A Bad Day At 10Box

Mrs. HM does most of her everyday shopping in 10Box. It's conveniently located in Hillmomba, the workers are really nice, they have most of what I want, and the produce isn't rotten. Even when the left-side lottery machine rips me off, I'm not TOO discouraged, because it's my own fault. I know that machine is glitchy.

Saturday was not a good day. Only my second day to venture out after my couch-injured rumpus started giving me shooting back/rumpus pain and a numb ankle/foot on Tuesday. I went in 10Box for a large bottle of acetaminophen tablets. While there, I got some cookies for Farmer H. No, it's not a plan to try to kill him. He will find sweets without my help.

Anyhoo... as I was cart/walking to the checkout, the newest checker was closing up her lane at the end, the one I prefer. She's an older lady, with a helmet of gray hair. Looks like she might have once been a professional bowler. She's all businesslike, and not nearly as friendly as the other checkers. The checker who always asks me about scratchers was going off duty. I had just seen her outside smoking, and now she was buying a big jug of sweet tea. Helmet Hair had already put her CLOSED sign on the conveyor, as well as having her light off. Of course she agreed to ring up the tea for her colleague.

Only one more lane was open, with the Young Guy with strawberry-blond hair. He's a pleasant fellow. I wheeled over there, and was second in line. A couple was buying what looked like a month's worth of groceries. Most was already at the end, with the skinny guy bagging it and putting it back in the cart.

This is when other people decided they had to check out RIGHT THEN. Behind me were two girls, maybe 21 or just under. They had one item in their hand. No cart. I only had three items, so I didn't feel a need to let them go ahead. They were young, on four good legs between them. One had out her phone. They were giggling. Talking about guys.

Those Gals kept getting closer to me. There was no need for that. People behind them had to curve down the main aisle anyway. I turned to give them the stinkeye, and Gal One put her phone down. Gal Two giggled. That made me suspicious. Were they FILMING ME? I don't know. Didn't think so, from their conversation. But they'd shut up when I turned around, and put the phone down. SO ANNOYING! Most people would catch on that such a look means to GIVE ME MY SPACE. Not Those Gals. I could have been holding one on my left hip like a toddler, she was so close. 

I was getting more steamed by the minute, because Those Gals wouldn't back off. So I quit turning around and fumed silently. The customers ahead of me had all their groceries rang up, bagged, and in the cart. The lady took out her phone. Oh, no. Here we go again. A Save A Lot replay. Maybe she was using her store coupons from the app. Or trying to pay. She made many attempts to do something with her phone. Then the skinny guy came around and used her phone. Then he took out HIS phone. Whatever they were trying to do didn't work. So he took out a card and paid.

While all this was going on, Hemet Hair was flitting around, watching, and BAGGING TRASH. Seriously? You see a bunch of customers backed up, nothing moving, and you can't leave that trash for 10 minutes to help Strawberry Blondie get caught up? Shame on you! She even caught my eye. Which was NOT a welcome glance in any way.

Finally I got my turn. It was quick. I got away from the giggle girls. Went to the right-side lottery machine. I'll be ding-dang-donged if Helmet Hair didn't come over there and hover. It looked like about five tickets in the wastebasket between the machines. I moved my cart/walker so she could get around, but she just hovered. Distracting me. I was scanning in winners to play on. I always wait to see the worth, and make sure I tap the selection for using it in the machine, and wait for it to show up in the total. 

Well. Helmet Hair shook her big trash bag, which she was using for dumping in the smaller bags. Leaving the bags in, just shaking out the trash. I scanned three tickets, and tossed them in the wastebasket. Helmet Hair said, "Excuse me, I'm just going to dump this wastebasket." She came around the end of my cart, dumped the trash, and went on looking for more trash.

When I turned to make my selections, I saw that my total was not what I expected. One of those tickets had scanned to show me the amount, but had not added it to my total! That happens sometimes on all the machines. I either did it too fast, or the screen didn't recognize that my finger was a living appendage. Normally, I would pick my tickets back up and scan them again, to find the right one and apply my winnings. But I couldn't, because my just-scanned tickets were in Helmet Hair's big trash bag. It was a $15 winner!

No way was I going to try finding that ticket. My rumpus was acting up. I just had to eat that loss. Of course I blame Helmet Hair, but if I had been feeling my normal self, I would not have been rushing, and would have had no qualms about making her wait to get my trash.

It was just a bad day at 10Box.