Debbie was great. I asked for what I wanted – right from the beginning. It was a lot and she’d never done it for someone in my position before- and she tried to tell me how I could go do it by myself. By the end of the phone call, Debbie had looked up dozens of south Texas zip codes looking for the closest local branch where I could make a deposit into my American One Credit Union account. A few other things happened in that call as well.
One, I received a very quick answer with a branch two hours away; two, I thanked her and told some of my story; three, I told Debbie that she “would/could” be in my story for the day, after all she had done for me (a few minutes of finding and individually searching south Texas zip codes near Mathis to see if they contained a compatible credit union.) She seemed excited and had already noted my web address as she had wanted to see the video of my incident when I mentioned it.
Is odd that I do mention it still? Sometimes, I do want to talk about for some reasons- just as much as sometimes I don’t and how much I want to walk well enough so people won’t have a hint to bring it up. I don’t know, some people are more cheery and maybe I think they’ll take an inspired perspective so I offer them my story. While others would use it to take something more from me, usually just a few minutes of their own entertainment.
Yet, we saw what I did last night. Lots of activity. Debbie was so much more than “lots of activity.”
She legit could have stopped with “Yes sir that is a branch in Texas.”
Yes instead she ended her first response with “How far is that from you?”
Yet there I was at the end of my night, not considering that Debbie was going to check and see a story with her in in – hopefully she gives me a second chance here and visits the site tonight or tomorrow after I post this.
Speaking of second chances, in the days it took me to a way to send money to the bank, some fees had been assigned to my account; in their grace, American One (with a note from Debbie she said she’d send) refunded two hundred and twenty five dollars in fees! That is a month of my rent in the current camp ground – with two weekend stays on the beach to break my stays to under fourteen days at a time.
Having gotten some camping recommendations in New Mexico from an online Facebook group, I looked up the ten day weather predictions for each of them. All had nighttime lows from high teens to high twenties and daytime temps with highs in the mid-fifties. I’m on the edge, this has been a great month.. yet staying still makes me nervous.
Waking this morning feeling bad about falling asleep while writing- yet very lucky that I woke up right before my publishing deadline. My first priority was to drive to Alice, the next town over- yes, the one with the Walmart- to visit the Chemicle Credit Union for my deposit. Do I really need to carry cash? Is there anything I can’t use a credit card for? Anyway, I digress. I’ll still keep a little cash on hand.
After the bank, I checked out a few other places in Alice, first a pawn shop. It’s real gold of unknown quality- the lady helping was confused because it wouldn’t ‘test’ at a specific carat. It was “kinda” twelve, “kinda” fourteen, yet not giving a full positive result on any test. Confused she asked for one of her coworkers, which after I explained again that it was raw gold, he agreed and offered to melt and weigh it. However, I kinda of like my little nuggets.
Pueblo Tires, rim seal, balance and rotate hopefully that will get that done. If not, the air pump isn’t that bad, especially as little as I plan to drive,
Finally, the exciting part – Walmart shopping. Walking with the cart felt great, walked all over the store practicing to see how high I could raise my knees without stepping on my cart. Once I was over in the grocery section, I ran into someone I knew.
Now, let’s think how hard this was. I know about ten people in the state by name Kent, Erin, Juan, Bill, Kennedy, Chris.. ahh..
Yet here were Bill and Carol- so luck I was to see her again, and Bill too- yet I really like Carol.
All her love is in the moment. This moment. Now.
She and Bill have been married for ever, two children, one of each. Stories of raising her daughter in Paris, France where she told one friend she wanted to learn French, and that friend told every shopkeeper and street vendor within miles – French only for her new American friend. Bill was dealing with his own language issues. An IT person for decades of his career years, his counterpoint their in the office also spoke English- the British kind! Ha.
Carol started many stories and smiled so much when Bill helped her finish them. Catherine, was does she do bill? She sells software for specialized bank systems. Names, stories, the number and names of her grandkids.. some stories flowed and Bill and I would just sit and listen — this was all yesterday, when I had invited them to come visit after I’d ran into bill at the shower house.
They have been staying in the campground, leaving tomorrow- I doubt I’ll see them again. Yet so glad I got to see them today – and by running into them at Walmart, in the city thirty minutes away (remember also, Mathis is equidistantly between three Walmarts.). They’ll be off to see their daughters children again soon. Those one the ones the scribbled the cute flowers that Carol loved.
With some experience in vinyl, their jeep was outfitted handfuls of their grandchild’s hand drawn flowers. It was how I recognize Bill yesterday. One thing that I have enjoyed in the last month is a sense of peace of not having to examine every face I see – they are all strangers. Almost!
And horses, Carol loves horses, she would ride and ride and in her face all her love for her horses came up. I couldn’t help but tell her about my littlest sister and her horse, Betsy. Carol is such an intent and caring listener. Her condolences meant a lot to me.
I’ve been lacking with my photography, yet I was not going to miss this shot.
Framed up, bill said something to the effect of “let’s give him the smiles” and they did.. smile? Well, they made smiles.
Carol I said, What is the name of your daughter again?
Katherine.
Snap.
I hoped it was in focus as I could feel the love in her answer (I really, really hope I remember her daughters name correctly here a day later, other wise it was Caroline, or something in that nature.) A name is a name, yet for Carol, that name summed up so much love, always right at the beginning of her stories. My daughter works at. she works at.. bill? Her words would fade as bill would finish and carols eyes and cheeks would just glow while listening to him.
After Walmart, back here to the site. Predicted to be cold tonight, down to forty. If this goes well, maybe I’m ready for twenty eight? Maybe I need to stay here through February? Pick a numerical low that when reached I’ll go then?
I have a list of things I’m working on in the car and I’m paid up here through the thirty first. What’s next? Idk. We’ll see what happens I guess.
I like second chances.
Time to rest.