Wednesday, March 7, 2007

I felt like such an idiot!

To give you some background.....
It's been a terrible winter. One of the worst I've seen in my short 39 years on this planet. And the snow wasn't even the worst part of it. It's been the cold temperatures........very cold. And on top of the cold, the winds have been the worst part of it. Bitterly cold winds. Hurt your skin winds. Non-stop winds for days on end.

But the last couple days have been very nice. Pleasantly 60ish during the day, hardly any wind to speak of. Beautiful sunny days. The beginning of Spring, I wanna say, without the first day of Spring even being here yet.

Anyhoo.......I have to take Korey up to Springfield today to get her vaccination shots. First, I need to stop for gasoline.
I pull up to the pumps, get out and shove the hose into the tank and proceed to lean back on the car. As I am doing this, I notice this guy at the pump on the other side leaning against the back of his minivan.
I know of this guy. I've seen him out jogging in our neighborhood many, many times. I assume he lives not far from me but I don't know where exactly. The reason I notice this guy so much is because for reasons unbeknownst to me, he is burned on his face and hands. Not just in spots but all over his face and hands. I've always wondered what happened to him. Whatever it was, it was very bad.
Now normally seeing this kind of tragedy doesn't bother me. I'm not one to stare. I treat people equally no matter what they look like or where they are from and I make it a point to be nice.

I see he's looking in my direction and I strike up a conversation. Weather is always a good start.
I comment on how I wish we could have more days like this because I am really sick of winter.
He replies that he likes winter but something to the effect that days like this are nice too and we're probably in for more than less.
I reply that I hope so because this has been a bad winter for us and I am really sick of the extremely cold winds we've had lately.
He replies, "Oh yeah, the winds have been really bad lately."
I then say, "Why do they have to be so harsh? They hurt..........hurt so bad it burns your face when you go outside."

WTH?! WHAT DID I JUST SAY!?!?

OMG.....I have no doubt that I went completely red in the face at that moment. I know he said something else after that but I really couldn't tell you what it was because my mind went into idiot stutter mode after that.
I said something to the effect about having a nice day and proceeded to walk as fast as I could in to pay for my gas.
I felt like such a dip. I'm sure he knows I meant nothing by it but I still can't help feeling like I offended him in some way. Oh brother.

Just another day of being Sandy. Be blessed that you're not inflicted with this disease.

1 comment:

HeapKeeper said...

MY GOSH Sandy! LOL .. talk about subliminal influences. Glad his pants weren't unzipped too. You meant well... I know...LOL...