Day of the Lizards

I believe all discerning people understand why shopping centers have, in recent years, begun providing areas furnished with upholstered chairs and sofas. Without question the serious and qualified shoppers in this world are the ladies and, just as they require a parking lot to park their cars, they also need reasonably comfortable chairs and sofas to park their husbands. I don't have hard evidence but I suspect the backless granite ledges encircling the fountains were offering insufficient hospitality to the old male gluteous maximus. Perhaps such seats of stone are their own hard evidence.

It appears Florida is pushing this concept to impressive new levels. We were at a store today that provides a roofed bay, 40 feet by 40 feet, open on one side to the exterior, furnished with about 8 sofas and many matching chairs, and decorated with potted plants.

I spent a little time in this area today, not that I didn't also look around the store. But we all know how a man shops. If he needs new socks he goes straight to the socks department, oblivious to all signs advertising specials on this and that. He knows the color socks he wants, snaps up the front pair on the rack and bee-lines to the check-out counter eager to pay whatever price in exchange for a speedy exit from the store.

While outside I noticed busy lizards and approached to watch them. I was impressed with the spiral curl these fellows can put in their tails, more nicely done than a fiddlehead.

The fellow on top was eating tiny dead leaf

fragments. Perhaps he had his fill of insects

and felt for a little salad.

As interesting as it was to observe the behavior of the lizards, it was even more interesting to observe the behavior of the ladies emerging from their treasure hunt in the store. One woman came strutting out, bags in both hands, talking to herself, congratulating herself on what she found. Carol told me that inside the store it is not uncommon for women to hold up a piece of merchandise and talk to it. I also saw a woman leave the store, get as far as the curb, then dance the rest of the way to her car. 

And what do the men on the sofas do? Most fiddle with a phone, some snooze, and one old fellow with a long beard used his sofa to perform stretch exercises. What passersby must have thought to see a sofa with a right leg jutting up from it I cannot guess.

As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot just by watching."