Sunday, November 04, 2007

Atilla The Hon Or A Different Kind Of Rakishness

Some time ago Brian asked me if I’d ever checked out the chick who sells hot dogs outside of the Home Depot in Leesburg. When I confessed that I hadn’t, he told me, “You should. She’s hot.”
He was right.
I’d gone to Home Depot to buy a rake, as I’d decided that it was past time that I do something about the dead leaves, mostly because I was sick of not being able to go out to my patio without dragging leaves back into the house with me.
As I’d skipped breakfast and it was nearly noon (nearly 1:00 as far as my internal clock was concerned), I decided to grab a dog (or more accurately, Polish sausage) and check her out.
Very cute.
(The chick, not the Polish sausage.)
During my brief interaction with her, I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s a requirement for women working in the food service industry to call people “hon.”
I’m not complaining – it’s rather endearing and is better than “shug” – but I just find it odd that the habit is so universal.
I suppose it’s a good default term, though, as it’s not really gender-specific.
Once I was home with rake in hand I spent the next two and half hours sweeping the leaves off the patio, raking up the leaves in the back yard, hosing the patio down, and then taking care of the leaves in the front and side yard.
While I was working out front a young man approached me and asked if I needed any help. The combination of youth, earnestness, an offer of help, a dress shirt, and some sort of paper in hand made me conclude that I was about to be evangelized to, and I instantly switched into hostility mode, responding to him with curt, just barely polite responses.
Then he introduced himself as one of my neighbors and I saw that he had gotten out of a car with the neighbor lady (whose name I can’t remember), and I switched back out of the hostility, even going so far as to invite them and the rest of their family to my housewarming party.
In fairness to me and my knee-jerk hostility, I had been interrupted yesterday by some old lady out stumping for Lyndon LaRouche. She droned on about something or other, then asked, “So, what do you think about all of this?”
I said, “I think I’m in the middle of doing something and don’t have time for this.”
(I could have been more blunt and told her that what I had been in the middle of doing was using the can, but decided against it.)
So anyway, I was naturally defensive about a stranger approaching me, as I really didn’t want to hear the “good news” while I was busy toiling (and even whistling) on the Sabbath.
Not much else of note has happened today, and so I suppose that I should deliver the good news and say that this entry is coming to an end.

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