Ironic!

A few days ago I wrote (mentally) an essay on there being two kinds of people: those who would never miss shopping on “Black” Friday and those who would never set foot in a store on “Black” Friday. Not to say there’s anything WRONG with either group, just that they are radically different. And I, of course, am in the latter group. I tried it once and it is just too much hassle, crowds, noise for me.

So what is ironic? Well, I have a 14-pound container of rolled oats that I can’t open. Wes is going to stop by and open those oats some time. I told him no rush. I had a few of the little packages left and I COULD eat something else if those got all gone. It would be ok – I could survive without my daily bowl of oatmeal with peanuts and banana and yogurt and ground flaxseed . Well, I thought I could. And Thursday I did. I fixed us some shredded wheat biscuits the old way. And they were delicious – with all that butter, how could they be otherwise!. But the next day I just couldn’t face having no oatmeal. And I also needed some eye cream from Wal-Mart. So off I went.

The traffic heading into and out of Wal-Mart’s parking lot was bumper to bumper and cars were entering and exiting parking spaces with reckless abandon. I skillfully made my way into a just-vacated parking space and started to get out of the car . Then it hit me – THIS IS BLACK FRIDAY!!! In addition, the Rancho Cordova Police Department was holding their toy drive in Wal-Mart’s parking lot.

Well, I was already there so I fought my way in, dodged flying carts and families attempting to stay together, was nearly run into four times by people heading to the check-out counter with boxes stacked so high in front of them that they couldn’t see where they were going! I quickly found what I was looking for and, passing long lines of people and loaded carts at the manned checkouts, I headed to the self-check out stations which I usually use. What!! They all four were closed!
I guess it served me right I know better than to go to the store on Black Friday! Guess I should pay more attention to what day it is!

But I did make a great discovery: on Black Friday the 99¢ store, where I got my oatmeal, is nearly deserted!