So, the state sent me a check today, a child support check not from my ex, but from me.  They take 50.00 out of my paycheck then mail it to me because I no longer owe child support to anyone.  It's a system I do not mind because I get the child support check before I get my paycheck, so okay, I'm easy.  And I decide I will take my little shopping cart (I have no car) which my friend and I call the eco-cart and my kids call the ghetto cart up to Winco to stock up on yogurt, chocolate Chex, dog treats, cheese, fruit, and hot dogs.  Sorry Alice Waters, these turkey franks are only a dollar and we like them. 

So I put on my not-recently-washed clothes because I will do laundry on payday but I'm showered.  My hair is clean and I'm a 50-something-year-old woman with my hair clipped to the side, but I have taken a little care with my appearance.  I have my lipstick and foundation on.  More than that makes me look not good.  So you know, I care.  I want to be accepted by society. 

I once quoted Alice Munro in an old post where she said that she could have seen herself in her home town as one of the ladies she knew who you would see walking to the store silently pronouncing:  "Think what you like; things have gone too far for me now."  They had very obviously given up.  She said she could have gone this way if she had not married and just lived in her father's house waiting for her library books to come in, and just going to the grocery now and then as her only contact with the outside world.  Well that has not happened to me just yet.  I work at home but you can count me in.  I clean out my closets.  I mop my floors and make regular meals everyday though I get little company.  I feel I'm still in touch.  I do my volunteer work and even though I'm an atheist I just joined a church group.  I need community.

So I was shocked when I got off the Max with my little cart and walked up to Winco and saw a sign on the electric doors saying:  "Bicycle-Riding Prohibited in Store."  How did this get by me?  The obvious conclusion I come to by reading this sign is that someone or some people must have been riding their bikes in this store in order to do their shopping.  Where the hell have I been?  It's a trend that bypassed me entirely.  I have never ridden a bike in a Winco store (not that I wouldn't want to) and now I am prohibited from doing so.  I just can't keep up.