Texting and Creepy

He Who Texts fancies himself to be a technological wonder now. He loves to text. No complete sentences ...... or even words complicate this new vocabulary he so readily embraces. Punctuation is a thing of the past. Oh, wait, he never cared much for whole words and punctuation before, so this is just like a dream come true for him!

Texting is harder for me. I still want to spell words and use punctuation to express myself and my texts tend to be a little long. The keyboard is too tiny and my arthritic thumbs hit the wrong keys and I end up pecking the entire thing with my right forefinger. Takes too long and I become impatient and want to fling the phone at the wall.

I like the fact that you can text and have a private exchange in public, but was not a big fan of the whole thing until recently .........

Wednesday afternoon I was counting down the time til closing so I could finish the garden work I had started that morning. The forecast had called for a rainy day, but nothing had happened except a nice breeze and cooler temperatures. It was approaching 6:00 and I had only one swimmer left in the pool. I stuck my head out the door and decided to go ahead and lock up, leaving the happy little frog sign saying I would be "right back" in the door.

I had restocked the store shelves and needed to take the remaining rolls of paper towels out to store in the laundry room. I stuffed the phone in my pocket and loaded the paper towels in my arms and headed out to see a van pulling in. The van did not stop at the stop sign since it came in the exit drive, so I was already annoyed when the young man parked and got out. His driving skills left much to be desired. 

Sighing deeply I put my load of paper towels on the chair and turn to ask him if I can be of assistance. He stands staring at me and a long pause follows. "Well, I want to know about your park." He follows me into the store, as I had not yet locked the door and I ask what kind of camping he was interested in. Another long pause, so I ask if he camps in a tent or an RV, thinking to speed things along. "Well, I just sleep in my van." he says. I tell him that we don't really do that here and hope that our chat has come to an end. "I really like the looks of your park." he says an he runs the tips of his fingers over the surface of the registration desk. The tiny hairs on the back of my neck are started to rise and I feel around for my cell phone.

"Do you live here?"  Yes. "Are you alone?" By now my canines have picked up on my unease and are all barking and scratching at the half door leading to the office. I tell him, "Of course not, my husband is on the property." All the while trying to see the keyboard on my phone so I can text him.

"Oh, that's my husband texting me now!" I pick up my phone and pretend to read a text, then text him to get home asap, I have a really Creepy Man in the office. I say, " I need to take some things to my husband and kind of push him out the door, locking it. I grab my paper towels and head to the side of the building, out of sight of Creepy Man.

As I spy from the corner of the building, he continues to rub the surface of the map he got in the office. From time to time he appears to be staring at the roof, then at the pond and at the clouds in the sky.

The clouds behind him are turning the color of a bruise and the wind is picking up. I see lightning in the distance and hear a clap of thunder. I hear my poor Toni Louise half barking, half crying. She is terrified of storms. He Who should have been there quicker finally arrives and tells the creepy man to leave, that we have no availability.

This is when he let Toni Louise out into a brewing storm. He Who loves to communicate by text calls me to tell me he told the man to leave and that he has a call to a wreck on the highway. By now I have walked to the back and around to the other side of the building. "Did you just leave me here?" I ask into the phone. Yes, he did, while Creepy Man is still standing gazing into the heavens.

Then he goes on to tell me, as he drives to this wreck, that he found this same individual asleep in our parking lot that very morning (he was in the van and his shoes were outside the van) and had already sent him on his way then. I really want to go back inside and get my dogs in before it starts to rain, but Creepy Man (in his shoes now) is still there.

My Hero, He Who Tows, suggests that I just go unlock the door and go in and if Creepy Man  follows me, then tell him to leave. Really, that was his solution. I am thinking that if the dogs picked up on my distress, Creepy Man would, too. I solved the problem by breaking in the back door.

I watched from behind my tinted windows as Creepy Man continued to look at my roof and then my pond. I did not unlock the door until I saw a big diesel pusher coming in the entrance drive. Creepy Man decided to leave at the same time and played chicken with the giant bus as he went out the wrong way.

But wait, there is more. The rain came and thundered down on us for a short time and the sun reappeared. I went out and finished some mowing and picked some beans and tomatoes. I came in while He Who Builds was making new doors to his barn (Fred Sanford Emporium). At 9:45 I texted him to suggest it was bedtime. He texted back that Creepy Man had reappeared and he was watching him leave, then decided to follow him out and would be back soon. Creepy Man advised He Who that I had told him to return .......


I have to admit I did not worry about spelling or punctuation when I texted! Maybe texting can be a good thing.