Today was just plain forgettable. When my fellow countrymen are moved to equate health care with pictures of piled-up bodies of concentration camp inmates, it gets me thinking of relocating to within a week’s kayak or sailboat journey of our northern border. (Something small, to hide from helicopters…) But maybe I just miss the water, eh?
Sometime around noon, I had about half an hour to kill. For reasons known only to little baby Jesus, I chose to spend it in the WalMart parking lot. I’d actually intended to go score some legal pads and microfiber car cleaning towels, efficient and manly person that I am, but a sudden strange fatigue came over me, and I couldn’t bear the thought of standing in line or breathing that indoor air. It was an unseasonably warm day, and I rolled down the window. A few feet away, this is what I saw:
About a year ago (?), the local WalMart completed a fancy makeover. Some hotshot consultant or landscaping contractor must have convinced them to “green” up the joint by planting trees in the middle of the asphalt parking lot. Many of them, however, look just like this now. Note the expensive drip irrigation system hose. Note the curbing around the tree that takes up parking space. And note where overhanging bumpers have bashed and girdled the poor tree, now crispy dead and nevermore to bloom or shade a goddamned thing. I thought this was fascinating and dredged up the stamina to walk around the building with my camera. Yes, I got stared at but no one called the cops, and I managed to avoid going inside. Who needs legal pads, anyway?
When they first “planted” these trees, I shook my head. What kind of highly-paid colossal ignorance is responsible for thinking that all a tree needs is a hole to poke its head out of? And what kind of idiots would think good of WalMart for this silliness? It’s not just WalMart, though. You see this kind of thing everywhere:
“You want plants? Fine, here you go!”
“But they’ll just die there…”
“Shut the hell up, you ungrateful commie bastard!”
Oh well. At least I can take a hot bath now and see if Friday turns out any better.
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