You’re my red Slurpee

Because of my work schedule, Monday is really like Sunday for us. I’ve never had a variable or irregular work schedule before. 8:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday through Friday; that’s how it’s been for the last 4 years. But I’ve happily adapted—we’ve escaped the grind. Yesterday, despite the stifling heat, we took to the empty streets—the lone recreational bikers.

The 7-Eleven was busy with local construction crews and tradespeople beating the heat with a quick afternoon break and I thought about how lucky I was to have worked in VT during the summer months.

I stayed with the bikes, and a friendly old painter chatted me up for a few minutes and reminded me that, with the sun shining and such a beautiful girl inside, I couldn’t ask for anything more—that I was, in fact, a very lucky man.

[“I don’t fear color,” she said with a red ring staining her mouth.]

He had a strip of scratch-offs and confidently stated that today was his lucky day—he was going to win the Pick 8, Fuzzy Dice, Cash Flurry, Cherry Doubler, Bingo Tripler, and Lucky Casino all in one shot.

What was Carey doing while all this excitement was going on? Cleaning Coke Slurpee out of her hair, obviously. Instead of asking for assistance when an ice blockage in the machine began to form, she bore down and pressed the little handle on. Pressure built, of course, and forced the clog through in a big fart of slush. That is why I waited in the parking lot for 10 minutes and Carey returned with a cherry Slurpee.

[Editor’s note: Yep. Still in the purple shorts. In my middle school computer lab, there was only one Mac in a sea of PCs, and we used to fight over who got it because you could change the color of the font and background on the word processing page to spice up your keystroking experience. The cool (and blinding) combo de rigueur was purple font on yellow background. Here’s my tribute.]

-Rob.