the highlight of my weekend:
just an hour ago, i left my house to read some magazines at the market. this was at the Stater Brothers supermarket up the street. so i began flipping through the Forbes magazine and on the front cover is: forbes investment guide. This old caucasian guy around his 60's looks at the magazine and comes up to me. he was stocky, wearing a worn-out cap, greying 3-inch, moustache, faded shirt and shorts, and flip flop sandals. he asks me if i was an investor and before i can answer him, he starts talking about how he was an investor and how chinese are sharp investors because of the recent shanghai market boom and how his neighbor's house has been bought out by a chinese couple in 4-days. he goes on to saying how diversification is the only way to go, money markets are safest etc etc etc....the enron scheme.......the martha stewart bust, etc. he then mentions how he started to invest after he got out of the marines and because he works at a post office where the 401K wasnt enough. and because he was wounded during vietnam, he was released and the government gave him incentives to work at the post office. then he starts talking about how if it wasnt for him being injured (points to his knee w/shrapnel) , and the government giving him 10 extra points, he wouldnt have passed the post office exam.
and because he was holding a couple of lemons as we were facing a rack full of different magazines, one thing lead to another. he picked up a copy of the wine magazine and told me how he was an avid wine drinker and that hes been to sonoma, temecula..........paso robles is the best because napa was too expensive etc.. then he started to talk about the lemons; how he is buying some lemons because white wine goes with salmon and if you are cooking salmon, lemons are the best to flavor them with. he asked me if i liked fish and i told him i like sushi and tuna and he starts saying how i eat healthy and that i look in shape. he tells me to stay off drugs, beer and cigarettes because his daughter used to go to school at Nogales H.S. and thats the only thing the kids do over there. so i told him i used to go to nogales also, but moved to walnut high school and he tells me how walnut is a nice city, but he couldnt afford it because the post office wasnt paying him enough and bought a house in west covina instead. he said he bought his house for $60,000 back in 1980 and now it is worth $700,000.
then finally after 20 minutes of listening to his life story, he said good night, take care, and he left the supermarket. i took my magazine, walked around the aisles and paid for my stuff. that took me about 10 minutes. when i walked outside, i saw him leaning against his car (a green, 1998 honda civic with a bunch of bumper stickers). so im thinking in my head, all i have to do is wave goodbye and walk to my car. but instead, he waves back and asks me which car i drive. at this point, i thought he was a crazy man, but then he tells me that he is waiting for her daughter to get off work. i tell him i drive the mustang. so he walks over and asks me which engine it had and how i kept it clean for the past 10 years. he said i can take the ladies for a ride with the ragtop down, so he asks me if i had a girlfriend and before you know it, he tells me how he met his wife in palm springs. he then starts to talk about his high school days back in oregon, when his dad was also a mustang guy. after he graduated class of '62 and moved to van nuys, he saved up for a 1968 camaro. he tells me one night him and his buddy's got drunk at a bar and he crashed his camaro into the building and the cops busted him for a DUI. he spent the night in jail because his dad was reluctant to bail him out. then he points to his car and says his 1998 civic gives him good mileage that can take him to the bay area in a tank. and since we were looking at his car, he mentions about his john kerry bumper sticker. he was like "im a fucking liberal-democrat and those corrupt republicans are fucking up our country. with already 50 billion dollars spent, bush is the worst fucking president there ever will be." all i really can do is say yes/no, nod my head...he never gave me the opportunity to speak my thoughts. i tried to interrupt him, but all he would do is keep on talking for another 20 minutes.
finally, i mean finally, his daughter walks out of the supermarket and he waves to her and he offers his hand and introduces himself. he tells me good night and off we go. something tells me this wont be the last time ill be seeing him.
i cant believe my brain remembered all that bullshit.
