Trapped Like a Rat in a 2008 Tahoe

I've been planning to share this tale for a while now, but I had to wait until the trauma of it wore off. Every Friday, I have the same routine. I take the boys' weekly letters over to the main post office in Sis-Town. I put gas in T-Hoe at the Casey's there. I go by the bank for our weekly cash allowance. I swing back by the School-Turn Casey's, and stop by Walmart if shopping is necessary.

Back on July 19, when I left home around 10:30 a.m., I was happily unaware that The Universe would be conspiring against me. Everything unfolded as usual, until I made my stop at the School-Turn Casey's for some scratchers. There's been road construction on the main street for about eight months now. So I come in from a side street. I was pleased to see my favorite parking space available on the side of the building. It's the space on the left end of five spaces, where my door opens up into a yellow-painted walkway.

I traded my winners for what later turned out to be not-winners, but that's not the issue. I'm okay with The Universe taking its share. I know I can't win every day. No, my issue was with THE BEER TRUCK BLOCKING T-HOE when I returned!

Who does that? Here's the view out the back and passenger windows of T-Hoe. I guess I was supposed to wait until the delivery was over! I had the brick wall of the building three feet in front of me, and the side of the beer truck three feet behind me. Let the record show that I was NOT happy.

There's a view from my side mirror. The one that works. Not that taking pictures was going to help me free T-Hoe from his hopped-up prison. Good thing I've been piloting a large SUV for over 20 years! It took some finesse, all without a backup beeper, but I managed to get T-Hoe parallel to that beer truck, to make my getaway across the empty parking spaces, going the wrong way out the drive-thru lane that runs behind the store.

I took a picture of the company name, just for shaming purposes. That lady walked into my shot at random. She came from the alley across the street. Sorry, anonymous lady, for putting your face out to single digits of readers!

As you might imagine, I was pretty ragey on my drive over to Walmart. After ten minutes of shopping, and twenty minutes in line, my parking lot ire was abating. Until I unloaded my groceries and climbed into T-Hoe.

I always try to park next to a cart return. I can judge how much room I need for my door to open all the way, and I know that nobody is going to park too close and give me trouble trying to get back in. This cart return was overflowing with carts when I came out. They were sticking way out of the metal rails of the cart corral. Not a big deal. I knew I'd have to back up farther, straight back, before I cut my wheels to go up the aisle.

What I didn't count on was the cart-retriever with his trolley. I saw him up above me as I was unloading my groceries. The car beside me left as I was buckling my seatbelt. I looked around for that Cart Jockey, and he was ON FOOT, across the cart corral, talking to people in a car in the row across from me! Of course he'd abandoned his trolley in an awkward position for my navigational purposes! 

So... without a backup beeper, I had to maneuver far enough past the line of carts jutting out of the corral on my left, look out for pedestrians darting behind me, and avoid the cars parked in the row behind T-Hoe, until I could cut my wheels to proceed up the aisle without hitting the trolley.

I hope The Universe had a good laugh at my expense. I don't know what I was supposed to do with that abandoned bottle of laundry detergent. I'd probably have run over it and popped it, if the long line of carts wasn't jutting out of the corral, keeping my from cutting my tires sooner.

I am grateful, though, that The Universe probably kept me from some more serious catastrophe or calamity, by delaying my drive home with those two trappings.