I keep getting new people and losing old people on my Meals on Wheels route and I realized today that I was still relying on street signs and house numbers which is not my normal M.O. So I spent the drive trying to memorize landmarks, like "turn left at the Long John Silver's" and "turn left at the Just For Brakes." And trying to remember houses with things like, "this one has two trees." I'm also terrible with names and faces and had an embarassing experience today. A truck pulled up at one man's house just as I pulled up, and a man got out. I thought, "Is this the man?" My brain works in context. In my mind, this man is inside this house and sitting in that chair in the corner so I can't picture him outside in daylight walking. But since he is walking with a cane I figure it probably IS him, so I try to act like I DO know it's him without totally assuming it's him. So I say, "Hi! Let me help you with that door." I figured I needed to let him go first in case it IS him. And it was. I need to start looking at people. I'm sure it stems from my whole social phobia thing. (But I always remember bartenders.) I'm always better when I've had people for a while, but practically everyone except Myriam is new. I think I've been to this man's house 5 times, whereas I've been to Myriam's house more than 300 times.
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One of the new ladies I got earlier this summer lives near a school zone and I didn't notice, because it was summer. So all of a sudden there's this flashing school zone sign telling me to go 20. I wasn't thrilled. I usually barrel down that road. The cool thing that happened was I went to a lady's house that I've been to maybe 4 times and noticed what I thought were gardenias. "What is this?" I thought. Gardenias are not Texas friendly. The bright white flowers SMELLED like gardenias but it didn't seem possible. And this was like a 4' x 4' bush. A lady answered the door and I asked, "What are these flowers?" She said, "Gardenias." I said, "But my Mom said you can't grow gardenias in Texas." That bush was TEN YEARS OLD! I'm going to study that sucker. I know it was facing north and against the house, but I'm going to check for shade and whatnot and try to see if I can find a spot here to plant one in April. Oh and they gave me one. I've been sniffing at that thing all day. Mmmmm.
