The Distractors

I went in 10Box today for the purpose of buying scratchers. The temperature was up to 20 degrees, but I didn't want to risk falling at another store. The Liquor Store has an uphill ramp to get to the door, and Casey's has a sidewalk in the shade all day. So whatever treatment they use is generally ineffective. Don't even get me started on the giant icicles and frozen sidewalk at Orb K.

Anyhoo, 10Box has a sidewalk on level ground. It gets the afternoon sun. So that was my destination. I took some winning scratchers to scan at their machines. 

Well! Seems like it was social hour 5 minutes at 10Box! One of the cashiers came over to sweep the area as soon as I stepped up to a lottery machine. I like her. She's a friendly gal with a sense of humor. But I really don't want to talk to anybody while I'm making my transactions.

"I am SO tired! It's almost time for me to clock out. I've been busy all day. I had to stock my freezer shelves and face the product. Then I went to help other people, but since they already had three on the cereal aisle, I went to the pickles, peppers, and olives. Of course when I was lifting the last tray of pickles, one slipped off and broke. What a mess!"

"A few weeks ago, I bought a jar of the sweet banana pepper rings, and when I got it home, I saw that part of a pepper was trapped in the lid. So it didn't have the vacuum seal. And I had to throw it away. It's my own fault, though, for not checking. I assumed the factory had quality control to catch things like that!"

"Yeah. That shouldn't happen. Time for me to go home now."

Of course a customer was there to take her conversational place.

"What's winning?"

"Well, the $10 tickets, especially this newest one, is working well for me."

"I won $177 on this Red 777 a couple days ago at the Gas Station Chicken Store."

"Huh. That must be why I only won $10 on it yesterday!"

Meanwhile, as I was trying to scan in my winners to pay for my purchases, I got the message from the machine that "This ticket has already been redeemed." No wonder I couldn't keep track of the ones I scanned, with all the conversation expected of me!

I finally got scanned, and bought my tickets. Won $48 there. So not a tragedy.