Distracted Thinking

We’ve heard about distracted driving, that lack of concentration while driving a car when we should most certainly be paying attention to the car, the road, the signs and signals. Of course, on a long, cross-country trip, we might have a lesser level of concentration, and we should STOP IT!! We should STAY CONCENTRATING.

My problem is more of an “at home” problem. I sometimes, often, or maybe usually, get lost in thought. Not important thought. Just … thought.

Maybe … when I’m working in the yard. I start out pulling weeds from the front flower bed, for example. I might also be listening to an audio book. Then, at some point, I realize I’ve completely lost the thread of whatever plot points have been flowing into my ears in the last ten to fifteen minutes. And, when the story’s next sentence is: “Margaret came back into the room and said that dinner was ready,” I might think: “Margaret? Who’s Margaret? When did Margaret join the plot?”

And it’s not like pulling weeds is that distracting. I just end up thinking about how I need to call my sister. That sort of thing.

Sometimes, I make a nice list of what’s for dinner for the week. Sometimes, not. In that case, I look through the stuff in the freezer and think, “Tonight, this, and then tomorrow night, that.” In the meantime, I’ll have thought about a score or so of other things I need to do, and some of them get done, and some have to be shelved. And then, when tomorrow night comes, and I’ve thought about a dozen other important things, I think, “Dinner? What was the plan?” And I have to dig through stuff in the freezer all over again.

Peter was here for several days. Many of the things he’s accustomed to doing, especially on weekends, haven’t been available recently. We ran our errands, all masked up. We made cookies, he got to play with a kid next door, we watched some favorite videos, and he read whole lot. He and David went to a nearby park, early in the morning when it was cooler and only one other family was there. And, on Saturday afternoon, they were able to visit a local museum, which had been closed since March. Masks, limited people, and many favorite, hands-on type activities weren’t available, but, they got to go.

On Monday, we’d gone (all masked up) to Big Lots to purchase items for a Family Resource Pantry that our church helps stock. We had a list, we checked things off, and we also bought several other things that caught his fancy that he wanted, snacks for us, tea for his mom, and a small Transformer vehicle. After everything had been bagged up, we pushed the cart out to my car and put everything in the trunk. Where it stayed, because we take turns with other churches, and our week was the next week. This keeps the space in the church that distributes the items from getting too overwhelmed with stuff. But I wanted him to take part in the helping aspect of this ministry.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” I said. “Right before we leave Waco next Monday, we’ll go by the place where all these things get dropped off. Then, we leave town and go to Fort Worth. That’s the plan.”

All the rest of the week, we hauled all the cereal boxes, bags of rice, bags of beans, cans of vegetables, soup, meats, bottles of shampoo, detergent, dish washing liquid, sticks of deodorant, etc, in my trunk, as we went around town.

Last Monday, I washed and dried all his clothes. We packed up all his stuff, and put the bags in the back seat, next to his booster seat (as the trunk was full of that Family Pantry stuff). We had to drive by the book drop at the library, and he returned the videos and books he gotten. Then, we went to the post office to mail a package.

“Now,” I said. “Here we go!” I drove off to get to the Interstate, and it wasn’t until we were just ready to get on I-35 that I said: “Oh, No!”

“What?” Peter said.

“The Family Pantry!” I wailed. “I completely forgot about the Family Pantry stuff.”

And, because of the epic highway construction that’s happening just a ways back towards town, it would have taken at least 20 minutes each way to get to that church and back to where we were.

So we went on to Fort Worth. I dropped Peter off at his house and visited for a short while, then got back on the road, and drove all that stuff back to Waco. Wednesday, I dropped it off at that church, where it will all get sorted and boxed up and delivered to families.

As we were checking out at Big Lots, another employee came over to help bag up our stuff. Just as the checker was almost done, I pulled out my wallet and retrieved a coupon I’d gotten online. “Oh!” she said. And the other guy looked a little startled, too. “I got it online,” I said, wondering if I’d not paid attention to a date or something. But, it seems that I should have presented the coupon at the beginning of the checkout process.

“We’ll just take everything out of the bags and rescan them,” they said.

“Oh, no,” I said. “We’re not going to do that. That’s ‘way too much trouble.” But they insisted. And I insisted. And I checked the expiration date on the coupon.

“This is good for a couple of weeks, still,” I said. And I explained that I would be back in a couple of weeks to purchase these same things, again.

“This is for a Family Resource Pantry that my church participates in. When I come back, this coupon won’t have expired. I’ll use it, then.”

And they agreed. And I’m sure they were really relieved, to not have to re-scan ALL THOSE CANS! ALL THOSE BAGS! ALL THOSE BOXES!