Of Old Men And Roses

The past few days I was up in Auburn with Liz.
They have "real" Autumn; the leaves change colors and fall off whilst the temperature falls chilling the bones at night. (A little during the day too)
Needless to say I didn't venture out without my leather jacket; which (I might add) is the bomb. I had a nice time up there, the weather was good for the soul.
But that's beside the point.
It was completely beautiful up there, unfortunately for me I'm a southern California girl at heart so if I were to stay up there for more than a few days I would wish for nasty hot wind blowing through the plethora of houses that line the streets without pines trees and water separating them from the streets.
That information was also beside the point.

Here's the story; Liz had to go to the DMV to renew her registration which had expired and so I went along as the amusing little mexican chica...or something. (Just kidding)
By the way, the DMV is tiny, there's about five or six windows and about thirty chairs which was not enough for the amount of good townsfolk in the room; quite a few people were standing up.
And I have just now realized that this story has two parts.
Here's the first part;
unfortunately it takes place in the crowded DMV, I wasn't going to subject anyone to imagining the tiny room anymore than I have described but it appears that ya'll will have to go back to that crowded room of the uncomfortable blue chairs and chatter.
At least it was warm.
Anyways...
I was sitting in a chair reading the handbook for people wishing to obtain a motorcycle license because I am pondering the possibility also I needed to entertain myself while we waited.
So I'm sitting there reading about not hitting side mirrors and trashcans and such when an elderly man walked into the DMV.
I didn't think anything of it; just another person coming in to wait in the crowded noisy room.

The man walked a bit slowly up to the counter and took a number then headed to the back of the room. I turned my attention back to the handbook but I stopped reading again when I heard a lady behind me offer the old man her seat.
I was still looking at the book but I wasn't reading anything and I didn't want to turn around and stare rudely like I had nothing else to be looking at.
However I was listening as is a favorite pastime of mine; listening in to other people's conversations. I am cursed with good hearing, I'm not an eavesdropper (most of the time); the conversation wasn't private...
So she offers the man her seat and the elderly man refused it in the true spirit of a gentleman. She was a lady so doubtless he took that into consideration when giving her an answer.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised finding that perhaps my generation isn't as hopelessly impolite as they seem at first glance.
The lady insisted, the old man thanked her and sat down, I went back to actually reading.

It put a bit of a smile on my face, it is nice to see people who still have respect for their elders and put their needs first simply because they are older than they.
I'm not quite putting myself into that category, lord knows I need a bit more in that department.
But it was nice.

Now for the second part.
Liz ended up having to go and get her car smogged because it was an odd year or something. I don't know much about the rules for renewing registration seeing as how I don't actually own a car.

The shop we went to had roses in the planter around the building, I saw them, thought it was nice, and thought about going over to smell the flowers.
I love roses, granted they were the wrong color, pink and white. I like red ones but they all smell the same.

Anyways even though I thought about going over to smell the roses I didn't, I think there may have been a fleeting thought about how I would look, I would be called a "dork", someone would think I was strange; you get the picture.
I ended up sitting on a retaining wall casting an occasional glance at the flowers enjoying the cold air and fall colors mostly contemplating taking a picture of the rocks under my feet. (Truth)

I don't know how long I was sitting there but eventually a big white truck drove up and a man probably in his late forties got out.
My eyes followed him idly, he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry but right before he hurried in the doors he paused, bent over and smelled one of the roses.
Then he went in for a few minutes dashed out, got in his truck and drove away.
I thought, "That's what it means to stop and smell the roses. No matter how much of a hurry you are in you can stop and take a second or two to enjoy a nice smell or a pretty sight and then go about your business."
I was glad I saw that, it taught me a lesson, it also made me chastise myself for not following my first impulse.

Ah; there's another part to the story:
Today on the drive back to Vista there was a rainbow around the sun, it was amazing.
I spent a good while staring out the window at it hoping I wasn't doing too much damage to my eyes.
Why did the sun have to be right in the middle of it?
Right.
It wouldn't be so awesome if it was just a rainbow...
not to knock rainbows.
I love them but this one was around the sun and I had never seen that before.
On the way down we hit traffic in L.A. and after L.A. and I think there was a bit right before Lala land as well.
I didn't care, the windows were down, music was blasting, I was with Liz, there was fresh air (mostly) and it just made me so happy.
Even the selfishness of the other drivers only served as amusement.
Of course I wasn't the one stuck behind the wheel but I honestly don't think I would have cared, I wouldn't have been able to stare out the window as much but it still would have been pretty nice.

I think most humans are programmed to stop and enjoy things if only for a few moments but we shove it aside to make room for our busy lives or we push it aside for fear of being called strange. I suppose some of us push things away for so long that we being to fail to see the beauty that right in front of our eyes.
Where someone might see an item worth a few moments another would see nothing and go about their day without finding a small moment to brighten it.

That's all; smell the roses people.
I don't just write this for myself.