Off The Cuff - Oh, Man, Did I Do That?

- © Kent Fletcher
October 31, 2006

Returning from Dallas yesterday, I stopped at Luby's in Cedar Hill for a late lunch/early supper. I got the Angus chopped beef thingy with clear gravy, fried okra, turnip greens, and I thought a regular chunk of cornbread which turned out to be Mexican cornbread, replete with jalapenos. Only took one bite of that and put it back on the plate. I don't do jalapenos at all. I like to taste my food, not soothe the burning sensation on gallons of water. The beef thingy also had onions on it, sweet and very tasty. I also got some pasta salad on a lark. Yum, yum, it was ALL good. Except the cornbread.

I finally laid myself down around 11 last night, knowing I needed to rise early to go to Fort Worth, Arlington, and Grand Prairie on bidness. Just about the time I thought I was going to drift off to dream-land, something told me I'd best get to the bathroom, pronto. The greens did what they were supposed to do, and maybe the okra, too. I was finally able to return to bed around 3 this morning.

I woke up at 7:30, and just laid there for a while. Stomach and bowels weren't rumbling or anything, but hoooeeee, I was tired. Got up, fed the tribe of cats, reheated some day-old coffee, got on the computer checking emails, bank statements, USADS private board, all those weird things. As I said, I needed to go to the metroplex, get some errands done, so I finally got off my duff, took a shower, fed the pooch, threw on some clothes and sandals, trucked on north. The pooch indicated she wanted to go for a ride, and as the day was not supposed to get hot, why not?

Got to Fort Worth in plenty of time to find a parking space, ankle across the street, elevator up to the third floor, get my item, and return to the car within 10 minutes. I had deposited some 65 cents in the meter, thinking the task would take longer. Drove over to the NFCU, deposited the check. Returned to the car, and noticed just before I sat down, the pooch had upchucked on MY seat. Thankfully, I had a sweatshirt still in the car from the trip to MS a couple of weeks ago. She sure didn't think anything of it.

Drove on over to Arlington to see my financial advisor before I went to Grand Prairie to pay a vet bill. I was sitting talking to the secretary, waiting on the advisor to finish taking some sort of self-test. I got to working my feet around, and I was wondering if I had already worked the insole below my big and next toe out of my relatively new sandals. Something just didn't feel right. I kept fidgeting and finally got up the gumption to take a look-see at what I was feeling.

Oh, Man, did I really do that? In my running around this morning, I reached under my computer desk to get my sandals, not paying attention to what I was really doing. On my left foot was a new sandal. On my right, a two-year old sandal. Even though they kinda-sorta look alike, they are not. While I don't think I really got red-faced, I got to thinking about just where all I'd already been, and where else I was going to go, wondering had anyone noticed anything askew at the big building in downtown Fort Worth, or even as I walked into the bank where the advisor was. No, I guess not.

But I felt like a country bumpkin, a little. While my 'normal' attire may be just jeans and a t-shirt, and a pair of sandals without any socks, and maybe a ballcap, I don't consider myself a ragtag country bumpkin at all. But when I looked down and saw those mismatched sandals, I was just beside myself.

Funny thing, though, I forgot all about this when I walked out of the advisor's place of bidness. On to the veterinarian's office, and to see a friend at his workplace when returning. I did make a quick stop at WalMart and nobody noticed anything, much less looked at my feet. Of course, only a person in a business suit or tuxedo would be out of the ordinary at WalMart.