Two Things

Maybe three.
First story: After Ms. R's tennis lessons every week I let the kids run across the street (after looking both ways of course) to the park to play for an hour or so. There is generally a few other kids, moms, grandmothers, aunts, dads, what have you. Regular run of the mill pay no attention to them type people. Last week there was this man, probably in his late 40's, sitting all alone on one of the benches that circle the play ground. I noticed he wasn't visibly interacting with any of the kids at the park, flying a kite, or taking advantage of any of the bbq's; which kind of made me wary of him. It just seemed odd to me that a man in his 40's would just sit at a play ground with no real purpose. About 20 minutes later this little dog seemed to come hurtling over an adjacent neighborhood fence in hot pursuit of a squirrel. I watched the antics for a while then went back to watching the kids with an eye on the strange man who still didn't seem to be paying attention to anything in general. After the dog tired of chasing squirrels it came trotting over to the bench I was sitting on and promptly jumped into my lap. I sat there petting it for another 10 minutes, waiting for the owner to notice it was missing, looked at the tags on it which were of no help, looked around the park hoping someone was looking for it, called the kids over and told them to get ready to go on a walk. As I was preparing to walk over to the neighborhood that backs up to the park, with dog in arm, the man calls out, "Where are you going with my dog?"
Startled, I respond, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize he was yours. I thought he'd jumped over one of the fences in pursuit of the squirrel. I was about to walk over to the neighborhood and see if anyone was missing him."
The man gave me a doubtful look and replied, "You thought he jumped over the fence? He cannot jump that high."
Like I should know that? Did he think I was ... what? Stealing his dog, knowing the owner was sitting right across the park from me? With my two kids in tow no less. Geez-la-frickin-wheez.
Second Thing: We were in dire need of a new outside garbage can. Dire. As in the walls of the can were the only things keeping the garbage contained because the bottom was essentially non-existant. I had to drag it across the lawn so that I didn't bust open a bag on the way to the curb. So today I headed over to Lowe's to pick up a new one, one with WHEELS this time. That's right, I'm going uptown. As usual, Mr. B accompanied me and as usual he was all over the place. Within seeing distance ... but still touching everything, into everything, in many people's path. So, after I had chosen the perfect garbage can for our home (if there is such a thing) I invited him to climb in, popped the lid on top and wheeled him around the store as I went to look at other things I have been meaning to invest in to improve my household organization. You should have seen the looks I got when he'd pop the lid off every once in a while. You'd think I was abusing the punk, not giving him what he considered a fantastically fun ride.
I'm starting to get a complex. Do I look like a bad person?
The third is this: Oh my. How pretty. I bought those divider things today, also at Lowe's. I've wanted them since we moved in more than seven years ago but I've always balked at paying $10 bucks for something I really didn't NEED. Today, however, I said - it's practically Christmas. Merry Christmas, Me!
Then I went out and spent $250 on kids winter clothes. Way to save money, Krista.