Six months later and I'm again in the supermarket on a Saturday evening. I'm marginally better but my partner still needs to skirt me out of the way of an oncoming shopping cart in the cleaning products aisle. The woman was not stopping.
A few aisles and twenty minutes pass, and flour disappears from the shelves while I try to decide if I need "0000" or "000" having a very Mr. Burns "ketchup or catsup" moment (though no one had to take me away).
I linger in the small "imports" section and wonder how a bottle of A1 or Barilla pasta sauce can make me feel wistful.
Still, I forget the oatmeal.
The traffic outside mirrors the supermarket and I have a flashback to dodge ball. If you don't move quickly, you're a target. Every fourth street will be a two-way avenue and only these have traffic lights. For the others, they are alternating direction one-way streets with no stop signs, and traffic operates somewhere between these maxims: "may the better man/woman win" and "every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force."* If there's a dip in the road for water to run, the other side has the advantage.
Pedestrians move where they can, frequently crossing mid-street. Bright colored clothing is an asset. Beware of honking horns and stray dogs. Look both ways because bikers and occasionally cars like to break the rules. And if you make it through this pinball motion, most days this is enough to feel like you've had a good day.
* Newton's first courtesy of Nasa.gov
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