Going...Going...Gone

Poetry of the Day

SUMMER ENDS

Days grow short, fall draws nigh
Summer ends, with whispered goodbye
colorful leaves, dance all alone
lingering nearby, reluctant to roam
Cool, clear evenings, stars shining bright
Night is approaching, all is quiet
Out on the porch, I sit very still
The whooper will calls, just over the hill
The scent of wood smoke, adrift in the air
for this moment, earth lives without care
Soon will come, the harsh winter wind
summer will cease while winter descends
within my heart, contentment resides
waiting for the coming, of the changing tide.

Have you ever had something happen to you so quickly yet at the same time so incredibly slow that you thought it would never end? It happened to me today. My daughter and I went with my husband to Burlington Coat Factory while he looked for flannel shirts. He goes off to search for those and my daughter and I go to the accessory section of the store. We look at everything and end up looking at pictures. I spot one on the level closest to the floor, one of those really big ones, and ever so gently and slowly with one finger move it forward to see the picture behind it. WRONG MOVE! With such swiftness and in a manner I can't describe, the edge of that giant picture caught the edge of the one next to it on the right and flipped them out on the floor. Before those hit the floor, they tip the ones next to it, and those tip the ones next to those and before long we have a domino effect and all the pictures for about 15 or 20 fit are flipping out of their place on the shelf and landing on the floor.

I'm no idiot and know what's going to happen so when the first picture starts falling, I yell to my daughter, "Catch it, catch it!" She doesn't know what the crap I'm talking about because she's got her hands full of Egyptian pictures. She drops her picture and starts running up the aisle turning circles with her hands out-stretched because now she sees all the pictures falling and she's trying to catch them except there are too many falling at the same time. She kinda trips over one or two while she's yelling, "I can't, I can't! There's too many!"

Now we've got a line of spectators behind us and no one is saying too much except I hear one lady saying something like, "I'm glad that's not me, I'd die." I'm busy trying to put pictures up as they keep falling and a sales lady runs up from behind us somewhere and asks in a really loud voice if we're hurt. I assure her we're not and keep putting pictures up. The spectators are still behind us and my daughter is still running around saying, "Oh my gosh" over and over and not knowing which of the thousands (a slight exaggeration) of pictures to try to stop falling or to begin picking up. Ahhh, the last one hits the floor. I start laughing and state very loudly that it is a good thing I don't get embarrassed easily and then get the heck out of there.

We're halfway up the aisle when more store employees are coming. One of them asks what all the clanging and banging was back there. My daughter is totally humiliated now and tries to hide in the Christopher Lowell aisle (is that the guy's name?)


I don't think my daughter will be wantin' to go with Mom and Dad any time soon.