Bells are Ringing

I was stuck in the big city (Flint) all day. From 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. I went in search of a little color. I pulled into the United Methodist church in Flushing, Mi....when I saw this purple tree.

In trying to get a few angles...I got this big bell. It came from Baltimore, Maryland. The company started in 1856. This bell was crafted in 1884. It is still making church bells. They claim to have made 300,000 bells. Just the thought makes my head go "DONGGGGG!" Just in case you're interested...here is their home page. McShane. After you hear the bells...I think you push "examples of", or something like that. Pretty stuff.

I ended up at Sams Club. I walked in the door at 11:55 a.m., hopefully just in time for the lunch food samples. But first...a quick look at the cameras. I was engrossed in a 14mp Olympus...24x zooom...when an older gentleman approached.

"They sure are putting some big zooms on these things...aren't they? "Yes sir...they are." "Mine only has a 4x zoom." "Hey...come to think of it...it's right here in my pocket!" (I should have seen the red flag waving in the air.)

He was a tool-and-dye maker...retired from GM. He started scrolling through his pictures. I noticed he had 1366 pictures on his card.

The question is this...How many pictures of machine parts can you look at, AND...still act like you are interested? Picture after picture of his projects. I was almost thrilled when he got to some pictures of some of his relatives. Uncle George...Aunt Millie...Brother John...Friend Max. I wondered if they were still giving out samples.

Machine parts...relatives...what's next? His wifes homemade quilts...that's what! Beautiful bird quilts...but how many had she made? The wife then showed up. We talked quilts. One quilt took her a year to make.

In the course of our discussion, the old guy hit on 2 of my 379 pet peeves. #104 starts like this..."Guess how old I am?" I hate that! What are you supposed to say? I tried to deflect the question. "What's next? Do I get to guess your weight?" Ended up...he was 77...25 years retired.

Pet peeve # 237 came right from the camera as he was showing me even more pictures. "Look at this pond. You can't tell...but...you see that little dot? That's a swan." I hate that! Like looking for a particular white hair on my head!

I felt bad for his wife standing there. Maybe he would take a hint. "Well...buddy...you better get her out of here." "We're OK...we're waiting for tires to be put on."

I finally got away. I glanced at the time on my phone. 1:10 p.m. 1 hour and 15 minutes!!! 75 minutes with a complete stranger! At least they were a nice old couple. He kept calling his wife "hon."

I staggered over to the food aisles. All I got was a piece of pineapple, and a piece of mango. Which brings up pet peeve # 79. Going into Sams and not getting any samples.