The New Fake Country Mart Can't Open Soon Enough For Mrs. HM

If I had a calendar, I'd be crossing off the days. The new version of Country Mart is supposed to have a grand opening on October 18. So close, but yet so far!

Monday, I went to Save A Lot for bananas and some other stuff. It's closer than the Sis-Town Country Mart, which is 12-15 miles away. I was sure I was in for an easy shopping trip. After all, I went at 1:45. Who shops then? Surely normal people go in the morning, or later, after work and school.

It was Columbus Day, which meant The Pony and some other government workers had the day off. I can't imagine them wanting to shop in the middle of the day. The schools were still in session, as were most regular businesses. Well! I was in for a not-so-pleasant surprise!

Save A Lot's parking area was packed! You'd think that every government worker in the county had decided to shop at 1:45. There were two parking spaces left on the far side. One had a car parked on the line, and the other had a car parked crookedly. So I parked crookedly, with T-Hoe's tires very close to the line on the passenger side. 

Inside, I was pleased to find some sausages made without cheese, and three boxes of my Shasta Diet Cola. I took two. The bananas were good enough, though they had those long stems. The large baking potatoes that I needed for making Terrible Taters with pulled pork were in sad shape. Not all that large, and each had some flaw. I managed to find three that were suitable, and one that I can cut a spot out of and give to Farmer H!

Of course all those people wanted to check out at the same time. A gal announced that she was opening up a second register. I could easily have gone right into it, being the closest, but I kindly waited to see if the two people ahead of me wanted it. One guy went right over there, but the lady with a full cart waffled. She'd start over, look back at the line she'd been third in, then back at the new line. I was about to just GO already, but she wheeled over there in front of me.

I went to her old line, with one man already checking out, and a lady with a single tub of sour cream waiting to be next. Well. While I was standing there, FOUR people went through the new line. The man was trying to buy some chewing tobacco, and the checker didn't know the price, and was calling for help. I went to the newly opened line, and was done before that poor sour cream lady checked out.

While boxing my food at the counter in front of the front windows, I saw that a black pickup truck had parked next to T-Hoe where that crooked car had vacated. No way was I getting my door open. I took my time boxing. Decided I'd just have to put my groceries in T-Hoe's rear, and lean on the dusty back bumper while waiting for the truck to leave.

But WAIT! As I pushed my cart out the door, that black truck left! So I could get in and leave as normal. The only drawback being the seven or eight cars that were driving the WRONG WAY down those one-way aisles. People are SO entitled...