More magical journeys

Strange things are happening in the neighbourhood. There was a Home Depot cart in my back alley. It’s not uncommon to see carts from Walmart and Co-Op, both of which are within walking distance, but the nearest Home Depot is at least five kilometers away. Did someone take a cart and walk all the way to my back alley with it, before abandoning it to its fate? How else would it have gotten here? What was its journey, what was it carrying? These are questions that I am seriously wondering.

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Note the Budweiser can at its wheel. I suspect there are more cans in its basket, but I didn’t actually get out of the car to investigate.

The cart was there for a few days, then it moved to someone’s front lawn. Currently it’s residing on a nearby boulevard. Just across from its original position, a different cart appeared. I think it’s from Canadian Tire. The carts are multiplying.

Maybe I find myself somewhat obsessed with the journey of these carts because of my own irritation about people not returning carts to the proper corral. Obviously these carts were used for different purposes, and that’s fine. But as we all know, the people who leave their carts in random parking spaces, or worse, mere feet away from the corral, are the worst people in the world. Okay, maybe not the worst. Maybe lazy is a better word. Or inconsiderate of other people. Or making the store employees’ lives that much worse, when the corral is RIGHT THERE JUST PUT IT AWAY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Tomato, to-mah-to.

Anyway, enough about the fascinating journey of the Home Depot cart and its new friend or possibly rival, the Canadian Tire cart.

I just thought of something. Maybe the Home Depot cart moved because of a turf war. Maybe this is a Sharks/ Jets kind of thing. Like this, but with carts.

Speaking of journeys, I have great news for those of you following along with my Kondo journey. The charity that was supposed to pick up my donations but didn’t called back and rescheduled. Hooray! Mark and my husband lugged all the bags back out onto the step early Friday morning, to the interest of a new addition to the neighbourhood: a skunk. Eeek! Fortunately the skunk scurried down the street and – possibly unfortunately – hid underneath a neighbour’s van. This neighbour has two noisy dogs, and I imagined the worst, but so far things have been non-stinky. Possibly Pepe le Pew found his way to an uninhabited-by-pets yard to stay in.

My life lately has been yoga, yoga, yoga, which is wonderful. Things are busy and hectic in the best way possible. We went to an information and Meet the Teacher night at the junior high, and the principal mentioned the active Parent Association, and the desperate need for a Treasurer, and my husband gave me a look that needed no verbal interpretation. I did NOT attend the subsequent meeting because we all know how that would have ended, and I really just can’t anymore.

We are having a real Calgary fall, which means that yesterday the dog park looked like this:

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Whereas today is freezing cold and rainy. I have brought out my warm, lined fall coat and I dub today’s Clothing Theme to be Sith.

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Come to the Dark Side! We have cookies.

Comments

  1. I joyously celebrated the first year in five years where I did not have to attend a PTA meeting in August to prepare for the school year and readied myself to do nothing but volunteer when and where I wanted to only to be hit up in September by the desperate Room Parent Coordinator to be a room parent for Youngest’s second grade class because no one else had stepped up.

    I said I’d do it because they need a room parent, I love her teacher, and basically I have a sucker sign on my forehead. I TRIED not to step in and to give the brand new, fresh parents whose second grader is their oldest child and who are not totally burned out yet the chance to be the room parents BUT NO. I’m feeling a bit bitter. BUT I still don’t have to go to any school events that I don’t want to go to or volunteer at PTA stuff so I guess it’s an improvement. But next year, mark my words, I will be title free at Youngest’s school or die trying (Live Title Free or Die = my new license plate motto).

    Next year Oldest will be in HS and there is no question that I won’t volunteer at his school except to bring food for pot lucks or something. FREEDOM.

  2. I’m wondering if Manny has something to do with that cart.

    I’m not half the school volunteer you are but I was up late last night putting glittery stars on popsicle sticks for Girls on the Run to use as lap counters last night (the girls collect one from a coach every time they finish a lap and then they know how many they ran). It’s not something I could have ever foreseen I’d be doing.

  3. You’re one gorgeous Sith Lord. I hate when people don’t return their carts, but the Farm Boy pisses me off because they only have one cart return place for a parking lot that really needs more than one. I am SO impressed that you managed not to volunteer to be treasurer, and entranced by the idea of a Home Depot/Walmart turf war.

  4. This shopping cart situation reminds me of the mannequin 🙂 What is it with that back alley?? Loving the long pics in your post, very pretty!

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