PORCH PONDERINGS

Annoyances

Today was another marathon shopping and annoyance tally day. The main reason to drive that hour to Billings and waste the ENTIRE day was to check my eyes. It has been a month since the cataract surgery. All is well. No problems. Get glasses if you get too annoyed with taking the reading glasses off and on. Fair enough, I will save a few hundred smackers and see what happens.

Alright, now we start the tally on annoyance factors:
Costco - still doing the mask thing, fine. Whatever. No toilet paper - What? I thought they solved that problem. Annoyance #1
I thought I would look at frames for glasses there. There is a sale 40% off the second pair. Nope - locked down. Not allowed in. Annoyance #2
We went to a place to eat - you can't get your own drinks anymore. Drag, no napkins on the table. Annoyance #3
At least Bed Bath & Beyond had the Soda Stream refills. That's refreshing. No annoyance there.
WinCo the food store, everything seemed to be fine there. At least now you can wander freely in the store and not be annoyed by one way aisles like in Walmart.
I went to a resale shop, found a pair of pants and needed to try them on. She'll open the door for you. Well, no she won't because she can't find the right key, because all the doors are locked. Eventually she finds the key. Annoyance #4
We head down the street and try to remember which way to go to find this out of the way hardware store to get this special thing hubby needs to work on the remodeling project. Of course we didn't bring the city map. Our car doesn't have GPS and we don't use a cell phone. But we found our way - look for the railroad track. So we avoid annoyance #5, but barely.
Then we go to the office supply place, buy some note cards, look at alarm clocks because hubby hates ours. We decide to walk to Target and look there for alarm clocks, don't like those either. But look! Let's walk to Baskin Robbins and get some ice cream, we've been good soldiers today and we're almost done, we need a treat. So we walk to Baskin Robbins. Across the hot parking lot, in the sun, uphill both ways, just kidding a short walk. Did us good. So we walk in and see all the tables and chairs pushed out of the way. "Can we sit and eat inside?" And there are no tables outside.
"No, you can't. Take out only." Annoyance #5
We have one more errand, wood for the remodeling project. We pick it up, we head for the gas station. I figure it's a long drive home. I'll use the bath room. You know, just in case. And you can guess - closed for cleaning. I wait for a few minutes. It's getting late. We have to head home. Things in the car are not getting any colder, and it's an hour to get home. Annoyance #6
On the way home, I doze a little while hubby drives, and I try to remember all the annoyances so I can list them here. Then I think, once I list them, they will no longer bother me. They will be given over to God. Good riddance. And we make a deal that we will unload the car, put the groceries away, and walk to the ice cream place on the corner downtown. A little walk after riding in the car will do us good. Can you guess what happens next?
We walk the few blocks, and there is a family outside. They are on their phone, calling this place. The door is locked, but the sign outside says "open". The owner opens the door, "My cook went home early, I can do ice cream but no food." The family is from out of town, they are camping down at the free campground, and need supper. I convince them to walk another block to a restaurant I am sure is open. They tell this guy "Sorry, but we are going somewhere else." He understands as he dishes up our ice cream. Oy. Annoyance #7

If I still drank, I would be drinking a big glass of wine right now.

But the night is warm, the porch is quiet, no fireworks yet. We are tired. I think I will sleep tonight, for a change.