The About Me button on this page
ought to now be updated to read
How I Met Myself
One day years ago,
riding home from my job where I was building a wall,
I decided to stop at a supermarket I was passing.
I usually went elsewhere for groceries, but I had a
load of stone in my truck so this was convenient.
The lot looked full.
The aisles were narrow,
compared to how they used to be,
so it took a little bit of back and forth
to get my truck around and parked.
It was a tight fit.
I got out and walked into the store.
I had been wheeling my way around the
store for a while when an employee
walked up to me and asked if I would please
move my truck so a lady could move her car.
I said sure, and as I followed him out,
wondering what happened,
he said that moving my truck
was just the easiest way
to solve a problem.
“You’ll see.”
The problem was that with a car stalled
behind her, a car on either side,
and my truck in front of her,
she couldn’t get out.
I moved my truck,
she drove through my slot,
I moved back in,
and the problem was solved.
Walking back into the store I had to ask him
how he knew that was my the truck.
“Simple,” he said, pointing to a little balcony
up high overlooking the inside of the store.
I could see a narrow set of steel steps leading
up to it from our level. “I went up there, looked
around, and you were the only working man in
the store. So I knew that was your truck.”
That felt pretty good.
I was born in Colombia and came to America
when I was a teenager. In time I went to school and
got a doctorate from Indiana University in Bloomington.
Then, for about 25 years, I worked as researcher in schools,
a university, and as private consultant on organization
development to industry.
That was interesting but it was not very good for the body.
A lot of your work is done sitting down.
The last 25 years I worked as a stonemason.
That was more fun, and good for the body.
But now it’s 2012 and I will be 73
which sometimes makes a difference.
So I will quit stonework and do something else.
To start with, I’ll make this a sabbatical year.
Meet myself again?
(The website will stay up and I will stay in touch with it most of the time)
