Double Whammy!

Dear Friends,
The other day, tired of living in a messy apartment, surrounded by packed, half-packed and empty boxes, I grabbed my bag and boarded on a train to Cobourg! Picking up my keys from the management office, was my excuse, but I knew better, I just needed to be alone with myself! The one-hour train ride was very pleasant, giving me a chance to read and reflect. Firmly believing in the Buddhist proverb, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear, I took to heart what I read.

I spent the night on a firm, unbroken mattress. Sandwiched between two waterproof mattress pads, I wondered what was keeping me awake, air waltzing through some pipe nearby, or the stubborn dog, barking somewhere in the distance. Perhaps, the culprits were streetlights, peeking through the old, tired blinds, or my achy feet, or what I'd heard during the day.
Both, a shopkeeper and the bed assembler, mentioned that the locals don't like Torontonians, because they seldom spend any money in Cobourg. When I asked why the grocery store under the building adjacent to mine closed down, I was told that the locals don't support the people from the condos.
Double Whammy - that's what was keeping me awake!

As I tossed and turned on my overpaid mattress, counting in my head how many times I had entered my pin number into the 'locals' visa machines in a few hours, I realized that a lot has been said about smooth city operators, taking advantage of small-town folks, but not much has been documented regarding intelligent, but gullible, people like me who knowingly pay the price of being from the city.

The following morning, sitting on the bench in the train station, letting the morning breeze dishevel me further, I remembered Dr. Phil's words of wisdom, "There is no reality — only perception. If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
Then, I said to myself, 'Smile Lili! Soon, you will be a local!'