Free Coffee and Health Care

The Supreme Court voted to uphold Obamacare, which is a good thing because it spared us all the obstreperous outrage of the Democrats who, had it gone the other way, would be whining that the court is corrupt, but since things went their way it is a shining beacon of light--or at least those five justices who voted in favor of us taking one step closer to socialism are. Despite that, it was still a good day for me personally, and after all this is my blog so naturally that matters.

Nestled among the positives was a wonderful encounter with a total stranger, a visiting Canadian here on holiday. Our meeting took place inside a Starbucks coffee shop on Portland's Exchange Street, where I was standing behind him with my friend, N. Usually a generous and giving soul, what with her hospice work and teaching little children how to read and all, today N. was a tad stingy. First she offered me her Starbucks card since she was not getting anything, but then when she saw that it had five dollars on it, she whipped it away and fished out another from the depths of her purse. Oops, that too had five dollars on it. "I'm saving these to use myself," she said, quite boldly I thought under the circumstances. The term "Indian giver" flew into my head, and it was at that very moment that our neighbor from the north turned and said, "Would anyone like a free drink?" I fairly shouted "Yes!" immediately, being low on cash and having to still pay for parking.

He said go for it, I ordered my latte, and we shook hands to seal the deal. It turned out that Graham---that's his name--was eligible for a free drink with the purchase of a pound of coffee, and he had bought two pounds of coffee, so he got one for himself and, being alone, gave the other to me. I thanked him profusely, subtly nudging N. and insinuating she could learn a few things from this guy. Graham's only request as payment was that I "do something nice for someone else today."

Now back home, I am about to go out and get some fresh litter and clean the cat boxes. I wonder, does a cat qualify as "someone" or does it have to be a human being? Anyway, I love those Canadians, they are always so cheerful. Must be all that free health care.