Category: Observation

The Death Card

DeathcardI am trying to muster enough energy to make a post after an exhausting Sunday.  It started with a training run in the hills of Jubilee State Park – yep, the one our EX-governor had the historic site closed on.  They have a daunting 13% grade hill that I spend a lot of time running up to train for the Bix7 in Davenport IA.  I had planned to catch up on some outside house work, but it started raining on me in the last mile or so of the run which I should have expected, since the local weatherman forecasted the rain would not start until tomorrow.  Trapped indoors, I decided to get another task out of the way – the Endless Set for Rock Band 2 on drums.  That’s right folks, 84 songs straight for the coveted achievement.  This took me from 3:30pm until 10:30pm because I opted against the “Iron Bladder” achievement which is given for those who can do the set without pausing (crazy).  Needless to say, I think my Rock Band fix is covered for the next couple of weeks.

I’ll dig deep and get this post covered.   Last night my wife and I headed over to the gambling boat for a little fun.  We set pretty conservative limits for ourselves.  So, when the big gamblers come out to play, I often find myself simply watching them try and beat the odds.  As is almost always the case these days, the low end tables are filled with people playing well beyond the table minimums.  I’ve decided these people need the attention and like to stand out from the pack.  In the high limit areas (where they belong) they are simply just one of the regulars if not the little guy depending on the spending ratios.  I was watching my wife play a machine and noticed two guys sitting at the blackjack table across the aisle.  Table minimum was $15 and had 3 or 4 other people playing hands in the 15-25 dollar range.  As far as I could tell, both guys were playing the same card spot with the guy on the end doing the majority of the betting and the guy next to him kept augmenting the bet at various times.  They had just won a 75 dollar bet and were given their winnings in $25 chips.  Catching my attention, they did not pull the bet off the table and let it ride.  They won that hand too and stacked their 6 new $25 chips on top and let it ride again.  Another win and they let those additional 12 chips ride as well.  Amazingly, they pulled a push on a 17, but left it out there for another.  Then fate came through and the dealer pulled a 20 over their 19 putting an end to their little grab for $1200 glory.  Thinking the show was over I turned back to my wife’s machine.  Twenty minutes or so later I look back to the table to see about 10 people standing around the perimeter of table.  Glancing at the card spot, I see another high stack of green chips on the line .. but this time they have their audience.  The guy augmenting the bets starts stacking blacks ($100) under the 25’s.  A couple of wins later, they have well over $1000 out there.  Maybe this is a good time to remind everyone that the table minimum was $15.  Then next deal draws a 7 4 against a dealer 9.  Sure enough, they doubled the stack and pulled the death card – in this particular situation a 4.  Dealer turns a 10 and the pile headed toward the bank.  Immediately the crowd dispersed and the show was over.  Sheepishly they reset to a $25 bet and stared at the ground.  No more high fiving each other or glowing to the crowd.

Were those sly smiles I saw on the rest of the players at that table? It appears the pedestal has been trimmed a little.   By the way, Michael Jordan was in town last night to watch his kid (Whitney Young) play for the State Championship.  They ended up winning thanks to the little Jordan’s efforts.  Hopefully, he’ll turn out more productive that the one the Illini got.  Thanks to their pathetic showing in the NCAA tournament, they are watching from the sidelines.  I mainly bring this up because I kept hearing people wonder out loud if Michael would be showing up based on his historical affinity to gambling.  I never saw him so apparently he has that under control now.

The Devil Wears Target

Target Devil So I sat down tonight to make a quick post because I’ve been a little lax on the posting duties as of late, but an hour later and I am finally getting around to actually typing something.  The root cause of this delay is Paint Shop Pro … in particular Paint Shop Pro Version 7 – a.k.a – the former efficient, productive and simple graphics package until they decided to be like Adobe and SCREWED it up.  All I wanted to do was draw the Target symbol to put the devil image on.  In the previous version, which I considered myself a master on, I would be able to crank that task out in less than a minute.  But thanks to apparent idiots at JASC, they decided to start converting their product into the cumbersome (but agreeably top notch) competitor Photoshop.  So after getting frustrated enough to actually go to the help manuals, failing in getting an answer there and then finally Googling it I was able to make three FILLED circles which I layered to generate the rings (two reds, one white in the center).  This required me to take the selection tool, change it to a circle, create an appropriately sized circle, then go over to the spray paint tool, re-pick the color – because the stupid color choice stays with the tool and not as an overall default – and then proceed to fill the selection.  I have decided to go ahead and install Photoshop now since I might as well use a quality tool if I have to go to that much trouble to make a @$%@$% circle.  Note, I even tried to simply set the line color and size so it would basically make a thick line making the process even quicker since that would only require two steps….. but of course, that did not work either.  Sigh – all that and I produced a fuzzy picture.

Sorry for the vent, it torqued me pretty good.  Now back to the “quick” post I wanted to make.  All of this effort was to simply comment on a situation my wife and I had outside the local Target store.  A week or so back, I was walking down from the Peoria PetSmart to look at a TV Target had on sale.  As I approached the store, a sneeze came over me.  Fortunately, I kept my eyelids closed so my peepers stayed in their socket.  Upon opening my eyes, I noticed a lady had exited the store and was staring at me.  She responded with “Bless You”.  Preparing to respond with the standard thank you, she followed with “Oh sorry, just a habit”  Pausing mid-step I looked at my wife in complete surprise to see if she had heard the same thing.  Never before has anyone apologized after wishing something positive.  This ended up being pondered the entire time I was in the store.  The conclusion I have come to is she either decided I was really the anti-christ or is so beaten down by the liberal media that she is ashamed or afraid to publicly acknowledge being a Christian.  If this is true, it is very sad.  Although I am not the most religious person I know, I am clearly not a Satan follower and not about to get mad at someone for a passing blessing.  Note, if this extends into any form of trying to preach to me, then we are on a whole different level with a different opinion.

Unfortunately, I was so surprised I didn’t have the chance to really respond that it was okay.  Anyway, I thought it was intriguing.  Oh, on the limited posts so far in March .. the truth of it was I’ve been stressing through a potential temporary layoff at my place of employment.  Good news, I made it through this cut. I better never get my hands on a bank lender at the root of this global economic downturn.

The Ding Factor

Car Door DingsWelcome to March everyone!  I must admittedly say I had a poor blog showing last month.  Things have been a little hectic lately at work reacting to the bank snakes that put the world economy in a tailspin.  Looks like I need to step it up this month to make up for it.  For starters, the other day my wife and decided to do a little shopping.  After hitting a bunch of stores we decided to drop by a local Maid Rite for a nibble.  My wife was driving and picked a spot near the door.  This made me uncomfortable instantly because door dings are in my hate peeve list.  Yes, this is definitely one of the times where the hate word is not an overstatement.  What rational person believes it is socially acceptable to bang their car door against another person’s car?  Anyone?… Anyone?   I can force out a few scenarios, but in general there is no excuse.  I was about to accept the parking choice when I looked over to the car next to me and noticed it was a two door.  This bristled on me until I noticed a baby seat in the back on my side of the car upon which I ordered my wife to move immediately.  This resulted in a stern look, but this was not a choice situation, the DING FACTOR was through the roof.  This resulted in some impolite comments from my wife thanks to the extra distance having to walk in the cold, but trust me, it was worth being able to enjoy my lunch without a nervous tick watching my door panels.  Instead, I was able to sit comfortably in the window booth and watch for other ding victims.

So you might be asking yourself, what are the various DING FACTORs to look for (follow the link)

Continue reading The Ding Factor

The Yang and the Um Day

EyeFirst off, I have to admit I am currently on a major sugar high.  My wife and I tried out the new ice cream establishment in Peoria Heights – the previous home of delicious Spotted Cow.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the establishment (two uncommon names), but apparently it is a small ice cream boutique chain out of Boston.  We both decided to splurge and get the dipped waffle cones.  Linda chose the nestle crunch with cake batter ice cream and I went with the dark chocolate cone with seriously chocolate ice cream flavor.  Wow, that was tasty.  Needless to say, my sugar level is through the roof, but it was totally worth it.  A tad expensive, but we both agreed it was far better than our previous favorite Cold Stone.

On to the topic of the day.  Yesterday morning I had my one year check up on my LASIK surgery.  Nothing like an 8:25am appointment on a cold, snowy and windy Saturday morning to get the day started.  Being that early, I figured there would only be few people there and I’d be in and out quickly.  I was totally shocked when I entered the building and there was a line of people waiting to get checked in.  Faster than expected, I made it up to the counter and noticed once again a large number of flowers behind the desk.  Every single time I have had an appointment, there have been a large number of wrapped up flowers with various names on it.  First thought was there must be a large number of birthdays or possibly births or the doctors were extremely appreciative of their helpers.  After validating all my insurance information, I proceeded to the waiting area where about 30 people were sitting.  Somewhat stunned, I took a seat in the socially acceptable location – translated, maximized distance from existing customers, much like the bathroom principle with the exception you are still allowed to talk to people and make eye contact.  Pondering the situation, it clicked that Fridays were a primary LASIK surgery day and they always had a followup the day after.  This gave and explanation to the large number of people.  My name was eventually called and the nurse began verifying my vision.  She started asking me if I was taking my steroid and anti-inflammatory drops and how everything was going.  This was not processing correctly so mentioned that I stopped taking the drops over a year ago which resulted in a strange look.  Remembering the deduction in the waiting room, I mentioned that I was in for my 1 year checkup.  With that cleared up, she took down all my powers (dual eye 20/15) and moved me to another room to get checked out by my doctor.  Good News!  Everything is fine and the eye healed up perfectly.  Definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long time.

Another quandary was resolved at the checkout desk.  An older lady was completing her exit papers ahead of me and trying to plan her next followup a few days later.  Guessing with the fact she was not wearing any glasses and needed such a quick followup, the assumption was she just had cataract surgery (too old for LASIK) and was in for her post-surgery followup.  As she was getting ready to go, the receptionist handed her one of the flowers (with her name on it) and said it was a gift from her doctor.  That made a lot more sense than my original thought.  What a nice thing to do, it is relatively cheap compared to the cost of the surgery and it sure made the lady very happy.  Kudos to the doctor for a very nice touch.

But life is based on the Yang and the Um (for the non-Koreans, the Ying and the Yang).  The dualism of life; the good and the bad, sweet and the sour, life and death.  It is this constant opposition that keeps us grounded (morality) and leads to our character definition.  I came home from the appointment elated that my surgery was a complete success.  Later that day, there was a large crack against our great room window.  Typically this indicates a bird had just realized the concept of glass.  I didn’t think much of it since this tends to happen 2 or 3 times a week usually leaving the bird somewhat stunned, but able to fly off once the webs clear.  About an hour later I happened to look out the window and saw a beautiful cardinal sitting under our porch furniture below our large picture windows.  He looked alert, but was just sitting there opening and closing his beak.  It was still pretty cold out and the wind was gusting causing him to continually adjust his balance.  I pondered the situation for a few minutes while observing the bird.  Typically, if the birds don’t initially break their necks, they are able to recover and fly off.  Rarely do their wings get seriously injured since the impact is typically on the beak/head.  But this bird was alert, but wasn’t really moving that much other than adjusting to keep from being blown over.  It didn’t appear any sound was coming out of his beak movements but it was a steady opening and closing motion.  I could try to shield him from the wind or possibly get a box and move him to the basement until he recovered, but eventually decided to let it be hoping he would pull through.  If he was seriously injured, there was nothing I could anyway.  I also didn’t know what the laws were pertaining to a state bird (other than I think they are protected in some manner).  Going on with my daily tasks, eventually the situation left my thoughts.  I checked to see if the bird was still there later in the night and I am sorry to report, the little guy didn’t make it.  He had succumbed to the cold so he must have badly injured himself.  Yes, it was just a bird, but it did trigger memories from the teachings in the dojo.  The happiness of clarified sight in the morning paired with the reality of death in the evening.  The good news is one of the local farm cats will find a special treat when the show up to get out of the cold.

Life is a circle (see the pupil)

That’s One for the Fail

I happen to be a huge fan of the various “Fail” sites on the Internet.  Just in case you are not familiar with them, basically they collect images and photos of things that fit into a generic failed category.  This could be such things as an engineering failure, a social failure, a design failure or the most common types, signs and descriptions that are incorrectly worded.  Two of the best sites on the web are http://www.engrish.com and http://failblog.org. The first catering to bad translations and the second for the ever popular “Owned” images.  As an avid fan, I am always on the lookout for items like this and over the years have collected quite a few.  I lot of mine can be found at http://www.eddiesoft.com/den/den/scat/miscscat.html.  I decided it would be fitting to include some of the new ones on this blog since after all, this is all about observations.  Warning, some of these are mature oriented.

As a the first in this new category, I’m going to start with a chocolate marshmallow treat I was given in my last Christmas stocking.  Chocolate covered marshmallow treats is nearly an addiction for me so I was eager to bite into the sweetness.  This feeling changed abruptly once I got it out of the packaging.

Snowman Treat

All I could think of was South Park and their quite disturbing character Mr. Hanky.  This character actually being a talking/singing piece of poo with arms, eyes and a Santa hat.

Mr. Hanky

Before I forget, I grabbed this image off of the net.  If someone has an issue with me using it, just let me know along with proof you have rights and I’ll find another one to replace it.  Now I ask you, is this really the impression the candy company is trying to capture?  The confectionery creators didn’t care, so I’m assuming they either don’t watch the show or it is a secret inside joke to them.  In either case, I’m going with another brand next time.

I have some more fails after the jump

Continue reading That’s One for the Fail

Congratulations, It’s A Poochon

I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the family.  Over the weekend, we picked up our Christmas present for my mother-in-law.  Why so long after December 25th?  No, we are not procrastinators – although year after year I have to convince my wife that the closer to Xmas you get, the better deals are, not to mention AFTER the big day.  You don’t believe me do you?  Okay, next year check out the prices of Chia Pets on December 1st and check it again on December 24th.  Most people like a Chia Pet for Xmas, but EVERYONE likes a Chia Pet for half price.  With those words of insight, I would like to introduce Benji.

Benji

Benji was bred in Clinton IA and is a Poochon which is basically a crossbreed of a Poodle and a Bischon Frise.  We are a poodle family (lost one, still have two) so I am really not that much into designer breeds, but this little guy was available and he sure is cute.  Linda thinks he looks a little like a panda, I on the other hand, think he looks like the Predator which is also cool.  At this point he is mostly fluffy fur, but much more alert than our poodles were when they were brought home for the first time.  He also doesn’t make a lot of noise which may be due to just getting acquainted to the strange surroundings – for my mother-in-law’s sake, let’s hope it is his normal disposition.

Benji

In order to keep him out of harm’s way and safe from the curiosity of our two spoiled dogs while we had supper, we put him in pop-up cage.  This was definitely not something he was used to and quite frankly not a big fan.

Benji sulking in his cage

At this point he did start making some noise including a all out raise to the moon howl.  Our white poodle does this exact same thing if we do not pick up the phone after 2 or 3 rings.  Don’t ask us why, but it is nice to have a secondary notification that someone is trying to contact us, especially since his howl carries a lot further than our ringer.  At this point, Benji decided to show off.  We looked over and noticed he was literally climbing the cage.  This I thought was amazing for such a small puppy.  I predict he becomes an explorer and plan to keep the dangerous stuff pretty high.  Here is a shot we took of his climbing skills – keep in mind he is only like 6 weeks old.

Benji climbing

As soon as we finished supper, we rescued him from his cage and let him loose.  My dogs were doing pretty well with him until he went for their food bowls.  They are used to being the only dogs and have very little visitors out here in the country so they did not appreciate that one bit and had a little altercation.  Benji was a little scared at that point, but they need to get this resolved between them real quick.  After a few minutes of “discussion” they settled back down and went their own ways.  Benji decided to start exploring and found a small table with a ledge full of magazines.  I am not sure if he wanted protection from our dogs or just likes being off the floor, but he ended up climbing up the magazines and making himself comfortable.

Benji climbing up the end table

Since he liked it there so much we decided to remove the magazines (they were slipping around) and make a little cozy bed out of it.  This immediately became his favorite place to be and ended up taking a snooze.

Benji sleeping

We gave him a toy skunk which surprisingly looked like a twin.  Just for reference, here is a pulled out image.

Benji sleeping

Might as well show off my kids while I am at it.  I don’t want them reading this blog and getting jealous.

Neither of them were very happy at the moment because they really did not want any part of the new guy.  Our two dog agility stars are Rizzi (Osiris) on the left at 10lbs and Kerby (Kerberos) on the right at 5lbs.  If Benji currently weighs more than 1.5lbs I would be shocked.  Oh, and yes, our dogs are named after gods of the dead, but Linda demanded they had cute sounding short names she wouldn’t be embarrassed to call out in the agility ring. Kerby was actually from the same breeder in IA.  There, that should make our boys happy.

Unfortunately, at this point Benji was pretty exhausted from his big homecoming.  He definitely just wanted to catch some Z’s and nothing was going to stop him from doing that.  Clearly he is comfortable around us and looks like he going to fit right in.

Benji looking cute

Benji looking cute

While we were visiting Linda’s Mom, we wanted to make sure the sweater she got for him fit.  Our dogs are not fond of their cold weather coats, but Benji seemed to have no problem with his.  It is still too early to tell if he actually likes it, but he definitely did not fight it.  He is quite the cutie.

Trying out the new sweater

Pet my belly

It finally came time to head home and leave Benji and his new mother to the bonding the process.  The potty training process is always the hard part, but Linda’s mother does not work so that should be easier to get him out on a regular basis.  He had not gone most of the day, but while he was in the cage we ended up putting a newspaper in the corner.  As soon as we did that, he ran over to it and relieved himself.  Apparently, he already had a little familiarization which will help tremendously.

Welcome to the family Benji!

Brian and Benji

We might just have to bring him home with us 8^)

Freezing in the Devil’s Playground

Predator enjoying some powder

Last weekend I had the opportunity to ride some powder at Devil’s Head Ski  Board Resort in Wisconsin.  Unfortunately, my wife was unable to go due to illness, but some of my friends were able to make the trek up there with me.  We actually headed up Thursday night in order to beat some of the weekend crowds on Friday.  A mere 4 hours from our house makes this a very bearable trip.

Slopes

Although it was pretty cold out, the real danger was the weaponry that was being deployed.

Back Country Warning

…. what?  I get the sense you are not buying this.  Fine, I’ll come clean, the previous pictures were not from Devil’s Head.  I didn’t take the camera with me so I went ahead and threw in some pics from our Colorado trips a few years back.  What gave it away, the fact that Devil’s Head is in the Midwest (think flat) or there would actually be a back country there?  Anyway, we had a great time.  The first day (Friday) temperature was not too bad during the day session (~24 deg), but the wind was cranking through in the 13-15 mph range making the exits off the lift rather blistering.  In fact, we could put our arms out and the wind would blow us uphill to the start of the adjacent runs.  The temperature started dropping pretty quick after noon and was darn cold for the night session.  Luckily we know to keep our board edges razor sharp in the Midwest in order to cut through the ice – nothing like transferring edges and noticing that yellow hue signifying solid ice (no, not THAT kind of yellow snow).  I had fallen pretty hard on a mogul run earlier in the day due to being all ice in between the mounds.  Everyone with me fell on that run as well, but only I ended up with the third knee – translated… a huge swollen welt on the left side of my left knee.  It didn’t seem to affect the motion I needed to board so I brushed it off.  This injury coupled with my shoulder that had a cortisone injection a few days before forced me to curtail my rail activities.  Linda cautioned me to take it easy this time because she couldn’t drive me home like she usually has to.  So very little of this:

Grinding the rail

A little more therapy on the shoulder and some ice on the knee should have me back on the rails next time we go.

My observations from the week follow the jump

Continue reading Freezing in the Devil’s Playground

Rockin’ with Angus in St. Louis

Hey, it’s my birthday today and as a special treat I am giving everyone a three day weekend!  No, I am not revealing my age.  I wanted to actually make this post a few days ago so it would be fresh in my mind, but I ended up getting bogged down in some other things I had to get done before the big holiday weekend.  Luckily the event left a pretty lasting impression on me.  So, the topic today is… My wife and I had the opportunity to see AC/DC in St. Louis MO last Tuesday.  They were in the midst of their latest tour to promote their new Black Ice album.

AC/DC Black Ice Tour

follow the link to read just how good of a time we had!

Continue reading Rockin’ with Angus in St. Louis

That’s the Rooster, she stole my two dollars

roosterThought I would just throw out a couple of quick observations over the last week or so.  My favorite so far has to be something overheard during the Jan 1st Outback Bowl featuring Iowa Hawkeyes vs. the S. Carolina Gamecocks.  Iowa is a heated rival in my household since my wife is from the state of Iowa and I went to the land of Chief Illiniwek (you can strong arm it out of our weak university governing boards, but you are not removing it from the hearts of those who attended there and understand the difference between a mascot and a revered symbol).  However, since the Illini didn’t pull out the juicer at the end of the year, we were stuck watching from the comfort of our living rooms where Hersey was cheering from the sidelines in Tampa.  It was basically playing in the background as I did some odd work around the house when the game must have hit a low point. This forced the announcers to look for something else to talk about.  Once again, I failed to set up my PVR on delay mode in order to review or capture things that catch my attention.  This happens all the time with headline news and I keep promising myself I’ll get that set up.

I am unable to remember exactly where in the game the discussion occurred, but the producer panned down to the field where I think Rob Stone was standing next to the Gamecocks’ mascot which happens to be a rooster named Sir Big Spur.  Rob proceeds to place a mirror in front of it where it responds in the expected manner by pecking at the opposing rooster.  This continues on for what seems like eternity… rooster pecking, pecking, pecking, pecking … against the mirror.  Rob proceeds to explain how this particular bird would continue this fight until the death.  More pecking, pecking, pecking and then either Sean McDonough or Chris Spielman (my money is on the latter since he has a history of similar statements) says something like “[how long are we going to have to see this rooster…. he or she what is it Rob?]”  Again, I wish I had it on PVR to be more accurate.  I will let you think about that for a minute before I spoil the fun.  Did you put two and two together yet?  Rob hesitated a little (probably trying to figure out the appropriate response) and issues “well, it is a rooster so it is a he otherwise it would be called a HEN”.  If I can track down the accurate quotes, I’ll update this post – so no, I didn’t mess up the title to this post.

Lastly for today, my wife was walking through Kohls right after Christmas and passed by a kid that was extremely excited about his Kohls gift certificate he received.  He was eager to spend it and was busy telling the people he was with that he had $38 to spend.  Linda thought that was an odd amount to get a gift certificate for (and the reason she mentioned it to me when she returned home).  I had to agree and spent some time trying to figure out a combination that makes logical sense.   One person giving $2 short of $40, two groups going in for $19 a piece, a group of 7 each giving $5 and 3 of them throwing in an extra $1, a group of 38 each giving $1.  It just seems odd, but I am sure I just missing something glaringly obvious.  Before I get the comment on $38 is a lot of money for a family etc. etc., that is not the point of the observation.  It is a very nice gift and the child was clearly excited about it.  The strange amount is the part that is throwing me off.  $2 more gives it an even amount and I doubt that amount is going to break anyone shopping at Kohls.  $3 less makes $35 and I am guessing that would be just as exciting to the kid.  The only thought at the moment is the kid new exactly what he wanted already and the parents included the tax etc, for that particular purchase.  But I would expect in that case, my wife would overhear comments about the specific item he was going to obtain as opposed to the dollar amount that was going to be spent.  It was an odd scenario and that is what we are all about here.

That is all for now and stay away from those female roosters.

Not A Creature Was Stirring, Not Even A Mouse

I must admit, today I was utterly surprised.  Every Christmas Eve, I head out to the shopping malls and popular stores.  No, I am not a procrastinator and usually have all my required gifts already purchased (maybe not wrapped yet, but that is whole different story).  No, the only reason I do this is for the sheer entertainment value from watching holiday shoppers.  The best time to observe people is always at times of stress and there is not too many other days that rate higher on the stress meter than the day before St. Nick breaks into our homes and showers the good with presents.  I can remember the numerous occasions of people attacking line-cutters, angry shoppers engaging store employees, customers wrestling for the last Furbie and the all too common denial of credit card.  For a people watcher this is good as gold and since I was not in any time constraints I could slink back into the crowd and take it all in.

So, off I went today anxious as to what I might observe.  First off, Best Buy.  I wanted to do a quick check to see if there were any last minute reductions on laptops and figured I would check if they happened to have a gift for Linda someone had mentioned a few days ago (again, just a bonus since her shopping has been done for awhile).  There was the usual traffic cop directing traffic through the ridiculous single entrance to Cub/Lowes/Best Buy stores, but he really was not doing that much.  I was not even stopped or delayed once all the way into the parking lot.  This was definitely an odd occurrence.  Once parked, in a semi-filled BB lot I headed into the store expecting to see people defending their finds.  Again, nothing.  Some people were milling about, but that was about it.  I checked out the gift idea and there it was sitting on the shelf and nobody even looking in that direction.  I decided to go ahead and grab it and would instead have fun watching all the people get extremely annoyed in the checkout line.  When I arrived up front, I noticed they had recently put the blue line guides on the carpet and had snaked it out into the store for optimal capacity.  For clarification purposes, I had NO PROBLEM noticing it because I could see it clearly the entire time as I was walking straight up to an empty cashier.  Only two other people were checking out in the 3 other open registers.  This was an absolute first.  I disappointingly paid for my items and walked out of the store in disbelief.

On my way out, my wife called and wanted me to get some driveway salt for her mother who was having difficulty locating it in the Quad Cities.  Excellent, another opportunity to see the mad dash for last chance gifts for Dads.  This soon became ominous when I ended up parking about 8 spots from the door and that included the protection buffer I keep to protect my doors from those who apparently have no appreciation for others.  I crossed over the door beam and walked into a nearly empty store.  I counted no more than 40 people as I walked through the various aisles.  I located in the salt, found some lithium grease for an upcoming blog topic and again walked directly up to the cashier and paid for my items.  This is totally unbelievable.  In fact, I was so amazed, I ended up calling my wife to relay my disappointment.  Luckily she mentioned the dogs probably needed a couple more items for their stockings (don’t laugh, they are treated better than most kids) so I headed down past Cub to the local PetSmart.  This looked more like it.  I had to park pretty far out into the lot (buffer still included) and had a significant walk to the door.  There were definitely more people there than at Lowes, but there was definitely a more low keyed if not joyous atmosphere as people discussed how cute a particular collar was or validated the squeaker actually worked on a particular stuffed animal.  I had my first chuckle of the day since I validated a previous observation I had been working on.  Based on my findings, almost all people will check a squeaker no less than 2 times before they are satisfied that it actually works.  This testing process rarely goes past 4 squeaks because I think people start feeling self-conscious at that point because about then people in view start to stare.

I continued looking around, but could not find a single instance of any stressed out people.  Even the dogs were being nice to each other.  I grabbed a few stocking stuffers and headed up to the cashiers.  There was finally a small line at the registers and by that I mean each of the open registers were checking out a customer.  Finally, I could experience a wait scenario which usually breeds grumpiness.  My chance had finally arrived… NOPE.  A lady walks around the corner and asks to check me out in the register a row over.  So reluctantly, I moved over to that counter and completed the transaction.  She was even very nice indicating that she had not had her fill of unruly pet owners for the day.

Drats!  A complete waste of time.  Where is everyone?  Are the holiday shopping activities really this bad?  Has the economy in Peoria finally caught up with the rest of the States (as of last month, our housing market was still going strong)?  Has the recent Caterpillar announcements on layoffs and pay freezes significantly dampened the holiday festivities?  I doubt everyone has done their shopping early this year for that would be in out of character for the previous 18 or so years I have been making the Christmas Eve run.  For now, my best guess is the bad economy has hit everyone hard.  I will be interested in seeing the final revenue statistics from the local merchants.

Oh well, best wishes for a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.