At around 11:13pm Tuesday evening, it suddenly occured to me that I was completely out of deodorant for the morning "clean and groom" session. Borrowing a little from the wife "just to get by" is NOT an option as there is nothing more alarming than a man who smells like the 5 dozen rose special from Pro Flowers. So, I strapped on my shoes (both of them) grabbed the keys and headed out to my local 24-hour convenience store for the "bare essentials". On the way there, my headlights came in direct contact with a shoe-like silouette laying in the middle of the roadway. As I got closer, I confirmed my suspicion and slowed to the nearest parking lot to investigate. Oddly enough, I just happened to have my camera handy...and ready. At this late hour, there were very few cars on the road and most "normal" people were at home fast asleep, catching some z's, counting sheep...but not me. There for that quiet moment, standing two feet from the double yellow line on a major city street with no cars appraoching from either direction, I realized that I was...really standing in the middle of the street taking a flash picture of someone's lost, blown out, running shoe at 11:30 at night?!#*%&! For a split second I envisioned myself trying to explain to a police officer what I was really doing there in the middle of the street at that hour...and quickly got back in my car and continued on to the store. Aparently I have adopted the "Dumb & Dumber" definition of the "bare essentials" and left the store with a wooden paddle ball, 2 pinwheels, several bags of candy, large foam hat...oh and deodorant too!
-J Snipes
