Had the self-checkout machine worked properly, I hadn’t even seen him there. I would have just paid for my taco chips, hot salsa, baloney, and a carton of milk (the one thing I had actually come to buy) and then gotten on my bike and riden home.

But the scanner didn’t send the items to the cloud, or whatever, so the self-checkout didn’t work, and when I went back to the screen, having violently shaken the scanner in its locking station, I saw him stand outside the grocery store with his lady friend.

I like bumping into people like that because it somehow makes me feel part of the community, and especially so now that I’m the associate assistant coach of Daughter’s soccer team.

And the man was a father of a player on the team, so I gave him a quick wave and a smile, before focusing on the checkout again.

Just as I realized the scanner still hadn’t sent my baloney to the cloud or whatever, the man (and his lady friend) walked into the store, and right behind me he turned to me and said, “Enjoy this time while you can.”

I looked at him and smiled, but only saw his back. They walked into the store, and I turned my attention back to the checkout. Except for one thing. Now that sentence echoed inside my head. What did he mean by “Enjoy this time”, and especially with “while you can”?

I went through the options. I figured there were six – possibly seven – different interpretations.

1. Enjoy this time while you can.

Maybe he meant that I should really enjoy this time. Not worry about things, just focus on having fun, being happy, and looking good. Maybe it was just a casual line, his trademark, his thing, just like some people tell others to “stay real”. Or maybe…

2. Enjoy this time while you can

Maybe he had watched “Wayne’s World” recently, like we all always have, and maybe he related to Garth Algar in the scene in which he tells Wayne Campbell, his best buddy, to stop dreaming and “live in the now!” Or maybe…

3. Enjoy this time while you can

Here, it’s the time that’s key. Don’t worry about things and possessions. Time is all you’ve got, man, you dig? But then again, which time was he talking about? My time alone in the grocery store, listening to my podcasts? Well, in all honesty, sometimes it is nice to be alone at the grocery store, just walk around, and listen to a radio show or music.

More likely, though, he meant this wonderful time when our daughters are ten, and love soccer and boy bands. That I should treasure it because time is fleeting. Or maybe…

4. Enjoy this time while you can

(Here, I realized that my scanner hadn’t connected with the docking station, I walked back to give it a good shake and then walked back to the checkout screen. I punched in my PIN code, and saw that he and his lady friend had returned to the checkout line.)

I thought about his line the entire ten seconds it took me to walk to he docking station and back. I enjoyed it while I shook the scanner. But, this version stayed a mystery to me. So maybe …

5. Enjoy this time while you can

Was he making a point about me? Were we different, wasn’t he enjoying this time? Or was he enjoying it to the fullest, but he could tell I wasn’t? Or, had he done something stupid and missed his chance? Or maybe…

6. Enjoy this time while you can

I saw him at the other checkout line and now that I really thought about it, he seemed to look a little angry. He was holding a bottle of soda in his hand, maybe he couldn’t find his favorite soda and that’s why he was angry. But I had to consider the alternative that the “can” – or option seven: the entire “while you can”, including the invisible ellipsis between “time” and “while” – had been a veiled threat.

Maybe I had done something stupid without realizing it, and now it was I who was about to miss his chance to enjoy “this time” – whatever that was? Or maybe the lady he was with wasn’t his lady friend, and I shouldn’t have seen them together so he had to take me out?

Just as I had listed the options in my head, the scanner connected, and I could pay for my groceries. As I walked out, I saw the man (and his lady friend?) standing outside, at the very same place I had first seen them.

I saw him take a sip of a drink he had bought.

He seemed to enjoy it.