A Veiw From The Truck

　

　

My husband and I were coming home from a short trip to see the kids one night. We had taken them calves in our cattle trailer, to begin training for the spring shows.
The kids participated in the State 4-H programs, and part of the program was showing cattle at fairs. We love going to the fairs and watching the kids with their cattle. They work so hard, for so long to get there, it means a lot for us to show up.

Well, we had a good time with the kids and headed home, stopping for gas at one of the large self serve stations. This one offers food and the best coffee around, and of course, a bathroom. By this time of night, there was a need for gas and a bathroom. My husband politely asked me if I was getting out of the truck. I replied no, I would be staying put. With much exaggeration, he took the keys with him. I thought this was a little strange, since he would be right beside the truck pumping the gas. He didn't say that he would be going into the store, but that was fine.

Pretty soon, I saw him head into the store and make his way to the bathroom area. Well, after a little while, I saw him walking around the store. Now, my husband is 6 foot 3, and he was wearing, as we fondly refer to it, his "Gilligan" hat. I was sure that he wanted a drink, as I watched from the truck. I observed him go over to the drink section, now we visit this place a lot, so I know where everything is, from the view from the truck.
He stays there for some time, and then I see the hat, only the hat showing above the shelves in the store, walking along. It turns and goes to the back, where the coffee is located. It comes back toward the front of the store. I am now amazed at how much of the store he is covering, and truly wondering, just what it is he can't seem to find.

He actually comes up to the very front of the store and picks up a paper and reads it. What, I ask myself is he doing? It's 10 o'clock at night and we still have 45 minutes to drive to get home, just buy the stupid paper! No, no, he puts the paper down and heads back toward the bathrooms again. After a few minutes he comes back into view, or the hat does. All I can see now is the hat...going all over the store, back and forth. Da dute de do, da dute de do.
Suddenly, I start to worry. I'm thinking he is having some sort of episode. Could it be dementia starting, and now that the sun is down, he can't think straight, or even know where he is. Just as I am about to get out of the truck and go see about him, he heads toward the bathrooms again. I shut the door, now realizing that he must be having a personal problem, and needs to stay close to the bathroom for a while. Nope! Out of the area he comes, looking around wildly, the hat turning around with every twist of his head, and I know that look. He's upset, but what could it be, he just went in the bathroom....oh..maybe someone is in there and he's been waiting all this time to acutally get in to use it. That must be what the problem is.
Otherwise, he looks as if he is sizing up the place to rob it. Back and fourth he goes again. Now this is getting serious, and I am no longer laughing, sitting in the truck with a front row view. Well, it is still funny, watching it unfold. Actually, I am still laughing, 'cause that's how I am, but it's because this hat has taken on a personality of it's own. The hat seems to be floating all over the store, with the man below it unseen.
Then I see him talking to a woman that works in the store. Well, her arms were waving all over the place, and he was asking questions, or so it appeared. Oh, I'm not going in now, no way, I have a set of keys in my purse.....

Not too long after the woman talks to him, he heads out the door, fast, almost running. He pulls open the door and yells at me, "What are you doing in here?"
Ok, now I'm getting scared, but I say, "I live here." His eyes go wild and his arms are hitting the side of his leg. He really didn't appreciate my kind of joking around at this point.
He doesn't get in the truck, he just stands in the door and says,"I was worried to death about you! I thought you were in the bathroom!"

Suddenly it dawns on me, why he was going back there so much, but my humorous side got the best of me, and I started laughing. I laughed so hard I couldn't talk, making him madder by the moment. I couldn't help myself, I cried, I laughed so hard. Finally able to control myself, or so I thought, I tried to repeat the conversation we had before he got out of the truck, that I was staying in the truck. He was too far gone for that to matter, he wanted to know why I didn't come in the store after 20 minutes or so and get him, and he was now in the truck and yelling. I couldn't tell him I was enjoying the scene being played out in front of me...no I better not.

I couldn't stop laughing! That just made him madder. He had gotten the store manager to go into the ladies room and look under the door of the stall, to see if I was lying there unconsious. With this picture in my brain, I begin to try and stifle the laughter, no luck. I am now laughing so hard I can't breath, and this finally gets a laugh out of him too. He begins to smile and then laugh, but not without holding a grudge at me. I am hysterical at this point, and he is laughing at me, not with me.

Poor baby never did get the humor in the whole thing, but I will carry that video in my head for the rest of my life, of my husband worrying, that I am passed out on the floor of a gas station, and there's nothing he can do, but go around and around the store, looking for me, as I silently watch from afar.