Garden Transplants

"Have you ever had one of them days, boy, have you ever had one of them days? When nothin' is right from morning 'til night, have you ever had one of them days?..." Those are lyrics from an old Elvis song in the movie GI Blues, if you didn't already know that. My mom was a true-blue Elvis fan, and I listened to a lot of him growing up. 

Every time I have one of those days, I think about that song, and I hear it in my head. My roots are no doubt one of the biggest reasons I really liked Jason Lee's new show Memphis Beat on TNT. His character is a big Elvis fan. I really did enjoy the show and am looking forward to the next episode. The nice thing about shows not on ABC, NBC, or CBS is that they get a fair chance at succeeding. So, I'm hoping for a long run for this one.

I'm having one of those days actually, which is why I have the song running around in my mind. I somehow got my lower back out of whack almost 3weeks ago now, and my chiropractor has been busy putting it back. For about a week, I thought it was just about better, but then I woke up this past Sunday morning and it was as if all that progress never happened. I think it was lugging around the new and HUGE German Shepherd puppy we have that knocked it back out...hmmmm...

Anyway, I'm walking like Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) and the only comfortable position for any length of time is lying down. You can't get much done that way, and it's starting to wear out my patience and my nerves. I now have a greater appreciation for people with chronic back trouble, for certain. I'm feeling a wee bit cranky, and having some trouble finding my joy, and I don't like it! 

So, when one of those random small-townish things happens, (like old guys driving their lawn mowers down the road for whatever myriad of reasons there are for that, and actually causing a traffic jam of 8 cars) it makes me want to scream. Rolling the windows down first, of course, so everyone can hear me lose my mind. Or, because my back hurts when I bend over or down to pick something up, I am constantly dropping things...or cleaning up something on the floor...ugh! And these cursed brick streets!! Charming to look at, yes, but secretly a devious method of torture, I'm thinking.

I did have one bright spot in an otherwise poopie day, however, that made up for the rest of it. A sales rep for an office supply company stopped in as she does from time to time, and we got to talking. We discovered a bit of common ground in that we are both transplants from larger gardens. I, of course came here from California, and she came from Houston, Texas, out of a desire to live in a more rural area, and smaller community. It was really fun exchanging our culture-shock stories and comparing notes on everything we had to learn here.

Some of those lessons are as follows:

1- People here are wavers, and they expect you to wave back. If you don't, you're anti-social. So wave, even if you don't know who they are. 

2- Toilets are called stools here. 

3- Dinner is lunch,and supper is dinner - breakfast is still breakfast. 

4- Your driving reflects directly upon how you are viewed as a person; they know your car, and they will talk. 

5- Your business is not your own; everybody knows your business better than you do, and if you keep to yourself, stay out of trouble, they will make stuff up. 

6- Stop lights and stop signs are suggestions, just like turn signals. 

7- Your designated trash day is also a suggestion - it could be any day after that day or maybe the following week, and complaining most likely won't help you out any. 

8- Don't ever, under any circumstances park your new shiny car way out in the Wal Mart parking lot by itself unless you want it to be hit by a shopping cart or have someone deliberately park their pile of junk so close you have to crawl in on the passenger side. 

9- The contents of your shopping cart will be scrutinized and commented on. 

10- Your neighbors will not pretend they didn't see you in your jammies and your hair in a towel trying to wrangle your dogs in the house at 6 am - they will instead wave and make sure you know they saw you.

Just a few examples of the quirky-ness here, but in all honesty, people are friendly, and genuinely concerned and interested. So when they ask you how your parents are doing, it's sincere. And when there is a need, these people respond! It does remind me of Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith show sometimes :)