The World is a Good Place

     Today I was at Home Depot buying some stuff to dog-proof the side garage so they can sleep there while we are out of town. I bought these giant panels of wire mesh stuff that I am going to attach to the shelves so they can't eat the boxes on the shelves.
     Anyway...what I really want to share with you is what happened when I was trying to load it in my car.  I guess when I was in the store I was imagining the back of my car larger than it really it is, because when I got out there it looked rather impossible.
     As I was struggling to get the 3 giant things out of the cart and into the car, the cart was kind of rolling, and the panels were obviously not going to fit in my car besides.  Just then this young man in the truck next to me hopped out and grabbed the cart, steadied it against his truck and asked where I was going because he was going to put it in his truck and take it there for me.  When I told him King City he apologized that it wasn't on his way, but then took the wire stuff and began to roll it into a giant cylinder that would fit in my car.  These two other guys ran up, and because they couldn't speak English, began to motion that they could help roll it and the three of them began to work on it.  Then the first guy ran over to his truck, pulled out a giant rope to tie it all up, and they fit it all in my car.  It all happened so fast I was amazed.  I was so grateful and thanked them for their kindness. When I got in the car I got all choked up thinking about all the good people in the world, and I was thankful some of them had been so quick to help me. And then I thought to myself that the men in our family would have done the same thing.
   It reminded me of the time a few years ago in Salinas when I had a flat tire in traffic, and as I was pulling to the side of the road in a semi-panic a car followed me, and a man jumped out and changed my tire faster than I could believe.  He had his little family in his car waiting for him, and when I thanked him and told him I was amazed how fast he was, he said in broken English, "I am mechanic!"   So that is why I say The World is a Good Place.

K.C. es un ciudad bueno (did I say that right?) y muy chistoso (can a city be funny?)

     So last night dad and I were trying to decide what to do for date night.  Hmmm.  K.C Cinemas, El Taco, or the Grill?  I had heard there was a ribbon-cutting this week for a new taqueria, but I was not feeling that adventurous. There was nothing good at the three-plex, and we just wanted to eat some pink bean soup, so we went to the Grill.
     Afterward we wanted to do something exciting (I mean, even MORE exciting), so in honor of the new taqueria we decided to drive through town and count the number of taquerias, and also count the variety/grocery stores.  I put them in the same category because they all sell more than food (pinatas, anyone?)  Actually, I could also count them as taquerias because most of them sell burritos and tacos, too.  It was a fun activity. I kept the tally on the back of a bank statement.
     We drove through the industrial park off Metz first, in case something had sneaked in there, but only saw the Chopper Shop deli, so that did not count.  Then we went down Broadway to Vanderhurst, drove through the library parking lot and looped back onto Bassett via Third to catch the little stores there.  In two blocks we counted 14 grocery/variety stores!  This excited me and I could not wait to drive the rest of the way down Broadway. I had to make dad go more slowly because I was missing some.
     Did you know the Chinese restaurant and the optometrist next door are now taquerias?  And the detail shop and the old Reel Joy theater are now grocery/variety stores?  One time I went shopping with Maricela and she took me to several places, because she has a certain place that has the best tortillas, another place for the best meat, etc. It was fun to go with someone who knew what she was doing.
     Anyway, we went everywhere (in other words:  all the way down Broadway), and by the time we were done we had counted 25 grocery/variety stores and 15 taquerias (but we all know which one is best)!  Next time we are going to count beauty salons and auto parts stores.

Highway 46

On my way home to K.C. Friday I stopped to admire the beautiful wildflowers on Highway 46.  There were Lupine and Daisy-like flowers, and others I didn't know the name of.

The Poppies and Lupine looked so pretty together.  If you look on my Facebook photos you will see some amazing wildflowers and orchards from a few weeks ago on Hwy 46.