Sock Hop from Hell

Sock Hop From Hell

Not to seem like I’m griping all of the time or ungrateful for this opportunity, but this seems too be too much for me. 

Back out to get more shopping carts, I saw that someone left the nasty little bit of their supper. Nasty! Nasty! Nasty! Old food in a styrofoam plate that would gross out a lesser man but still yucky! This was not the first time I had to clean up after someone’s meal in the parking lot. This was the third one tonight. I’m not counting the oh so many banana peals I have to touch. 

Oh look! There was a dog barking at me from inside a car. It was a flat nose curly tail dog protecting the car from strangers. I love to write about K-Dog so seeing this little guy was a great diversion. “You are doing a great job little dog!” 

Straightening several carts for the trip back to the store, I took another look at the wee fellow. “Dude! You have a sweater on.” It says, “Speed Demon” on the back. The windows are down about four inches but it is still eighty one degrees out. Who would do that to the poor dog?

Evening in the store parking lot and I am so tired. The music from the store radio has been bombarding my brain taking whatever mind I had void of anything but reverberations of the last song played. By now every step seems heavier than the last. I should sleep like a log tonight. That was until Dire Straits began playing “Walk of Life.” I use to really like that song.

There were more carts for me to fetch. I am all bruised up from fighting those abstinent nasty buggies. Interesting, not all of these carts are from Terry’s Supermarket. I saw the Target logo on some and one said Carnival. 

I have goals for the future that keep me going. The main one I kept thinking about was my three days to heal up before I come back for more. They say that I work too hard, I don’t know how not to. I have slowed down and bring in less carts at a time and they still say that I over do.

I saw an old friend from high school! Told him that I blog. “Lots of money in blogging!” I hope he is right. I love to do it. It wouldn’t hurt to get some money from it as well.

When I got home my insides were still chasing carts and dealing with trash. I was given a nice back rub. It’s amazing how much this act of kindness helps me to relax.

After a few TV shows we went to bed. Sleep was hard to come by with Stray Cats screaming their song, “Rock This Town” in both ears from the inside. I use to like that song too. 

Trippn’ at Terry’s

 Trippn’ at Terry’s

Last night I was hard at work. I worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday and a five to nine shift Monday night.  I came up to bag groceries for a customer. A man and wife with about a medium size load. I bagged them up and when I finished I asked, “Carry your groceries out for you?” The man was surprised and said,“YES! We are from California. How did you know?” with a sigh “Here we go again,” I thought to myself, “NO! May I carry your groceries out to your car for you?” He answered with a smile, “No, We got it!” and off they went. Communication is a fine thing. 

There was lots to do. Buggies were continually collecting in the parking lot. I learned my lesson on this. I should keep the number of carts that I bring up to the store at a reasonable number. Four is best. Six is almost too many but I can handle it. The more I bring the fewer trips to get them. The problem with bringing more is that these are hard to deal with. These buggies are even hard to push down hill. I have bruises all over my chest and arms from man handling these carts.

I thought that I should check the floor. Was it clean or should I grab a broom? So many floor tiles! OCD says for me to count all of them. Looking at the daunting task I say, “Ok, but only the ones that are not marred, scratched, gouged, or have a sticker or gum on them.” That was easier. I came up with ZERO.

There was a child running in the produce isle. Her mother made her balloon out of a produce bag. Good idea! That kept the girl happy with something to play with as her mother continued to shop. I was outside later and saw the girl almost ran over in the parking lot chasing after her produce bag balloon. It almost got away. Good this she didn’t get hit.

After several trips gathering carts I came in to bag some more. A young pregnant mother had a cute little girl in the seat of her cart. The little girl was in a yellow shirt and white overalls. Who can resist playing with this little cutie? Being a grandpa, I teased her from across the check stand “BOO GA BOOGA BOO” with tickle fingers in the air. The mother saw her wee one with head down on the handle of the grocery cart. She is shy that way. “Olivia.” she called. She knew that I was a friendly old man playing with Olivia. They had a good size load and she had two other kids older than Olivia and the lady was pregnant with at least one more, “May I carry your groceries out for you?” she grinned and giggled, ”No English.”

Bagging the groceries I see brands of food that I had never seen before. They have brands of food that I had never even heard of. They carry a package of franks called FUD. That’s right, FUD. I have watched enough Bugs Bunny cartoons to know better than to eat anything called FUD. That is what it is called though.

Time to go home was around the corner. Carts were almost all put away. I went out to see if there were any more. I looked right and saw soapy water on the parking lot. Either that was spent mop water or Mr. Clean got really sick right there. Do they pour the mop water into the parking lot? That is odd!

The last crazy busy time was them minutes before I was to go home. At last I staggered to the car. My sweet wifey asked “How was your shift?” I said, “Ok, Lots to do. I am so tired hungry and thirsty.” Honestly I wonder how much of this I can do. I left Albertson’s because of not getting enough hours. I was offered work at Terry's Supermarket. Here I get the hours so now I better keep up. I have three days to heal before I head back. 

I miss writing about K-Dog and Little Kitty Cat Neighbor. Alas, I am not around them as much as before.  Little Kitty Cat Neighbor is still greeting the girls when they get home. That cat is wanting in our house but we can’t have that. She is boss in K-Dogs back yard and that’s bad enough.

Grin and Giggle

Grin and Giggle

Well, I am so glad that I have found a new job. Albertson’s didn't scheduled me enough hours so I went to Terry’s supermarket. I think that they like me a lot better there anyway. I am scheduled in one day as much as Albertson’s scheduled me for a full month. Now we can buy groceries again.

Terry’s customers and employees mostly speak Spanish. It can be a bit frustrating but it’s not so bad. I simply ask them if they would like some help and they grin and giggle and say, “No English.” That is no big deal. I just nod and go about my duties. I asked another worker about something, he grinned and giggled and said, “No English.” Oh well I can’t help that.

The store building is in very poor structural shape. I could go into detail but it may be better that I don’t. The carts are not in much better shape ether.

Back on the front of the store I started bagging again. The managers watched as I took assessment of size ratio of the orders as well as how fast one will be ready to bag over another. Once things slowed down I headed out to bring in the shopping carts from the parking lot. I was pushing as many as eight at a time. I learned that it was more than I should handle. Now I push only four to six. I can push that many without getting hurt.

 A tall big man with his family with a good sized order came through. I bagged for them as I would for any other’s. When I got it all bagged and into a cart I asked, “May I carry it out for you?” His wife smiled at him and said, “Imagine this itty bitty man taking our groceries out for us?” 

Yes, I am a small man. It doesn’t bother me to be five foot and two inches tall. It didn’t bother me when it is pointed out like that either. I thought it was funny. Why not? We pass through this life one time. It is more fun to laugh than it would be to look for excuses to be offended. 

There are a good plenty of other things that I would rather be doing than working back in the grocery industry. I had thoughts of buying a pressure washer and hire out to wash sidewalks. My wife could help me line up clients. I thought about blogging as a means of making income. My wife can research and write about something in a niche as I write my stories. Working with my wife in some way of another has been a dream of mine ever sense we first got married.

We have even tried MLM. We were not successful in that at all. So often MLMs people are cultish. I don’t know why they are that way. They don’t have to be. 

Flea markets would be fun to work at. Buy product and sell for a profit. We could make enough in that in a day rather than a month at a job. I could wash sidewalks, work flea markets and maybe work in a MLM through the flea market. As it is, customers come to me and ask me something in Spanish, I just grin and giggle and say, “No Español.”

Don't Judge Me

I went to the big shopping mall but it was mostly to see the sights. Don’t judge me because I’m old. Don’t judge me because of where I’m from. But I saw some strange things there. I thought you may like to hear about it.

In my walk, I passed the same mall cop several times. May as well be friendly so I would say, “hi” each time that I saw her.

Walking by a store that sold makeup, I just went on past. Then It dawned on me. The one I saw spraying face stuff on was actually a dude. He was a mixed up dude but a dude nonetheless. “Don’t be judgmental Paw Paw” I said to myself as I realized he was right behind me. It was a good thing he turned and I went straight. I wanted to turn back to see his strange clothes and made up face. I kept going. Don’t judge the old guy for freaking out just a little bit. That was new for me.

As I walked along, I started getting a bit thirsty. There was some store bought water in the car but that was not where I wanted to go just yet. I came upon a lady offering a tea sample. I don’t remember what kind of tea it was but it was tasty. The nice young lady had studs and piercings all over her face. Honest to truly I tried not to stare. She made me think of my mother’s pincushion in her sowing kit. This gal had holes in her face like big shoestring eyelets! “OK, Paw Paw here is another one to write about.”

There is a small playing area for little ones to play in. It helps them burn off energy and have some fun too. I was on the top floor looking down at the fun. One was on the slide. Another was on a climbing thing. Mothers were feeding  the babies. Three others were chasing around. Some kid was screaming to high heaven so I walked on.   

I almost lost my battle with the giggles when I saw a tall fat man who looked like his head was disproportionally small for his stature. He was a big big man with a very small head. He was one for Ripley alright. 

I heard Hall and Oaks singing over the mall’s PA as I veered to go into the sporting goods store. Funny, they are playing music from the seventies and eighties while every clothing store I passed was selling clothes for teenagers and college age folks. So with “Baby don’t hurt me” I went on in the sporting goods store.

Weight lifting is what I would like to get into. There are so many different things there for that. I picked up a thirty five pound kettle. Then I put it back before I dropped it on my foot. If I dropped that thing I would do a dance that would excite Nygel Lyithgo. I didn’t want to do that.

Walking on passed another crowd of folks, I heard a song playing “I can feel it coming to me every night.” With what I have been seeing that song took on a scary meaning. Malls are a loud place to be so I went into the parking lot to get away from the racket.

Out in the parking lot my head was still reverberating. “Where do you want to go now, PawPaw?” In the far distance I saw a furniture store. Man! Think of what I would do to refurnish the house! That would take money, whatever that it. There was so many nice things in there! If we had the money to fix the roof, the plumbing and electrical stuff in the house, this would be the next place to spend money. No! We need flooring first. I headed back to the mall after that quick visit.

  

With a mixture of excitement over what I was and depression over having no way to buy anything I went back to the mall It was a far walk from the furniture store back to Macy’s. I was almost run over by a young lady eating a candy bar while driving. It can be dangerous walking around out there. I walked into the parking garage. It was a bit spooky and mall cops were driving around looking for trouble makers. I could just hear something over the radio, “Clancy! Keep your eyes on that little fat grandpa warring a yellow sweat shirt!”  

With that levity, I went into the mall again. I passed a woman in a kiosk. She was watching TV.  Not a good sign. Looking over the great hoard I wondered how quickly I could clear the whole place if I was still working MLM.

I walked over four miles that day. My doctor would be so happy with me. 

Spammer in FB

Spammer in FB

It was TV time last night when a spammer began to plaster his ads on my face book wall. It was bad enough that I wasn’t zeroed in 100% to the TV show, but now this jack donkey from who knows where began posting his shiitake on my wall. If I had left my smart phone back yonder in the office, I couldn’t have done anything about it.

I thought to put ads on his wall as well. Tit for tat, right? That was when he did something that really got me. He tried to friend my sweet lady and sweet daughter. With my wee smart phone in hand I unfriended the spamming knucklehead.

I won’t put anything on anyones wall other than “Happy Birthday!!” On occasion their have been those who ask me to put something on their wall. Respect for others and thoughtfulness go a long way. Online educate is important to me.

I had an idea! If he tried to friend my family he would go through their friend file. This dude had to be stopped! It was a matter of time before he tried to friend K-Dog. I posted a warning on my wall telling everyone in my friend file about him. I even made sure that they knew his name.

This is the morning after. Out of about a thousand in my file, I have only heard back from less than five friends.  I did my part. 

Druid Incatation

Druid Incantation

It was a typical Monday morning. I woke up with a little more assurance of what day it was. I sat in the darkness of the office in my sleeping chair. I had been drifting in and out of consciousness for about an hour. Silly sweet dreams would come and go until I hear my sweet’s alarm.

“Ok, I hear it. Hold on till a light comes on.” I have gotten up after hearing her alarm just to find that she isn’t quite ready to get up just yet, so I wait. “I ain’t moving before I see a light come on.”

As I drift off again to the land of Snooze, a light comes on. “Good morning my sweet” was exchanged. I got up and searched through my morning cobwebs in my head to locate my duty roster for Monday morning. With the list firmly in mind I head for the kitchen. By the time I get to the end of the hall way I forgot most of my list.

“Ok, today is Monday. Breakfast must be ready by six o’clock. “Where’s that dog? There he is.” Time to turn on the coffee pot, shut the back door, feed the puppy, freshen his water, and check the temperature out side. I checked the weather app before I left the office but that was the other end of the hall way and I had long sense forgot what it said. “I wonder if we will have K-Dog outside when we leave for school. It looks like it’s outside for the goofy dog.  The temp is in the fifties. Time to turn on the TV.”

“Well, it’s an English muffin breakfast sandwich day for sweet daughter. We can eat oatmeal.” The coffee was ready so I got my first mug of wake me up. “What was the temperature outside?“ I went to the phone to see if we can leave K-Dog out when we leave. I log in and find the app while the news continued playing on the TV. I looked up after I consulted my app just to see that the weather forecast was half through.

After breakfast and clean up I went to get K-Dog ready to be outside. I went out to get his backyard water bowl. YUCK! A spider web got me right on my forehead and it was in my hair! It reminded me of when we had just moved in. Every spring there would be a huge spider web and one scary spider in the middle daring us to come out the door. That web was big enough to snare a wildebeest and that spider could eat one in no time flat. We haven’t had one like that in years but it was every spring for a while. 

I went back into the  house to get fresh water for, “YUCK!” I went through that spider web again! “I know I feel something crawling through my grey fluffy locks but I can’t do anything about it right now.”

With K-Dog’s water in hand, I went back out. By now I was watching for the web but it still got me a third time. I sat his water bowl down and looked for a stick. It was time to do battle with that spider web! With the stick in had I wave it in circles around the door and to the left and over here… “What are you doing? It looks like you are doing some kind of Druid Incantation. ” came a sweet voice from inside the door. “I am  getting rid of a spider web, My Sweet.” then she asked, “Don’t you think it’s too cold to leave him outside?”

We set him up in the den and headed for school.