Karen and I don't get many opportunities to go out by ourselves and just do what we want, so yesterday was special. We had a date day of sorts, but it probably wasn't like what most people do on date day.
For starters, Karen's car needed gas, so I went to what gasbuddy.com told us would be the cheapest gas in the area, Kroger. It's not that far away, so when I arrived expecting to purchase gas at $3.32 with my .03 discount, imagine my surprise when I saw the price was $3.59. I hightailed it to the Meijer, hoping that its price was still at $3.35 and was presently surprised to see that it was.
After we filled the tank, we went across the street to the bank. Karen told me to go through the drive-through, so I did. This bank has a drive-through that is wrapped around the back of its building through one lane, which then opens out into three spaces. As I pulled up to where the one lane empties into three, there was an SUV waiting there to see which stall would finish first so she could take it. She wouldn't pull behind one of them, thereby depriving me of taking the one empty spot where I could deal directly with the banker. Rudeness is not just found in Illinois.
We went to the WalMart to buy more shells. The guy who helped us kept looking at me when he'd ask a question, unaware that Karen is far more experienced than I when it comes to shooting. As we left the counter, Karen said, Well, he sure didn't like you. Of course not, I said, he didn't like that I couldn't answer his questions.
After we got out of there, we went to grab a bite to eat. I went through the McDonald's first to get fries and drinks. I placed the order then went to pay, When I went to pay, the window was closed, and I thought I saw the car ahead of me transacting business at the next window, so I pulled up there. I was chagrined to see in my rear view mirror the car behind me paying at the window that I had thought was closed. So I had to go around the entire McDonalds, zip past the cars placing orders and race to the pay window, which was still closed. When I got there, the person opened the window.
We made our way to the shooting range and Karen pulled out her replacement GPS. Karen knew the way to the range but wanted to test out her newest Rhoda -- which is what she calls her GPS -- and it took us a slightly different way. So we got off at the exit to which it directed us and got to the range. We filled out the paperwork, bought me some ear protection and bought some shells for shooting. We got into Lane 9 and fired away. We must have shot nearly two hundred bullets. Karen's a good shot, that's for sure. But we had a couple of problems with shells caught in the ejection port, one for each of us. I even had a bullet sitting perpendicular to the rack.
After we shot we looked at guns we'd like to buy. I now know that Karen wants a Remington .22 to go with the bracelet watch she picked out for Valentine's Day. I can't wait to see her open her birthday and Christmas presents later this year.
Since we'd only wolfed down a hamburger each before we went shooting, we were both hungry, so Karen said she wanted to go to one of her favorite Italian restaurants that she insisted I'd been to before with her. When she told me the name of it, I didn't recognize it, but she kept insisting that we'd been there before. Finally, when we got to the restaurant, it was clear I'd never been to the place before. To add to the disjointed nature of our visit, the doors would only open so far before getting stuck on the concrete -- something of which we were warned by the handwritten signs on the door -- and we found out that a funeral reception was just getting over. Despite the fact it was only around 2.30p and they didn't open to the public until 4p, they agreed to serve us. The food was of middling quality, with Karen's spaghetti residing in a watery red sauce that reminded me of my Mother's efforts at making spaghetti. Our waitress couldn't wait for us to leave, and it showed.
We then went to look for a stand that would hold the printer next to the bed in the second bedroom. We first tried a Thrift Store that was closed due to a recent fire, so we decided to go to the nearby Ikea. My memories of Ikea on weekends back in Illinois weren't good: Imagine being at an Ellis Island, although no one is controlling anything. People from various countries with differing approaches to shopping are all thrust together in this Nordic labyrinth and there's no way out other than to go through the store. One way in, and one way out. Even the parking lot was hideous.
We finally got out of there, loaded with a half dozen cinnamon rolls that a lesbian couple convinced Karen to try in the check-out aisle. We took the scenic route home because there was such a wait to get on the expressway, but that took us past Costco, and we needed a couple of things for home.
In another post, I mentioned some immutable natural laws that Newton missed. One of them hit me yesterday: I literally spent five minutes driving around trying to find a parking space that wasn't located on the other side of the moon. And this was toward the end of the day.
We came home and watched one of the two Redbox movies we'd rented the night before. At least this one wasn't scratched.
I returned the movies and came home to watch the Justin Timberlake appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Then Karen insisted that we break down our guns to clean them...at 10.00p. We broke down the guns and I was toast. Today we clean 'em.
So that's a brief rundown of our date day: Shooting, eating, shopping, movies and cleaning guns.
Yep, we're real highfalutin.
(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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