NO CAR

I took my friend to the grocery store yesterday.....She does not have a car.....She lives behind a beautiful mansion on Washington Avenue in an apartment that at the turn of the century was the carriage house or servant's quarters.....Part of her agreement to live there is that she have no vehicle.... there is no place to park it, for one thing..... for another, I think the City of Waco prohibits it by some old ordinance.

 It had always been hard for me to imagine not having your own way around,  until I met her about twenty years ago....She had a car then, but unfortunate circumstances and health issues caused financial difficulties..... She has "started over" several times since then....She can take the bus, but it doesn't run all the time, or go to all the places she might need to go....She walks whenever she can, depending on the weather and what she is carrying...Once in a great while and only when absolutely necessary, she will pay a taxi cab to take her somewhere....Her job choices are limited to whatever is close to where she lives...Luckily, her apartment is not far from the many businesses on Franklin Avenue, so she has had fairly good jobs and business owners that are willing to work with her particular situation.  

 We did have a good time.....We went to Wal-Mart......she got her groceries, and I got a few things, too...Mine came to $13.72....I asked the lady if that was the correct amount, that  it seemed like it should be more.....She really got a kick out of that, as most people usually think she has double-rung something, and the total is too much!....It was just the first time in a long time that I had spent so little....Being with someone who really has to watch their pennies makes you more aware of your own spending, I guess....

.We then went to Tractor Supply to get feed  for my horses....That is one of my favorite stores, being the horse person that I am. (I try to avoid western stores, as I see too many things I want, but don't really need!)  The Waco Tractor Supply is the number one TSC store in America...They have clothing, boots, jewelry, books, collectible Breyer and Stone Mountain  toy horses, and so much more....I could spend hours in there, just looking!  

 After the feed was loaded into the back of my Chevy pickup, my friend and I drove to Luby's, where we proceeded to eat way too much......I took her back to her apartment,  we unloaded the groceries, and I headed home.....I wanted to unload the feed before dark, as sometimes there is a light dew that will ruin the paper feed sacks and the feed.

On the way home, I thought about how blessed I was to have my own "wheels" and control over my comings and goings....Helping out a friend in need made me realize that most of us take for granted that we are able to have our own vehicle, our transportation, without a thought of how fortunate we are.