I sometimes talk to strangers. An observation about what\u2019s going on around us. A comment about what just happened that we both might laugh at. I don\u2019t do it often, but I do it sometimes.<\/p>\n
Trudy will confirm this. It usually makes her cringe. She \u00a0can see from the look on my face. She can sense it coming. Who knows what I might say? To complete strangers, even.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m like my mother that way. I come by it honestly.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago we were at the Houston Zoo. It was the end of our visit, and we were wandering thru the primates. I don\u2019t recall what precisely we were looking at, but there was something going on with some of the animals and two zoo employees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trudy and I walked up to the railing and watched whatever it was that was going on below us. She and I were separated, because there were other people there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI wonder what they\u2019re doing?\u201d I said just loud enough for the guy beside me to hear.<\/p>\n
He turned his head very slightly but said nothing. His girlfriend looked as if she were about to speak.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think they\u2019re giving them exercise?\u201d I asked, turning to the guy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He grunted and turned away, taking his girlfriend\u2019s hand without further acknowledging my presence.<\/p>\n
Moments like this make me kinda sad.<\/p>\n
We were eating breakfast tacos, and Trudy had gone to refill her coffee. The man at the table next to ours got up at about the same time and went to refill his drink.<\/p>\n
He was wearing a loose-fitting, teal-colored shirt. I didn\u2019t think twice about it, but then the woman pulled her phone out of her purse to check something. The case around her phone caught my attention. It was teal. The exact same teal<\/em> as her husband\u2019s shirt.<\/p>\n I got up and walked over to her.<\/p>\n \u201cI know you\u2019ll think this is weird,\u201d I said after I got her attention. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s amazing that the two of you are color coordinated.”<\/p>\n She had a puzzled look on her face.<\/p>\n \u201cHis shirt. And your phone. It\u2019s like you planned it in advance.”<\/p>\n She turned to look at him across the restaurant, and she laughed out loud.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not a surprise, either. I buy all his shirts!”<\/p>\n Moments like this make me very happy.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1. Talking to Strangers I sometimes talk to strangers. An observation about what\u2019s going on around us. A comment about what just happened that we both might laugh at. I don\u2019t do it often, but I do it sometimes. Trudy will confirm this. It usually makes her cringe. She \u00a0can see from the look on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3971,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3970\/revisions\/3971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}