Walking at Walmart

Yesterday morning, I was talking to my Dad.  After the usual catching up, chatting about the weather, and pondering all of the world's problems, Dad asked, "So did you ever get that tire looked at like I told you?"  Now, given my recent track record with cars, I'm a little paranoid about ANYTHING going wrong with the car.    This being a tire issue, I probably should have checked it about a million times over by now, but I had no recollection of him EVER talking to me about the tire.  We both chuckled and laughed, both stating that since it hadn't been a problem yet, it probably wouldn't be anytime soon.

Twenty-four hours later as I set out for the morning, I heard an unmistakable "flapping" sound coming from my left front tire, the one I was supposed to have been monitoring.  Oops.  After trying to use my emergency air compressor (probably didn't wait long enough for it to be effective) and trying to find my AAA card, my neighbor came out and kindly changed my tire for me.  Not wanting to waste any time, I drove off to Walmart to get my tire fixed.

If you've never been to Walmart for any type of car service, after checking you in, they give you a little ticket so that you can use the little price scanners to see if your car's ready and then send you off on your merry way, most likely to peruse all the wares in Walmart.  So there I was, nothing better to than be a mall walker.  Not one to sit and be bored, I set off to find anything and everything interesting.  I was not disappointed.

First stop was the paint section.  I've recently come to the conclusion that I'll probably be renewing my lease at my current apartment.  Originally, I had decided to not put any money into painting the place, but now that the white walls in my apartment are starting to drive me crazy, I'm reconsidering that stance.  So as I stood there deciding if I wanted blue, yellow, or green for my living and dining rooms, I got to hear a three year-old try to convince her mom to buy her the "pretty purple paint"  I don't think I've ever seen such an awful shade of purple, but this little girl was adamant.  Unfortunately for her, three year-old logic doesn't always persuade people to buy Barney colors for the wall.

I've been wanting to get Cooper a nice dog bed for his crate, but being a total cheapskate when it comes to stuff like that, I've been putting off that decision.  Today, since I had nothing better to do, I wandered into the pet section to see if I could find anything.  I didn't find anything I liked, but I did find a rare gem in that department.  TWO on-duty Walmart employees.  I didn't need their help with anything, which was probably good, seeing as how they were very busy...turning all the Betta fish towards each other in their little cups to make them puff up and "fight" each other.  They had names picked out for the fish and a running commentary as to how the imaginary battle was going.  Just in case you wondered, a blue crowntail Betta named "Jaws" won the competition.

Back-to-school items are now the "big thing" in stores, so being the school supply dork that I am, I went to see if there was anything neat to buy.  Inwardly I groaned as I saw all kinds of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga notebooks and pencils.  "Really?,"  I thought to myself, "Why would a parent pay almost triple for a notebook just because it has a weird lady sitting in an egg on it?"  My question was answered about a minute later when a mom and her two daughters came over and started oohing and ahhing over the selection.  It may not have been so bad had it not been the mom who let out a squeal when she found the THIRD Justin Bieber design at the back of the box.  "Oh my gosh!! Now you girls can have one for spelling, one for math, AND one for science, AND THEY'RE ALL DIFFERENT!!!!!  I had to get out of there fast, before I started laughing.

After awhile, I got really bored of looking at all kinds of junky throw-away garbage and went to the little waiting room by the tire center.  I picked up a year-old issue of RedBook and started reading all about Katherine Heigl's kitchen.  Halfway through the story, a super obnoxious lady came in talking on her cellphone.  I really don't like to eavesdrop on other people's conversation, but when you're talking very loudly two feet from me, I reserve the right to do whatever the heck I want, and I decided that I didn't care if I overheard her conversation.  Again, I was not disappointed by my decision.  Note to all brides-to-be:  You'd better make sure there is an adequate selection of single men at your reception.  Amanda was very disappointed that she spent $40 dollars on a dress, $40 on shoes (why do your shoes cost more than your dress?), and drove all the way to Isle of Palms (half an hour away) where she had to pay for her own alcohol, only to discover that the only two single guys at the party lived in Wisconsin.  Tina (and me, mostly by accident) were reassured that Amanda was in fact not looking for a one-night stand, but was trying to find an available local guy to date, and was very angry that Chelsea didn't invite more single guys to her reception.  I was sad for myself when Amanda's car was taken care of before I could hear her talk about her plans for the upcoming week.

Just when I think I'm accustomed to some new regionalism and am proud of myself for not having a confused look on my face when I hear a new word, something happens to make me look like a dork.  As I was waiting in line to pay for the tire that had been fixed, a woman nearby said, "Look at that buggy!"  Immediately, I turned in the complete opposite direction of everyone else and stretched to look out the window.  Honestly, I expected to see a horse, a box on wheels, and several Amish people inside that box on wheels.  I could not have been more wrong. In fact, what I was supposed to be viewing was a shopping cart that had lost it's front wheel and was beginning to tip over on a customer with a full cart.  Like a cat that just had a disgraceful fall, I tried to act cool and pretend that I didn't just forget that fairly familiar term.  Thankfully for me, only the cashier noticed, and just as she started to make a comment about being from out-of-town to me, the dramatic sight of three glass applesauce jars about to careen from the cart to the floor directed her attention away from me.  Also good- the jars were saved by a Good Samaritan with quick hands.  And a bag of rice that cushioned the third jar's landing.

Well, the good news is, my tire was fixed and I was able to drive my car for another day.  The bad news is, now my eye's are playing tricks on me, and I think my tire's going flat again.  So when it finally stops raining, I'm going to check the pressure again.  And then come inside and prepare for work and get to bed early so I can call AAA at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning so they can come and change my tire for me before I go to work.  Yay! At least I'm prepared for the worst now.  Have a good week!

Beat the Heat

The drive to church takes approximately seven minutes.  So this morning, I got in the car, turned on the AC (it was 80 at 8 a.m. this morning), strapped on my seat belt, and then arrived at Crossroads about ten minutes later.  I gathered all of my things and stepped out of the car and started walking towards the church.  About ten seconds later I had to stop.  I wasn't waiting for a car to pass, I wasn't talking to anyone, and I wasn't stopping to look at anything.  No, I had to stop because I couldn't see.  Why?  The temperature difference between my car and the outside world was enough to cause condensation to form on my glasses.

Now, it's not like I've not had condensation form on my glasses before.  But, prior to today, the only time I'd ever had condensation form on my glasses was when I came in from the cold into the warm house.  Initially, I was a little miffed when this happened.  But, after a nanosecond, I figured it gave me an excuse to talk about the weather on my blog, and then I was trying to find my name tag in the name tag basket and completely forgot about my problems with my glasses.  

Don't worry, I know that as much as we all like to complain about the weather TO other people, we don't like to hear other people complain about the weather to us.  So I won't complain, I'll just share...

This week, most of the time Ohio has been just as warm as South Carolina.  Let me just say, I feel your pain.  Literally.  It's painful to walk outside and feel like you're walking into a sauna!  But as I would look at the weather each morning, I was amused at the way the two states handled the heat.  

I think on Monday it was supposed to be 98 here and in Medina.  That morning on the news, the heat wasn't even an issue.  The weatherman literally said, "Another typical July day here in Charleston."  I was a little aghast.  How is 98 degrees not noteworthy?!  When I got to work, the Ohio news feed on my computer at work had a crawler that kept mentioning "Excessive Heat Warning!  Excessive Heat Warning!"  I found this amusing, but only because I was sitting inside in my very well air-conditioned office.

I know it's all in what you're used to (See the comment I made about the temperature of 98 degrees.)  Back in January, the freezing rain we had that lasted all of three hours shut down all the major bridges in the area and the entire state government for a day and a half.   I drove my friend to the airport a few days after Christmas last year.  I think there were three or four inches of snow on the road and we may or may not have almost gotten stuck on Blake Road a few times.  We have truck loads of salt stored away, they used...sand.  

Friday I was listening to the radio on my way into work, and the DJs were reading a story about classrooms in Illinois and Indiana not having air conditioning.  The female DJ is a little over dramatic anyways, but she couldn't believe that there are buildings in existence that still don't have AC.  I think she talked about that for the entire fifteen minutes it took me to drive to work! 

While I am not a fan of extreme heat (I burned my hand on my steering wheel yesterday), I have learned to deal with it.  Basically, it comes down to running from air conditioned apartment to air conditioned car to air conditioned office/store/church/other people's homes, etc.  See?  It's a science!  And, now that it's almost the end of July, I hopefully have only another 50-60 days of unbearable heat.  And by that I mean that after 50-60 days the high might be less than 90 degrees.  85 and no humidity feels like heaven now.  

Adios, amigos.  I have very few hours of freedom left to enjoy, and I still have about half of my Parks and Rec DVD to watch.  I love it when Target has sales on DVDs!  

Quiet Sundays

It's been a long week, to say the least.  Last Sunday was an absolute nightmare.  I set off for South Carolina bright and early, and then spent 6 hours driving the most boring stretch of road ever.  The last 5 hours were spent driving through ridiculously busy traffic.  From the West Virginia/Virginia border all the way to Martins Creek, it seemed I was in the middle of bumper-to-bumper traffic.  By the time I hit Charlotte I wanted to pull over and just cry because I was being cut off, tailgated, and trying to stay focused on the road while making sure that Barbie, talking on her cell phone, wasn't going to drift into my lane with her Jeep.  Charlotte may be a large city, but giving the citizens of that city six lanes of highway was a major oversight on the part of some engineer.

The week at work was fun too.  I was late for work every day but Wednesday.  Monday, my car wouldn't start.  I think something's wrong with the key.  Friday, I lost ALL the keys to the car, but eventually found them in the middle of all the stuff I had brought home with me and had left sitting in the dining room. Tuesday and Thursday I just ran late.  Wednesday, when I did make it to work on time, I had to get Marie, one of our cleaning ladies, to let me enter through the treasurer's entrance and use all the back hallways to find the health department since the lady who opens the health department at 7:30 was on vacation but never appointed a replacement to open the clinic doors.

After spending a week and a half in beautiful Ohio, with it's fresh air and reasonable heat and humidity, I had a hard time adjusting back to 90+ and a "sea breeze" contributing to ridiculous heat indexes in the 110s to 120s.  One day, we had a heat warning.  Seriously?  That night, I ordered food in, because I didn't have any food in the house and I didn't feel like going to the grocery store until it was cool enough that I wouldn't be melting to the pavement on contact.

Yesterday was "catch up" day.  First, I caught up on sleep.  Then, I caught up on naps.  Finally, I caught up on being lazy and watching a few episodes each of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. By the end of the night, I was taking Benadryl to cope with the reaction I'm having to whatever poison plant I was exposed to in Ohio.  Fresh off a good night's sleep, I got up early, cleaned half the apartment, went to church, came home, cleaned the rest of the apartment, then went and did laundry. Work, work, work! That takes us to about three hours ago.

For all the nonsense of the last week, the last three hours have been blissful.  I made some really yummy chicken and potatoes for dinner, and I got to enjoy it while sitting on my freshly cleaned patio.  Once the mosquitoes came out and started bugging me, I came in and started watching the movie "Date Night."  I love that movie.  I mean really, it has Steve Carrel AND Tina Fey, what's not to like?  I even had Oreos and milk as a snack! I know it all sounds really lame, and really, it kind of is, but it was exactly what I needed: A few quiet hours to let me reclaim just a little bit of sanity.

Now, as always, we near the end of Sunday and my moment of bliss is over.  But...I think my neighbor just hit something (non -mammal) with his car, so now my neighbor the cop is walking over...maybe now it's time for entertainment!  Have a great week!