>>>The stuff we put up with from the opposite sex! ;-)
>>
>>I'd say that there's a magic sentence to help your troubles, but since "I'm out for a smoke, you'll find me near the entrance" would be politically rectified this way or another, I'm saying nothing.
>
>I was being jokey. There are excellent reasons to put up with the quirks of the opposite sex. Women would say the same of men, although possibly with less conviction.

Oh, that was my way to spend the time. In front of the shops is the only place where you can watch American pedestrians in their natural habitat, which goes all the way from the car door to the shop door :). And I had a legal excuse to do some loitering, under a guise of "oh, my wife is inside, but if you mind me being here we can go away - and of course, whatever she wants to buy won't be bought" (but it never came to that - anti-loitering enforcers don't mind us old loiterers, they go after the young).