Grocery Store Improv

   Everybody got to leave work early yesterday (Tuesday the 24th) due to the dangerous storms, one of which was rapidly approaching Guthrie (just a dozen or so miles from where I've been doing some temp work).  Since the storms were forming behind me, I figured that as I drove back toward Stillwater, I'd pop by Food Pyramid, where I would pick up some prescriptions and a few groceries.

   Having lived in Oklahoma most of my life, I'm used to the kind of stormy weather that we get from time to time.  Tuesday's storms were bad, but I knew that I had time to get to the store and home again before anything hit.  I drove a little faster, though, as I listened to the radio for descriptions of the various storms.  This was really gonna be nasty, I thought.
   I got to the store, called home to see what we needed as far as groceries were concerned and then walked back toward the pharmacy.  Even though we'd just recently transferred our pharmacy needs, they already know me.  (NOTE: being pleasant often pays off).  As I approached, one of the pharmacists started shaking her head a little.
   "We're trying to fill them, but after your scrips were called in, we got inundated with calls from panicky people.  It might take up to an hour," she said.
   "No problemo," I replied.  "It's looking pretty nasty out there, but I think it won't hit for at least an hour."
   I could have killed time at the in-store Starbucks, but since there was some frozen food in my cart, I figured I'd finish shopping and come back later if the storm didn't hit by the time I got home.
   So off I went, getting the groceries, chatting with the cashiers, and exuding calmness while some folks had started coming in to stock up on typical storm prep stuff (cases of water, extra batteries, etc.).
   I paid for my groceries, loaded the car, and headed toward home which, as luck would have it, was farther out of the way of the closest storm's path.  I got home and brought the stuff in.  The sky was getting darker, and it had started sprinkling.  I still had time to go pick up the meds and get back home again if I took the right shortcuts!
   My youngest said, "Dad, can I come with you?"
   "Sure thing, dude!  Let's go before it gets really nasty out there."
   And I drove back into town, although this time I was heading toward the storm.  When we got there, the rain started coming down steadily.  We went back to the pharmacy and they had everything ready, so I paid for the medicine (actually several prescriptions - man, we get sick a lot!) and grabbed a gallon of distilled water that I forgot to get the last trip.  As I got to the front of the store, my kid's nose started twitching and he felt one of the freshly baked loaves of bread.
   Seeing the wistful look in his eyes, I said, "Go ahead a grab a loaf, Ty.  No, make that two loaves.  This should go great with the chili tonight."
   I started doing the self-checkout thing, and the cashier who rang me up before saw me and said, "Wow!  You really did come back before the storm hit."
   "Yep," I said.  "I kinda like driving around in stormy weather."
   I scanned the bread, and Tyler had zipped off somewhere.  Nutty kid, I thought.
   "Whoa!" he exclaimed, as he popped open one of those small, but expandable umbrellas.  He laughed and said, "Did you know how big these things open up to?"
   As I scanned the water, I said, "Fold that back up, funny man.  Do we have to put on a show everywhere we go?"
   "Hey, I'm your kid - you taught me well."
   During this conversation, I'd put the prescriptions down in the bagging area.  Now the register was chattering at me.
   "Unknown item in bagging area.  Please remove and scan again."
   Arrgh!  I put the bag back out of the way and finished my transaction.  Meanwhile, Tyler was losing his battle with the umbrella.  Not only was it collapsible, it also had a zippered pouch that it needed to go back into.
   I grabbed the groceries and walked over to my son.
   "You do realize it's raining pretty heavily right now, right?  Get that umbrella put away before they kick us out of here."  I heard a few chuckles from the store employees.
   After a few more struggles, I took it and said, "Okay, let's pretend this is a demo model and leave it like it is."
   The store personnel were (as usual) grinning at our silliness.
   We walked quickly out of the store and to the car because by now the sky was nearly black and the rain and wind were picking up their tempo.  Just as we left the parking lot, I rolled down my window.
   "Dude!  They just started the tornado sirens.  Nervous?"
   "Do I have a choice?" he replied.
   Handing him my phone (yeah, I'm one of those types who doesn't chat on the phone while driving), I said, "Call home.  There aren't any sirens anywhere near us, so let them know the tornado sirens are going off.  Have your sister start filling water bottles, in case we lose power.  We can't get any water if the well pump goes down."
   He did what I told him, and the drive home was uneventful, although it was really starting to pour down as we pulled up to the house.
   I reached into the back seat and grabbed the water, the bread and the...uhhh...ARGHHHHH!  I'd left the prescriptions at the store!
   No need to panic, I thought.  There weren't many people there when we left, and maybe somebody found the sack and turned it in. 
   Phone book?  Yes, we have one.  Probably several.  But I couldn't find a single one.  One of the downsides of having portable phone, at least in our family, is that they are so darn portable!  And if you need to go into another room to make a phone call, you can carry the phone book with you.  I don't know about you, but our phone books seem to like to play hide and seek.
   Okay, I can deal with this, I thought.  I'll just get online and pull up the store info from their website.
   By now, it was raining so hard that we couldn't see the houses across the street.  And the thunder and lightning were adding to the chaos.  Even though we'd lost any kind of television reception, at least the phone and DSL were still working.
   Just as I pulled up the Food Pyramid website and started looking for the phone number, we had a power flicker.  Not enough to lose all our electric, but enough to turn off the computer.
   ARGGGHHH!

   Once I was back online, I found the store's phone number and called, hoping that they were okay, since that was the part of town where the storm was heading. 
   "Food Pyramid, how can I help you?" came the voice on the other end.
   "I...well...I'm pretty sure I left some meds there that I'd already paid for," I said.
   The Food Pyramid guy said, "Do you know where you left them?  I could go look."
   "Yep," I replied, "I was at the self-checkout when my son popped open an umbrella...."
   "Oh yeah, I remember you,"  he said.  "I'll go look to see if anybody found them."
   As I waited, I looked at Tyler with a twinkle in my eye and said, "I blame you for this!"
   "Hey, I'm your kid.  Would you expect anything less?"

   Eventually, the guy came back to the phone and apologized for the delay.  He had to help with a rush of customers who had come in to stock up.  But he assured me that my stuff had been found.
   "Can you hold it until tomorrow?"  I asked.  "I really don't think I want to get out in this weather."
   "I'd be a bad employee if I told you that you had to come back and get it in this weather.  What's your name?  We'll hold it for you and you can pick it up next time you're in."
   I told him and the rest of the evening was pretty uneventful.  I am so grateful that we didn't get any damage in our neighborhood from the storm.  And I'm also grateful for the awesome employees of our local Food Pyramid.
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   I picked up the meds after work today.  The employees who were working there yesterday chuckled a little when I walked into the store.  I didn't really have to identify myself. 
   I am mostly grateful for my sense of humor and being able to share it.  People might not remember what you do for them, but they will remember you for how you make them feel.

Do You Have a Kindle?

   I sorta have one.  Amazon offers, for free, an application called Kindle for PC.  When it's installed, you can download and read books in the Kindle ebook format.  I think it's a pretty cool bit of awesomeness.  So much so that I put it on the kids' computer, which due to an unrecoverable crash, was brought back to life as an Ubuntu desktop.  Yeah, I had to do a little tweaking with Wine, but it works fine there.

   I've enjoyed my Kindle for PC, and books for it range from free to pretty reasonable prices.  It's worth looking into if you don't have a portable ebook reader and want to try before you buy.  And even though there are lots of options out there for portable readers, I think I will get a Kindle.  I really don't need anything fancy, because sometimes I just want to read a book.  Not browse, surf, email, watch silly videos.  Just read.
   And what really sold me on getting a for real Kindle was seeing the look on my dad's face last Christmas when he opened the gift from my sister.  She knew next to nothing about the Kindle, and got my dad the basic model.  He used to be very non-geek and work his PC illiteracy as a badge of honor...until he finally got his first PC.  I could almost swear that he reversed his age by 25 years as he learned new things and really got his geek on.
   My sister was a bit worried when he opened it because she thought there was something missing, it was so light.  He and I (mostly he - I'm so proud of my dad) set it up and said that the next time he travels to Ireland, which he does almost yearly, he won't have to pack a suitcase with books.  He'll just read them on his Kindle.
   Now back to me.  Yeah, there are plenty of ebook readers, as I said before.  But I want something basic.  Unfortunately, I'm at a point where I don't have a lot of discretionary dollars to spend.  Heck, I can't even afford a smartphone to rule my life and have settled for a phone that's less smart than me.
   Enter Swag Bucks.  I joined several months ago.  I'm always searching for things on the Internet, and while Google and Bing are great, Swag Bucks actually tosses out rewards in the form of Swag Bucks (tah-dah!) which can be used to purchase things.  And one of the things you can purchase with Swag Bucks is an Amazon virtual gift card.  The cards can be combined and don't expire.  I get the $5 card every time I accumulate enough Swag Bucks.  I think that right now I have around $53 of Amazon gift credit, and would probably have more but I bought a few Kindle books for my Kindle for PC.
   So I sorta have a Kindle now (if I want to lug my laptop around to read), but I'm saving up Amazon gift cards, via Swag Bucks, to get a light-weight Kindle that can go with me everywhere. 
   Did I mention I am one of "those" people who can handle delayed gratification?  Yeah, I got that going for me as well.
   How about you?  Do you have an ereader?  I have plenty of time to change my mind, and I'd love to know what you think.

Knowledge is Power...

...It's the power to make other people feel stupid.

   That was in a cartoon I saw on the Internet this morning.  At first I chuckled, but then it got me thinking.  That joke rings horribly true more often than not.

   I love learning new things.  I think knowledge is a wonderful thing.  And at one time, I thought that if I knew something that somebody else didn't know, I would appear smarter.  But I gradually came to realize that sharing knowledge is even more powerful. 

   I've become a jack-of-all-trades (well, maybe not all, I'm still learning ;)), and I freely admit that I am a master of none.   When economy was going well, this was a boon.  However, when things got tougher in the economy, I wasn't so lucky.  I was laid off, and as I learned from different folks later on, HR departments are often more interested in trimming the workforce (fewer dollars dished out as payroll can make the revenues seem better, thus more attractive to investors), and finding more reasons to not hire a person that reasons to bring them on board.  

   It's been tough, but I've been able to get temporary work and have utilized my multi-talented skills to get callbacks and/or referrals based on my pleasant demeanor and willingness to take on whatever roles the business needs.  The temporary work has been great, although sometimes I have to go a while between jobs, which has become quite a challenge since I am the only one able to work in our family.

   I'm still optimistic that things will work out for us eventually.  And I'll keep on learning and sharing my knowledge as best I can, because I know that in the long run, helping people feel smarter will benefit everyone.

Need Some Ideas?

   I have plenty!  I won't guarantee that they are all great ideas, but I can certainly generate some.

   If I had the resources, I would have a workshop where I could try out my ideas and where I could share (and generate) ideas with others.  A hands-on think tank!  Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket so I could fund such a venture.

   It would be awesome to work with a bunch of would-be MacGyvers and create innovative solutions to common, and not-so-common problems that we face every day.  I would open up my workshop to people of all ages and abilities.
   I realize this is just a dream.  But sometimes dreams do come true.  In the meantime, if you need some ideas, just let me know.  I might be able to help. 

  

Do Me a Favor, Will You?

    I would like for you to do something simple for me.  For the next, let's say... 10 days, I want you to drink a glass of water first thing in the morning, when you get up.  And then, 10 days from now, tell me if you feel better, worse, or neither after you started doing this.

    Pretty simple request, huh?  You've probably heard that drinking more water is good for you, and I happen to agree with that.  But I'm curious if just having one glass of water the first thing in the morning, is enough to make a difference in how you feel.  I know what it has done for me, and I'll post my results in the future.

    One other thing, if water is too harsh, try adding some lemon juice to it.  You might be thinking, "Too harsh?!"  But plain water sometimes doesn't agree with people.  It's also kinda boring.  When I was a kid, my favorite aunt said that she drank lemon juice instead of coffee in the morning.  I thought she meant lemonade, but she said that she put lemon juice, and nothing else, in a glass of water first thing in the morning.  I thought that was crazy, but I tried it and guess what?  It's sour!!  Not only that, I think the shock to the system did seem to wake me up more than plain water.  And it worked a lot faster than waiting for the caffeine to kick in from a cup of coffee.

     But I digress.  My request is for you to drink a glass of water, at least 8 oz., when you first get up.  Lemon juice is optional, LOL.  And in a week or so, please let me know how it is, or isn't, helping you.  Message me on Facebook, or leave a comment on this blog (bookmark it so you'll remember), email me, or tell me in person if see me around town.
    Until next time, BE AWESOME!!!!

Baseball Boo Boo

   Every year around this time, I think about my little league days and how I missed out of playing every single baseball game when I was in the second grade.  It was early in the season, not even close to our first game, when we were still trying to figure out the rules.  T-ball hadn't been invented yet, so we started out with pitchers and catchers and lots of walks and strike outs.  I think the rule for us was 6 balls before a walk, and 4 strikes for a strike out.  Or something like that.

   Anyway, one day some of us got there early and, being back in the days when it was acceptable for 8-year-olds to hang out without adult supervision on a playground next to a busy street, we decided to do what little boys do.  Climb things.  At one end of the playground was a chain-link backstop that beckoned to be conquered, so we started to climb.

   We were about three-fourths of the way up, when our coach, Mike Nash's dad, was spotted pulling up at the diamond at the other end of the playground.

   "The coach is here!" we began shouting as we started back down the backstop.  I didn't want to be the last one down (I mean, who wants to be a rotten egg?), so I leaped backwards, depending on gravity to help me.

   Unfortunately, gravity was not too kind to me that day.  My heels hit sooner than expected and I fell backwards.  With lightning reflexes, I whipped my arms back to break my fall, and thus saving me from a sore tailbone.

   Crack!

   "This dirt is really hot today," I remember thinking, my wrists feeling like they were on fire.  I looked at my hands, which were having a hard time functioning normally.  Each time I tried to wiggle a finger, pain shot up my arm.

   I had no idea what was happening, and I thought that maybe I'd somehow landed on a swarm of bees.  So off I dashed toward the school building where I figured I'd use one of the outdoor water fountains to cool that burning sensation in both of my wrists.

   I'm not sure if it was Paul Shadid or Bobby Clark who was with me when I got to the faucets, but my arms were shrieking with pain as I tried to turn the knob.  Whoever it was managed to get the water going and we washed off the dirt and sweat and I was amazed at how big my wrists had grown.

   "We better tell Mr. Nash," my buddy said.

   "No!" I replied.  "We'll get in trouble for climbing on the backstop!"

   We went down to the field and it was clear that I couldn't get my glove on or hold a ball.

   I'm pretty sure it was either Mr. Nash or maybe Mr. Clark who took me home.  My mom kinda freaked a little, and got me into our car and drove me to the hospital.

   The hospital!  I really did NOT want to go to the hospital.  Every time I'd been to a hospital or a doctor's office I ended up getting a shot.  In the butt.  I hated getting shots!  (NOTE:  Shots aren't so bad now, considering the other pains I've endured in my less-than-graceful dance through life).

   I wanted an aspirin or something, I kept saying.  I didn't want a shot, or an operation, or a gas mask.  Just some aspirin, or something cold to pour over my wrists.  The nurses and orderlies were muttering something about broken bones.  And they'd look my way.

   "No!"  I yelled.  "I'm fine!"

   I was picturing them strapping me down to an operating table and having Dr. Frankenstein come in to do something to me.

   I flapped my arms up and down, trying to get my hands to work.  Boy, THAT was probably one of the dumbest things I'd done so far in my eight years on this planet.  The pain was white-hot and things got a little purplish-bluish-white for a second.

   A nurse turned as white as her uniform and nearly fainted, which I thought oddly funny.  She screamed, "Stop!"

   I stopped.  I just wanted the pain to stop.  I didn't really care if I got a shot at this point because nothing had ever hurt that bad before.

   I settled down after that, which seemed to have a calming effect on my mom and everybody at the hospital.

   I got X-rays.  That was pretty cool.  The room was dark and cool, and the surfaces I got to rest my arms on were cool, which also seemed to help.

   I got both arms in casts, from the bend in my elbows to my fingers.
   Green-stick fractures, they said.  

   I spent six weeks in those casts.  And I missed my first season playing baseball.

   But at least I didn't have to get a shot.  :)

A Sad Day

  Yesterday, Elisabeth Sladen died.  If you ever watched the Doctor Who series with Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker or David Tennant as the Doctor, you know who she is.  She played Sarah Jane Smith, one of the companions.

  When I was younger, I first saw Doctor Who on PBS (Channel 13 in Oklahoma City) on Saturday nights.  And the first episodes I saw starred Tom Baker as the Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane.  She was cute as a bug's ear, perky, feisty, funny, brave, and I quickly developed a crush on her - even finding reasons to not go out partying on Saturday nights.  She saved me a lot of beer money.

  In the last year or so, she appeared again on Doctor Who.  David Tennant was the Doctor and on one of his many trips to Earth, he managed to run into an older Sarah Jane.  She was still a cute as could be, and I found that my crush hadn't quite gone away.  When the Doctor left her, perhaps (and as turn out definitely) for the last time, he had fixed up K9, the little robot dog who had been along on many of the Sarah Jane and Doctor (Tom Baker) adventures, and left K9 with Sarah.

  My condolences go out to Lis's family.