Shopping

Whenever my sister comes to visit, I always wind up spending money because she finds lots of crap that she thinks I need and don't have. Today was no exception.

First, my sister and I had to go to Kroger to get all the food. Neat! Today was Wednesday and Wednesday is senior citizen discount day at Kroger. My sister is 62 (almost 63) so we used her Kroger discount card. Saved lots of money. Good shopping trip.

Now comes the fun stuff.

Ryan, Sherry and I took off to buy all the stuff that she said I needed. Power up that credit card swiping arm.

First it's Best Buy. I needed batteries for a camera that they gave me. Sherry needed info about an ipod and I needed a printer stand. I also looked at wide screen LCD TV's. Yep! Coming soon. Had it not been for the floor fiasco, I'd have one by now. Got in and out of Best Buy OK, but did have a little trouble with checkout. This was an omen of worse things to come.

Off to Super Target. There we bought a Swiffer for me. Sherry looked for a new litter box for my cats. No luck. Hafta go to Petsmart. Swipe dat card and go to Petsmart.

My sister doesn't like my litter box and has been nagging me to replace it for quite some time. The best way to shut her up is to just give in. I did. Petsmart was OK. Swipe dat card and head to Home Depot.

Ryan got to see Atlanta drivers at their worst. Rather than describe the fun we had making a left turn out of the shopping center that Petsmart was in, let me just say that Ryan used some very colorful language to describe the driving skills of the dipshits in the other cars. Then when we turned into the Home Depot parking lot we got to experience more of Atlanta drivers' superlative driving skills. More colorful language from Ryan.

So we get into Home Depot and Sherry decides we need a cart. In the process of selecting a cart she was almost run over by an Atlanta driver steering a shopping cart. Atlanta drivers can fuck up anything, including pushing shopping carts.

So we're in Home Depot. we've already found the lawn waste bags and light bulbs for my night lights. We're looking at area rugs to put in my foyer. Found one that I liked. Went to put it in the shopping cart. WTF? Where did the freaking cart go? Some booger eatin' moh-ron took our stuff out of the cart, laid our stuff on a shelf, and absconded with our cart. Asshole!

So now Sherry has to go to the front of the store and risk life and limb to acquire another cart.

We buy all the stuff we need and it's off to checkout. They got one checkout line open and it is manned by an idiot. She's dealing with another idiot. OK. We'll head over to the self checkout. There's a line there, but at least it's moving. And there is someone at the self checkout to provide assistance.

Ryan swiped the lightbulbs and dropped them in the bag.

"Please place items in the bag", says the computer.

We did, dammit! So now we need the attendant. WTF! Where did she go? Oh look. She just opened another checkout line. That doesn't help us. Oh good. Here comes another employee. For some reason, he's talking on a cell phone, but he stops long enough to help us. Sorry to bother you dude. We're just customers.

We swipe two more items. Then after swiping the next item the screen says that we need assistance. WTF! Where did he go? Dude! Over here! We need help!

He's still on his cell phone. He assists us again. Then we swipe the rug. Guess what? Need assistance. At least this time the dude is there. Finally it's time to swipe my card. Whew!

Even with all this bullshit, we still were faster than the line we were originally in.

Heard some more colorful language and graphic descriptions of the driving skills of the other drivers in the Home Depot parking lot.

One more stop. Office Depot. This was uneventful as they didn't have a decent printer stand, so I was able to give my Visa card a rest.

Took the back way home to GOC Central. Done with shopping for the day. Ryan spent the rest of the afternoon doing chores.

As bad as today was for traffic and shopping, I can just imagine what a zoo Friday will be. We're not leaving GOC Central on Friday especially not to drive anywhere. Georgia does have the death penalty and I'm sure anything that Ryan would do to an Atlanta driver would be considered justifiable hiomicide we don't want to take any chances.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted by denny at November 23, 2005 07:13 PM