I’m reading the local, quarterly magazine for this small town in which I live. I think the content is interesting, and I’m happy to see the ads of local businesses because I like to support local businesses. But I’m not impressed with the writing. Every article has exclamation points. Wow! I didn’t know how exciting the material was! I’m so glad they are helping me!

*****

Although I like to shop locally, I’ve made a few trips to the shopping centers that are a half hour or more away. Have you ever been to a World Market? Please don’t tell me that this stuff is made with slave labor.

A few days ago, I combined a trip there to buy a coffee table with a drop off at the Salvation Army. Now, if you were to guess which part of a small city had a Salvation Army, would you think it would be in the ritzy section? Of course not. I found myself locking the doors and being thankful it was a sunny day. The kids kept asking me questions and I kept thinking, “Please stop distracting me. I don’t want to get lost!” (Exclamation point added so you know how urgent my thoughts were.)

Later I told Bill if we had any more drops offs, he could do the errand. But this morning I saw an ad in the poorly written local magazine that a thrift store was coming soon. Thank goodness.

*****

Last weekend, Bill was driving us on one of the long stretches of straight, flat roads with a strictly maintained speed limit. We are so used to areas where the speed limits are considered “guidelines.” Here, though, either the people are very obedient, or the police are very active. Either way, we are driving much slower than normal.

“It’s a good thing we have cruise control,” said my husband.

“My car has cruise control?” I asked. We have owned this van for four years.

“You mean you drove all the way to Georgia without using the cruise control?!” (Exclamation point included so you know how incredulous he was.)

Georgia? GEORGIA? How about: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, KANSAS…

“My car has cruise control, too,” he added.

“Really?” We’ve owned that car since 1997.

So I’ve been learning how to drive, again. It’s fun to learn new stuff! (Really!)