Today it is 60 beautiful degrees outside and thanks to recent snows, there are mud puddles around, if you know where to point your truck.  And I know where to point a truck. It’s a good day.

I pulled into the preschool parking lot a few minutes early, and sat in the truck waiting. The Mavericks were singing Blue Moon REALLY loudly through truck speakers. I was humming, happily contemplating mud puddles when a guy knocked on my window. It’s a very tall truck and no one ever knocks on the window. And I like it like that.

So of course I screamed.

It was someone tall enough to knock on the window of my very tall truck, which bothered me a little. I rolled down the window, and only then realized that The Mavericks were still REAL loud.

Tall Cowboy waited while I turned the radio down.

Of note:

*I don’t like to talk to people I don’t know.

*I barely like to talk to people I DO know.

*Tall people standing right next to me are at a disadvantage with me because it always seems they are usurping the empty space above my head. That space may be unoccupied due to my height, but it’s still my invisible vertical property. Don’t lean into it.  (yeah. usurping. you read that right.)  This Tall Cowboy was the sort who WOULD have leaned into that vertical space if given chance.

*I know that because he knocked on the window.

*Yes, y’all who are not from this part of West Texas. It’s perfectly normal for Tall Cowboys or any other person of any description whatsoever to talk to you for no reason at all except that it’s WAY FRIENDLY HERE and there’s nothing that can be done to stop them. I know. I’ve tried.  People here just talk to each other. Sigh.

He seemed amused. Maybe it was the tall truck. Or the loud scream.

I, personally, was NOT amused. I’d been VERY happy right before the knock and the scream.  Once I turned down the music he said, “You don’t seem the Blue Moon type.”

I waited.

Surely there was more to this than… that? I decided silence was the way to go. Then he would get to his point.

I waited.

With a polite expression on my face. Slightly questioning.

But silent.

Because any second he was going to remember what he REALLY needed to say that was so important that he needed to make me scream.

He waited.

For what, I have no idea.

He still looked amused.

That bugged me.

It was somewhere in this seriously awkward silence that I realized four things:

(four? Yes. FOUR. It was a long awkward silence.)

1) he must have heard Blue Moon because it was WAY TOO LOUD. All the windows had been up.

2) you cannot win a silent waiting game with a Tall Cowboy. Particularly if you have to go get your preschooler and the Tall Cowboy has nothing better to do than scare the crap out of the mommies in the parking lot.

3) I can be instantly annoyed by a guy who thinks he can look at me and tell me what ‘type’  I am – especially if he’s wrong.

4) I’m terrible at recognizing people and I might actually know this guy.

So I asked if I knew him. I wasn’t going to outlast him playing the Quiet Game anyway.

“No. No, ma’am. I don’t know any Blue Moon girls. Just thought I’d say hello.”

Which made no sense at all because hello…? But he didn’t say hello til just now….?

“Okay.” I smiled. I hoped it was a friendly, polite smile that said, GO AWAY NOW!

He smiled back, nodded at me, and walked away. I turned the music back up and rolled the window up at the same time. Mel McDaniel was singing “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On.”

Tall Cowboy threw his head back and laughed.

And fortunately he did not come back or say anything else that didn’t make any sense, and I got Seth-4yr without further incident. Later, we drove through puddles and I played Blue Moon for him. I told him the name of the song and asked if he liked it.

He said, “No, Mom. I am not a Blue Moon kind of guy. I am just not.”  Seth-4yr has a way with words.

Lucky for me, Seth-4yr  is a snow-melted muddy puddle,  backroads sort of guy, and his giggles mixed with mine as we splashed through a few.

It’s a good day.