In Which Groovy Actually Gets to Rescue Someone!

Hmmm. Let's see. My last post of any real length was in mid-December . That means you are all dying to know absolutely everything that's happened here in the month since. Lemme be brief:

Lots.

There you have it. "Lots" of stuff has happened here in the past month.

Feel free to repost...

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This morning I went grocery shopping with GrammaJ - and by "all morning" I mean ALL DAY. Oy! First we went to a discount grocery store where I scored 57¢ bags of out-of-date marshmallows for 4-H. (Fear not. We're going to shoot them, not eat them.)



Of course, in the process of watching this instructional video I realized that my great marshmallow deal was on the wrong sized marshmallows. I bought 6 bags of stale large marshmallows, but I need mini-marshmallows.

Ack! All that fighting with the red haired lady was for naught! I HATE that! Now I have to either return my mashed, past-date marshmallows to the discount grocery or make one heck of alot of Rice Krispy bars Wait, even better, I could make THIS instead! I wonder how much I would have to charge for a wedding cake like that?




Um...




What was I talking about?

Oh yeah...shopping with GrammaJ. She was cute as could be with her teal stretch pants and matching teal sweat shirt, black velcro sneakers and her stunning hot pink head scarf and oversized tortoiseshell sunglasses.

After the discount grocery (she was very proud because she helped me score the marvelous marshmallow markdown) we went to the Mart. I hate the Mart. It is huge and loud and noisy and crowded and you usually have to park 18 miles away from the door, but it is also well stocked (most of the time) and - this is the key word here -CHEAP. At the very least it is cheaper than anywhere else here in Podunk. It was also the setting for a funny moment.

GrammaJ had to return something (not marshmallows - just in case you're wondering) and I sent her on her merry way to wait in line while I got some coffee at the in-store Dippy Donuts. Normally I don't buy DD coffee. It's very acidic and I don't really care for it. Today, howver, I was pretty much desperate for some caffeine, so I bought a medium with a shot of cinnamon. No sugar, no cream. Just cinnamon. And yes I WILL take a gigantic orange/cranberry muffin to go with that...

Just as I pulled out my money to pay for my item(s), the power went out in the store.

*POOF*

Then, about a second or so later there was a loud, collective cry of "Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh!!"

It was as though all the Whos in Whoville cried out at once. Every man, woman, boy, and girl reacting to the sudden silent darkness. The cry arose in electronics and echoed in shoes, cascaded through housewares and bellowed through grocery. It rang through clothing and peaked at the registers:

"Ooooooooooooooooooohhhhhh!!"

It was AWESOME! And I laughed and laughed. It made my day! It made my day even more when the power suddenly surged back on and the DD register still had record of my sale so I could pay. Everyone else at a Mart register had to wait until the system was reset...

The rest of our visit wasn't nearly as entertaining unless you count the empty Band-Aid box conspiracy (someone stole the band-aids right out of the box!) or the mad Groovy floor scramble for the only package of GoodNites in the right size. They were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back, on the bottom shelf. The only way to reach them was to climb on my belly, military style between the Boys size L/XL and the small packages for Girls. There I was with my entire upper body surrounded by thick, squishy platic packages of nighttime protection while the pretty pink package on my list lay tantalizingly just out of reach. I was starting to sweat from the effort, my jeans sliding helplessly on the dusty floor, my sneakers flailing through the air.

GrammaJ was loudly pointing out my antics brave attempts at self service to any and every passerby until an employee stopped me, had me back out and then crawled in there herself.

It was almost as if she threw herself on a grenade for me; It was THAT moving.

Really. It was.

*sniff*

After the Mart, GrammaJ and I ate out. I wasn't hungry at all after that humungous muffin terribly hungry, but I didn't want her fainting on me, so we headed to BananaBug's to over eat enjoy a quiet lunch.

Then we set off for MORE excitement (not a dull moment with Groovy and GrammaJ!) at the grocery store. Grammaj needed to...well...facilitate. So once again I faced her in the right direction and gave her instructions to meet me in produce. I was on my way across the store when I saw the man. He was laying on the floor half under his shopping cart.

Being the astute Search-and-Rescue trainee that I am, I quickly assessed the situation.

1. There was no one else in the aisle to notice that a man was lying there.

2. There were no packages of GoodNites near the floor, so chances are he didn't get down low to try to grab some off the bottom shelf.

3. He wasn't dead. I could tell this because he was moving. (I'm telling you, that training is coming in handy!)

4. He needed help.

So I walked up to him and asked, "Sir, do you need help?"

I figured it was safer to ask him in case he was, you know, just checking out the floor patterns or something. I'd be very embarassed if I called in EMS for something like that. But, as it turns out, the floor was not where he wanted to be.

"Yes, can you help me up?"

"Are you hurt?" I asked as I kneeled down to grab his arm. He assured me was not. So I helped him to his feet and then made sure he was steady before I let go of him. He gripped his shopping cart and looked a bit sheepish.

"Did you just lose your balance?"

"Yes, yes. That's what I did."

So he tottered off and I slowly made my way to produce with many a backward glance over my shoulder to make sure he was still on his feet. (We trained rescue workers are big on follow-up.)

And that pretty much sums up the day except for the vehicle launching appearance of Frost-Heave Season and my annoying habit of setting my water and/or coffee down on store shelves and then having to backtrack to find them only to get laughed at mercilessly by GrammaJ.

How was YOUR day?