In the Summertime

After two days of heat and humidity, I was so happy to stick my head out the door this morning and feel a cool wind. It got up to about 85 degrees today, but the stifling sticky feeling had vanished along with the storms. I managed to get out of the house fairly early for my farm market run.

It was a fantastic morning for a ride. After a quick stop at the bank, I headed for the farm market. It was pushed to the side of the parking lot again, but just as noisy as usual. Cherries and carrots were gone, but I did eventually pick up zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, a cucumber, a green pepper, mushrooms, peaches, blueberries, bananas, a small jar of honey peach butter for Lauren's parents when I go on vacation, and sugar plums to replace the cherries.

I rode around for a little while after that, checking out yard sales. Perhaps because of the gorgeous weather, there were tons of them today. Alas, I found nothing of interest besides a lovely ride and eventually headed home. Spent the rest of the early afternoon working on editing and posting the role-play (as mentioned before) and having lunch (Garden State Turkey-Bean Soup and farm market vegetable salad) before heading for work.

I left early enough to take a peek at the Rite Aid that's closing next-door to us. It was about half-empty. The shelves in front were still filled with food, cosmetics, electronics, magazines, stationary, and seasonal items...but the ones in back near the pharmacy were totally wiped out. I saw why when I tried to make my way around the store. There were very, very long lines, going half-way across the front of the store, and only two cashiers to handle them. I was looking for contact solution, but needless to say, I left without buying anything.

Work was just as much of a pain in the rear. First of all, it was busy for most of the day. Second, the computer system that handles our debit, credit, and food stamp cards and our checks was offline all day. This had little effect on the checks or food stamp cards, and only caused slight problems for credit cards. Debit cards, however, were nothing but trouble. You'd have to sign them, and if anyone tried to buy over about $150 worth of food on them, the card wouldn't allow it and they'd have to run the card through twice or however many times until the order was paid for.

Add some annoying customers to the mix, too. My very first customer of the day was the obnoxious old man with the patch who thinks he owns the universe. He refuses to write a check and makes the cashiers do it, even though I think he's perfectly capable. I've seen him do other things. I think he's just lazy. Later in the day, I had an elderly woman who wanted one item in each bag. This wouldn't have been such a problem, if she hadn't had a very full cart...and if she hadn't kept treating me like I was five years old. I know exactly what I'm doing, and I did hear her when she said one item per bag. I hate it when people are condescending to me.

Thankfully, it was quiet enough after work for me to do my grocery shopping in peace. I took advantage of several excellent sales, including $1.00 for an 18-count container of eggs, $.40 each for Dannon Light Yogurt, half-off all chicken breasts, and two Fiber One Granola Bar boxes for $6...even less, with the $1.10 coupon I got last week from a sample table.