Melancholy 1st Of July In Texas

You are looking at my melancholy view of Texas from my patio on the 1st day of July.

Once again the sun is hidden behind a shroud of clouds.

I've been feeling melancholy ever since a moment in Wal-Mart in Hurst yesterday. I've had these type melancholy moments at Wal-Mart before.

I'd just gotten gas and then went to Wal-Mart. Because I'd gotten gas as I walked into Wal-Mart I got my phone out of my pocket to call my mom to tell her I got gas. Just like I always do.

Then this lady caught my eye. She looked to be in her 30s. Tall. Nicely dressed. And she was disabled. Something had happened to her feet and legs that made walking very difficult. We both entered Wal-Mart at the same time.

The Wal-Mart greeter greeted her as if she was a long lost friend. And proceeded to help the lady get a motorized cart running.

I continued on walking. But put my phone back in my pocket. I was sort of overcome with feeling real sad and didn't feel like talking to my mom right then.

I was thinking how lucky I am to be able to do what I do without having the sort of struggle that lady goes through.

I wondered what happened to her. Was this a problem from birth? Was she in a car wreck? A wounded vet from Iraq or Afghanistan?

Is the problem fixable? Did she get the medical treatment she needed?

Another time at another Wal-Mart I saw a little girl with a club foot. That was such a sad thing. And treatable. If one has access to a doctor's care.

Sometimes when I am in the mood to be aggravated I listen to Rush Limbaugh. One of his things he repeats, that always aggravates me, is when he says that "Americans have the best health care in the world." Limbaugh never adds the corrective caveat, "If they can afford it."

I hope the lady I saw struggling to walk into Wal-Mart yesterday was, and is, able to afford the health care she needs.

And, on another related note, I think it's a nice thing Wal-Mart and other stores do in providing electric carts for those who need them. Though it sort of irritates me to see them being used by obese people who would likely be doing themselve a favor if they pushed a shopping cart through the store, rather than riding.

I'm thinking, would it not be a good thing if Wal-Mart, and other stores, had some sort of buzzer that could be pushed, located at the handicap parking, to summon the Wal-Mart greeter to bring out a cart?

When you help those most in need among us, you help yourself, because you never know when it might be you, or someone you love, who needs the help.

Or so it seems to me.

Oh, eventually I did call mom while I walked around in Wal-Mart. I got the answering machine. Mom and dad had gone to lunch at my brother's in Maricopa, about 20 miles south of where mom and dad live in the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lake. Mom called back later. It is being HOT in Arizona. Over 110 for days in a row. I told mom to come for a Texas visit, where my windows are open, right now, at 76.

A very pleasant hour in the pool this morning. One of my blessings I'm counting.