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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Why do I have to share the world with this lady?

I just had to do this post.

I was in a Lowes using up the rest of a gift card my daughter gave me ... a new outdoor thermometer and a new clematis if you're interested ... and there were two different lines in the nursery department.

Of course I went to the shorter line, cuz I'm normal ... though some might dispute this. When I got behind a lady with a cart full of dirt, plants and other stuff, she puffed a bit in exasperation. I checked, nope, my deodorant was still holding up, and thought nothing more of it.

After a couple minutes of moving at the rate of a rock, she abruptly went to the end of the other, longer line. As she went, she snorted, "I've been here forever.'

The guy in front of her grunted something, and then he followed her to the other line.

Fine by me. My line was moving pretty well, though not exactly in the traditional way. But from here, I could see the lady holding everything up. A short, fortyish lady was avidly talking on the cell phone plastered against her ear.

Then she got out of line, went to a plant display, and started looking at the plants, all the while talking. The Lowes checker watched helplessly.

After a few moment, and yakking the whole time, the lady picked out one of the plants, came back to the register, hauled her purse out, and ... still gabbing the whole time ... fished bills out of her wallet one handed, and dumped a bunch of change on the counter.

Taking her time, oblivious to the line behind her, she laboriously counted out the money one-handed, pausing once to ask, "How much again?"

After a few more tedious moments, she successfully finished up, and headed to the parking lot.

She'd only held me up for three minutes or so, so it was no great deal to me when she disappeared out of my view.

Soon after, my clematus and I were walking, well, I was walking ... the clematus was busy converting chlorophyll, and noticed the lady ahead of me. She was still barking into her phone, and I watched as she pushed her cart into an empty parking space. Then got in her car ... which was parked in a handicapped place ... and no, she didn't even have a handicap plate.

Then she slammed the door, revved her engine, and ripped through the parking lot, ignoring the lines which are painted on the ground for other people. I watched in fascination as she whipped into a space fifty yards away, got out of her car, and - still talking on the cell - went into the store next door.

Is it just me?

Norm

(get your own autographed pre-release copy now! http://fangface.homestead.com)

4 comments:

  1. Remember when they used to call TELEVISION the "idiot box?" ;)

    --Lisa
    http://authorlisalogan.blogspot.com

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  2. It's just you Norm. I've never encountered that woman. Ok, maybe once. I was in a grocery store, she came up behind me (I had 3 items, she had 2.) She looked at me, then at the clerk and said, "She said I could go ahead of her." She stepped around me as I stood open-mouthed, shaking my head. Her items were already rung up before the clerk realized what had happened. At that point I told the clerk to just go ahead. It made me laugh, once I got my composure. People...

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  3. Rofl! I usually encounter such people at Wal-Mart. The strangest things seem to happen at wal-mart...

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  4. Wow. I can't stand those people. And having had surgery- and a handicap tag- I can say it's hard enough finding an open space w/out the people who park there w/out any credentials. Sometimes, you just have to laugh.

    =)
    Iris
    http://irisblack-author.blogspot.com

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