joyful2beeblogs

While shopping at one of my favorite grocery stores, I stopped on one aisle looking at something when a man pushed his cart by me to the end of the aisle. Then he stopped to look at something on the shelf. I finished looking for what I needed and walked past him around the end of the aisle to the next aisle and stopped. Guess who came around the corner and passed me again. I thought it was funny that we kept on passing each other and stopping. As he passed me, I smiled, and I asked him, “Are we playing leap frog up and down the aisle?”

He laughed and replied, “It sure looks like it!”

The next part is a little different. There is a disabled African-American gentleman in an electric wheelchair. He sits at the front of the store and helps customers with their cash registers if they accidentally get charged twice or need help. He rolls his wheelchair up and subtracts the extra charge. I think he is a really nice guy.

I first saw him several months ago and walked over to say, “Hello.” He grinned really big. I asked him what his name was; he opened his jacket to show me his name tag, and it read, “Finn.” He grinned really big when I said, “Well, that’s a really good Irish name.” He threw his head back and laughed.

Another time, I saw him, and he was shivering because the air conditioner was blowing right on him. I came over and offered to go find him something hot for him to drink to warm him up. He told me he would be alright. He always laughs when I come up to him, and I say, “Oh, there you are!” or “Where have you been?” It turns out he works three days a week, so sometimes I don’t see him for two weeks.

One time, I bought some dark chocolate covered banana slices that I really like. I came over and talked with “Finn,” (not his real name) and asked him if he wanted to try one. He said that he did. He has some kind of contractures of his hands. So he held one hand out, and I dropped one of the banana slices in his hand. He popped it in his mouth and grinned broadly, commenting on how good it tasted.

I asked him if he wanted another slice, and he nodded his head enthusiastically. So I gave him another one, then the whole pack. I love to cut up with him and make him laugh. So often, the people who work with the cash registers get little or no acknowledgment. I enjoy engaging them in light or humorous conversation.

The other day, I went to the same store, bought my groceries and scanned each item, and put them in my bags. I packed up the bags in a cart and rolled it out to my car after chatting with Finn. Low and behold, who comes rolling out in his electric wheelchair with the last bag that I filled and then left on the bag racks… Yep, it was Finn. I thanked him profusely for finding it and bringing it to me with a big grin on his face. He is such a thoughtful person, I am happy to see him when I go there.