Wrong Time, Wrong Place. Right Time, Right Place.

In the continuing Even Steven adventures of Mrs. Hillbilly Mom...

Tuesday, I was in 10Box to buy bananas and Diet Shasta Cola. I've been putting off the soda for a week now. I usually get it at Save A Lot, but their parking situation is problematic. Sometimes they're out of my soda, too! I was happy to see that 10Box carries the Shasta Diet Cola. Since I'm in there a couple times a week, there was no sense of urgency.

I didn't get a handicap parking space at 10Box because they were all full. I DID get the space next to the last handicap space. So there was that striped walkway to keep cars from parking too close to T-Hoe. As I shut off the engine, one of the workers who has cashed my big winners was outside gathering carts. She grabbed the one in front of T-Hoe that I was hoping to grab to walk in. She turned it around so the handle was facing me, and parked it next to T-Hoe's front tire. I gave her a happy thumbs-up!

Inside, I felt like somebody was following me. HE WAS! Some young guy in a store uniform shirt. He went around me, and turned down the last aisle, where I was going. There he stopped by a cart parked in the middle, and pulled a wet wipe out of a cylindrical container in its child seat. He stepped over to the soda shelves and started scrubbing.

Wouldn't you know it! Scrubby was RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE ONLY 12 PACK OF SHASTA DIET COLA! Scrubbing its cardboard box! I hated to invade his space, but I was running out of soda.

"Oh. Excuse me. I hate to bother you. But I want that box of soda."

Scrubby stepped back and said okay. He spoke as if he might be deaf, or have some type of developmental issue. He was a nice guy, scrub-scrub-scrubbing away diligently. 

My box of Shasta Diet Cola was still a bit sticky, because I didn't give Scrubby enough time to clean it. How in the Not-Heaven does somebody spill soda on a shelf higher than their waist? It's not like they drop it on a higher shelf so it drips down. It had to be real soda, too, because diet is not sticky.

Anyhoo... I got my bananas, threw in some potatoes, carrots, and onions, and went through the checkout without incident. Then to the lottery machine.

After I'd cashed a winner in and got tickets for Genius, the Gas Station Chicken Store clerk who sold me that $1000 winner last week, and for myself, I had $10 left in the machine. It does not give change. It was out of some tickets, like my crossword. What to do? I hate to get two consecutive tickets, unless they're the crosswords. I'd already gotten a $10 ticket like my big winner. Nothing else appealed to me. So I got a second one of the $10 ticket.

When I scratched tickets at home, the first one was a loser. The second one that I had been reluctant to buy was a $50 winner. I guess that made up for my sticky soda.