Running errands 

It seemed like an ordinary house in old Englewood. The destination was an office building downtown. She got in the car and said, “I hope you don’t mind, I have some errands to run”. “No problem, we will just change the destination at your stops”. I had no idea that we had five of them in our future . 

Stop #1 was at her job in central Denver. She was dropping off some paperwork. The downtown traffic was the usual ‘sh__ show’ and there was construction all around it, which meant that trying to find a place to park might be a challenge—it was. She headed into the office and as she got out she looked back and said, “Hopefully this won’t be long”. By my standards it was, like 22 minutes. She was paying by the mile and the minute. After, having about three different policemen give me the ‘evil eye’ for my parking job, she came skipping into my car.  

Stop #2 was The Wine Store on Colfax. That only took about 15 minutes. She must have been low on her bottle stock because she came out with a full grocery cart 🛒. We loaded them in my car.  

Stop #3 The Marijuana store— This happens a lot in my Lyft life and this one was less than five minutes. I took it she knew what she was looking for.  

Stop #4 King Soopers— “This won’t take long, I just have to get a couple of things”. To her credit it wasn’t long at all. Somebody was having leg of lamb for dinner.  

I was wondering what this last stop would be, “Surely (I thought to myself, not the beauty parlor, I bet it’s Doggy Daycare)”. I was right. She said “I am going to get Jake, he loves ridding in a car. He is very good- you will see”. I was trying to imagine what kind of dog 🐶 Jake might be. I was bracing for a St. Bernard. He came strutting out on a leash. He looked like a Jack Russell, I was right. We headed back south on a 15 minute ride. We hadn’t gone 3 blocks and Jake hopped up to the front seat and gave that look 👀 only a dog can give – “Don’t mind me”. Jake and I became fast friends and my slight irritation at his owner disappeared. She said “If you like, roll the window down, he loves it”. I did, so there we went, Jake and Mark – two cool dudes – and a 40-something red head in the back seat. Jake held his head out the window with a doggy smile plastered on his face. Ok, it made me feel like I was 20 years younger.  

Onward and Upward,

Mark