So through hospital, cathedral, whiskey bar...

As i mentioned a few posts ago, my father has cancer, in his neck and his lung. They're giving him 14 radiation treatments for the neck cancer. Mom made up a schedule for us to take dad to the hospital for the treatment. I've taken him 4 times.

It's a 30 minutes drive to the hospital, about 15 minutes while they do the treatment and then a 30 minutes drive back. On the way, we have to drive by the area of that town that holds thier municipal pool, and each time, I've seen at least one hot shirtless teenaged boy in shorts with a towel over thier shoulders walking the streets nearby. That's makes it all worth it.

Tuesday, in hte 95 degree heat and humidity, after the treatment, dad decided he wanted a WEndy's vanilla frosty again. So we went through the drive through and I got him one. I also needed bread, milk, and orange juice, so I pulled into a grocery store before we left that town. I put the windows all down and told him I'd be just a minute, cause all I needed was bread, milk and orange juice. He said he'd sit in the car and eat the frosty, it would help keep him cool.

I went in the store and immediately to my left, I saw a big neon sign proclaiming the 'BAKERY' was there. Now, I figured if I wanted bread, I'd just go to the bakery. I mean, bread is baked, right? as I walked through the Bakery section, I saw they had pies, cupcakes, cakes, bagels, all sorts of things like that, but did they have any bread there? nope, not that I can see. So since I was already at the back left of the store, I thought I'd walk across the back of the store to the back right, where I figured the milk would be, since I could see coolers there, and milk was usually near the coolers. I checked all 16 aisles as I went by, looking for the bread, but found none. And where I expected it to be, I found milk AND orange juice.

I picked up one of each, and figuring I must have missed the bread (cause i was moving kinda fast, after all, i didn't want to leave my dad out in the heat for too long), so i walked back along the back of the store looking up the aisles, and still saw no bread. So I figured I must have missed at the Bakery, and since i was now back near the Bakery again, I'd just check there again. And I did. And NO BREAD!

No I was getting pissed. how hard should it be to get some freakin BREAD? So I walked along the front of the store now, looking at the signs above each of the 16 aisles for anything that remotely resembled bread. Closest thing I found was croutons. At about aisle 13, I noticed, looking ahead of me, BREAD! in the front right corner of the store, obscured somewhat by the office that extended outwards. There was the bread, at the other end from the Bakery! yeah, makes perfect sense to me.

Getting to the bread, I could not find any of the Texas toast kind (I like thicker slices of bread, sue me). Finally, on the bottom shelf I found some. I grabbed a bag and made it to the cashier and out the door as quickly as I could. As I walked out, I saw dad halfway across the parking lot between the car and store.

I told him i was sorry for taking so long and asked him it it was too hot for him. he said it wasn't, but the guy in the car next to us came back from the store saw him there and said, "No thats just wrong, leaving an elderly person in the car while you go in and shop! How could someone do that? you want me to call the police on my cellphone?" he was laughing, but dad wasn't sure if he was serious or not. he told the guy no, it's okay, but since the guy drove away dialing a number on his cell phone, dad was afraid he might actually be calling the police and so dad thought he'd just go stand in the shade of the storefront. And then I came out.

dad, God bless him, isn't always the quickest on the uptake, ya know? And that night, i got a call from Mama Polt harrassing me for deserting my poor elderly father in that car in the heat. What did I think he was, anyway, a dog? And we laughed and laughed.

POLT Oil: 69.52 (+.51); Gas: 2.90 (-.01)

I am making a mental list of those who are snickering and even as I speak, I am preparing appropriate retribution. - Toby Zeigler, The West Wing