Kenny Rogers Meets Gandalf the Grey

Standing in the cashier’s line at a local Walmart I had Paul Simon’s most recent album, So Beautiful So What, playing in my ears. The line was mercifully short and before I knew it the little oriental lady behind the cash register was swiping my two jugs of Arizona Ice Tea and the mattress liner across the price tag reader and telling me how much I owed. With the music in my ear I didn’t really hear what she said but I could see the amount on the screen so I swiped my debit card and punched in my PIN.   Flashing a friendly smile at me, she said something that I assumed had to do with the weather. “Yeah, it’s too windy,” I replied as I waited for the transaction to run its course. She smiled and shook her head before saying what looked like a repetition of what she had said. Apologizing, I paused my iPod and asked her to please repeat what she had said.
“You look like country singer.” Her heavily accented English sounded charming. “Are you country singer?”
“No,” I replied with a smile, “I only sing in the shower.”
That amusing little incident made my rare foray into Walmart a bit more bearable than anticipated and it reminded me of a recent comment I made on Facebook in which I told Bonnie Jones, whom I haven't seen in over 20 years, that I now look like an unfinished morph between Kenny Rogers and Gandalf the Grey.