Have you ever jumped in the car with a list of three or four things you wanted to get done in a day here at Lakeside?
I try to do it all the time and find myself getting distracted swinging through pothole slaloms and tope high jumps, to say nothing of traffic signals based on a pinball-machine “right of way.” So with these and our ordinary driving concerns, it’s sometimes hard to keep your mind on the day’s three or four stops.
Let me detail a typical chore day. I went to pick up a poster I had printed and found that the printing artisan religiously closed his shop from 2 to 4 p.m. I didn’t know about this off-time, and got the printing shop confused with the framing shop which closes from 1 to 2. So my day’s schedule was thrown off, and I found myself spending time wandering around the new restaurants, checking their schedules. Some read: Open Monday thru Thursday 10 to 2, Closed Friday and Saturday, Open again Sunday, 11 to 3; or, Open Wednesday and Thursday, 1 to 8, Friday buffet 1 until 4, Karaoke at 6; or, Open Thursday thru Sunday until 3, Live Music Saturday at 1, Sunday Wine Tasting, 3 to 5. I took photos and when set side by side, I realized I had created a sudoku puzzle.
Now, the printer doing my poster wasn’t clear about his horario. There was no schedule on the door when I brought my poster in for printing. Nothing said, “We close at 2 on the dot, return at 4 somewhere around the dot.” Mexicans do not seem to give practical significance to these dots. In fact, there are no dots. Although some shop owners’ schedules are firm and final on their openings and closings, and you can set your watch as you see them lowering their closing gates, as you finally find a parking space.
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