You Never Know

What's my point? That's a mighty big lemon?

Actually, no. Although it is.

The point is the measuring tape. I just stuck the lemon there for some color.

I had a measuring tape here, but one of my renters seems to have walked off with it. At least I can't find it anywhere. I was looking for it to measure pot and planter sizes before I went to the nursery. I managed without it, but when I was shopping at a giant grocery/housewares store called Easy on Sunday, I threw a measuring tape into my basket, figuring it's a nice thing to have around.

The store is huge, and so were the check-out lines. The woman in front of me had done a really impressive job of buying a ton of groceries for about 100 pesos (about $25). She must have bought all the store specials. When it was my turn, the check-out girl scanned in my stuff but couldn't get the barcode on the measuring tape to read. She said I could go run back and get another one, but there were at least 8 people waiting on line and it was just a whim, so I told her it wasn't that important, so left without it.

Then yesterday on the subway on my way to lit class, a subway-seller was hawking measuring tapes for just 5 pesos. (The one I was planning to buy was 14 or so.) You never know what you'll find and when you'll find it.

So there it is, measuring my lemon (10 cm/4in.) Subway sellers hawk all sorts of stuff, from stickers and tissue packs to clip-on reading lights and plastic expanding file folders. I remember seeing a lot of those file-folders on my first trip here: they open up to have about 10 or 12 compartments. I remember thinking that people here must have more filing needs than we generally do in the states. I was glad to see one again just yesterday. I guess filing is still one of the local pastimes.