Hardware store guy is going through some problems.

The other week on a Saturday afternoon I stopped through the hardware store in my neighborhood to pick up some plastic wraps to put up on my windows for the winter.

The one (older) (white) (ex-cop) guy who runs the place was there and his friend who he was talking with helped me find them on the shelves, and then when I was checking out, his friend mosied off and we got to talking.

It turns out that his (Chinese immigrant) wife had pain in her left breast like a week earlier, and they got referrals and she's already going in for surgery that Monday.

"She had stuff when she was nineteen," he was like, "But she just never goes to the doctor, she says it's too much money and it won't do anything anyhow."

He then said that she's been down, and hasn't wanted to tell anyone.

I asked around, and he said a "Thinking of You" card wouldn't be good for her, but a "Get Well Soon" card post-surgery would be something that she would like.

He then said that he had a horrible father and grew up in a foster home, and has lived his life trying to be nice to people, so he hopes he has some favors in with "the Big Guy Up There".

He also said that he saw a lot as a cop, and he shot people and got shot, and he still wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night, and he goes back to sleep by thinking of everyone in his life who he's thankful for.

Then, he moved some pads off the calendar to reveal a blank swath of paper and he took up a pencil and was like, "Have I ever showed you this?".

"No," I was like.

He then drew two short lines about three inches apart.

"This is when you're born," he said, pointing to the first line, "And this is when you're going to die," he then said, pointing to the second.

"Where do you think you are?".

"Ooh!", I was like.  "That's tough, you can die at any time."

So, I put myself as two-thirds done.

(I really don't like questions like that; I find myself stupefied when people say they'll live a long time or say something about long-term planning that assumes that they think that, b/c you really just don't know, at all.)

"Okay," he was like.  "Wherever you think you are, let's just think about that.  Remember," he was like, pointing to everything to one side of the mark, "That's in the past, and all this over here is the only thing in front of you."

He said that's how he tries to live his life.