day, I enjoyed the opportunity to get out for a drive. I managed to get my banking done and headed to the local Wal-Mart and Dollar Store before going grocery shopping. While I was at the Dollar Store I did something I never, ever, ever do! I took my purse out of my cart and sat it down in the isle I was shopping in. I had been filling my cart with several large containers when I ran out of room. I temporarily sat my purse down on a child-size chair that was in that isle. Then I tried to rearrange my cart to hold everything but walked away without picking up my purse. It could happen to anyone, right? I guarantee it won't happen to me again! I was two isles over when I realized it and then the PANIC hit me! You would have thought I had lost my child in the department store. I started yelling as loudly as I could for everyone in the store to help me find my purse, fearing the worst that someone had walked by and taken it out of my cart. Like the children’s story, Chicken Little yelling “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” I may have actually yelled something like, "Lock the doors and don't let anyone out! My purse is missing! My purse is missing!!!!" I’m sure I started yelling, "Help me, please, help me find my purse!” There was never any doubt whether everyone in the store heard me or not! I was determined that if someone did take my purse from my cart, they were not leaving the store unnoticed so my intention was to make a loud scene and I didn't care what anyone thought of me.
I got a couple of very nice ladies responding to help me. Somebody asked what area I had been shopping in last. While running toward the back of the store peering frantically down each isle to try and spot a thief with a red purse, a lady yelled out, "What color is it?" and I yelled back "Red!"! Then I heard the relieving words, "Found it, it’s over here!" I had been running to the area I was shopping last and toward the sound of their voice. The lady pointed to another woman saying, she said she didn't even notice it until just now when you said it was red. I was so relieved and started thanking everyone near me as I grabbed it and checked to make sure the wallet was inside and that my ID, bank card and credit cards were all there. Such relief, all was well. The second embarrassing moment of the day has just occurred.
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| Miche purse my daughter bought for me |
Do I sound a little paranoid? Ok, well, you see, over 20 years ago, when I lived in Kansas, my purse was lifted right out of my shopping cart while grocery shopping all because I carelessly left it in my cart and turned my back. The thief just walked by my cart, took my purse and kept on walking then went a few isles over, removed my wallet and stashed my purse on a grocery store shelf. I lost everything and had to start all over again replacing my driver license, credit cards, etc and this is why I never let my purse out of my sight ever since that day. At this time in my life as an American living in Canada with permanent resident status, I cannot afford to risk losing my identity. I actually have copies made of everything that is in my wallet and keep it at home in my file cabinet. I just recently stopped having a reoccurring nightmare of losing my wallet and my identity.
Ok, maybe I made a scene in public. I feel it was validated regardless of what anyone else thought. I hope you never have to find out the trouble you have to go through when you have your purse stolen. There is a whole lot more to identity theft these days and besides we have our whole lives in our purses don’t we ladies?
This is such a Char moment i love it, unfortinialy i would probably think you may be a crazy lady yelling and would have pretended i didnt hear you lol. unless i saw it by me then i would have found you. lol
ReplyDeleteThanks Char
made my Thursday