Rotzy sure has some legitimate gripes. “COVID profiteers” is dead on, pun intended; ‘6 items max’ line violators…been there…fully agree.
Readers Write
Yours truly absolutely LOVED this note that landed at “From Nakina”HQ last week, altho it’s been some tyme since I actually witnessed it first hand…..the ‘it’ I refer to being those ‘Express Lane Checkouts’….’SIX items or less’….at your favourite grocery store….and the people who ‘use/abuse’ the system by bending the rules sometymes. Not often, of course, but hey, we’ve ALL done it….one or two too many items….it’s no big deal tho you might get ‘the look’ from a couple fellow shoppers. Anyway, the Zehr’s Market Rotzy shops at hasn’t had their ‘6-items till’ in operation since COVID-19 changed things and they needed that space for the newly expanded On-Line Shopping area. Well, wherever the “F/N” reader whose email ‘got our attention’ shops, the Six Items Or Less Lane was/is still fully operational, and that’s where he found himself one day last week….a ‘quick in and out’ for 2 or 3 things, which he grabbed, then he found himself 3rd in line at the Express Checkout. The customer at the register had a Delisiosso*tm Thick Crust Pizza and 2 bottles of Coke*tm. Then, the woman behind him had….ho-lee s—t….a major cartfull!! The ‘large’ cart at that! Probably $200 worth of groceries….and perhaps 66 items??!! So….SO….our ‘soon to be letter writer’ was NOT a happy camper because of A/ the rude shopper’s complete disregard for the 6-item rule, accompanied (he thought) by a rather smug look on her face; B/ the rude shopper at least not allowing him to ‘go on through’ with his loaf of 100% Whole Wheat Wonderbread*tm, a pack of 12 Kraft*tm Cheese Slices and a small jar of No Name Mayo….and C/ he was REALLY steamed at the 60-something checkout lady who kept on smiling at the rude shopper!! I mean the ‘6 items only’ sign was right in front of the rude shopper’s smug puss every tyme she reached in her cart for another armful of stuff! By now he was at the boiling point, and about to give everybody within earshot a ‘cheerful earful’ as he departed, leaving the fixins for grilled cheese sandwiches in his wake….he’d spend a buck more and grab them at the Hasty Market three doors away from his duplex….when the cashier finally spoke to the rude shopper….calmly but loud enough to also be heard by the 7 or 8 shoppers now in line….”And, which SIX items would you like to purchase, M’am”? Applause and smiles all around, answered rather meekly by a ”well, I never……..”, then an exit, stage left by the rude shopper!! Jeez, what a great ending!!
Who IS Happy These Days?
Well, if not exactly ‘happy’, in the truest sense of the word, I suppose it would be OK if Rotzy were to re-phrase ‘happy’….to something such as ”handling things/coping better than so and so/such and such”. I mean, if we’re talking about COVID-19 here….and we ARE….as well as two NEW strains, from Great Britain and South Africa, we are yet to see our first ray of sunshine…..aka ray of hope. I know, I know, I know….the vaccines are making their way ’round the world’, not in numbers or widespread enough for a ‘ray’ as at yet, but hopefully soon! There is a LOT of playing catch-up to do in places around the globe where….plain and simple….the pandemium wasn’t taken seriously enough, if you get my drift. But I digress….back to the question as to whom is ‘coping’ better than others? And what helps them ‘cope’? Money. Rotzy recently read a book entitled ‘Paris 1919’….and much of that tome deals with money….dollars, lbs, francs, marks, and cetera. And whilst millions of lives were lost in WW I, millions (and billions) of dollars, lbs, francs, marks and cetera were made by countries and (already) rich individuals. People who built and supplied anything and everything needed for the war machine. Take a look at the similarities between WW I and the coronavirus and they are numerous….hence the opportunities. Do you own a handfull of shares in Pfizer? Johnson&Johnson? Did you and a few pals come up with a couple hundred G’s to open up a little plant that makes KN-95 masques and/or shields? Wipes? Sprays? And these are just a few ‘obvious’ products….the list (just like WW I) would be/is ‘virtually’ (no pun intended) never-ending!! But does it….’it” being tonnes of money….make people happy? you ask. How the hell would Rotzy know!!?? I’m guessing you could count Miz. Jo and me among the ‘middle class oldsters’….not poor, certainly NOT ‘money people’, so if you gave yours truly the choice of owning Zehr’s or standing outside at the entrance to one of their stores holding a ”Homeless/Starving” cardboard sign in front of me….well….call me Mister Weston!
“Well Toad” I Said (to myself)….
….”do you think that’s about enough G&D for this week’? (as in gloom and doom) How about you try to put a smile on peoples’ faces, eh? You know, like the song, “don’t worry, be happy”! (*see below) “Well, ‘worrying’ is half of the problem….as I said here last week, ‘to the point of paranoia’. Take our building here for example….Harris Place 555 PRN/250 to 300 residents….and using the elevator, also for example. Rotzy speaks to EVERYBODY….just like Jesus, in a friendly tone….smiling through my masque, but not everybody responds in an amiable tone. Some not at all. Others as if I have somehow ‘offended’ them? Or frightened them!? To the point that yours truly was having some paranoid thoughts about ‘rejection’. Then I wondered if my mere appearance was scaring people? I’m not tall anymore, so my 217 lbs is spread over 5’9”, my chin rests on my chest most of the tyme the neck is also on a ‘California tilt’, not great balance and a limp….sometymes….topped off with a scraggy white/grey beard, 60% of it covered by a white KN-95 surgical masque. If you ask me the masques are the ‘paranoia problem’….but it’s the law and the smart thing to do until whenever. Maybe I should get my own cardboard sign and scrabble ‘SMILE” on it….you think?
*Thought Of The Day…If you can’t laugh at yourself, let me do it.
