Oh it's hot

As I noted in the "ETA," shortly after the prior post, I checked SPSS and it was working again.

(We'd had periodic server outages during the day, which makes me wonder if they were trying to fix the address-mismatch issue that was probably what was bungling SPSS access).

So I happily analyzed data for a while, and wrote more of the draft. Around 3 pm, I thought, "I need trash bags." (I had used the last one on the refrigerator clean-out). But I also thought, "If I leave right now, it will be 3:30 before I am even AT Brookshire's."

And it's hot. Oh it's so hot. The heat index is 105 right now and the dewpoint is nearly 70. I hurt all over. And this came on kind of suddenly - we got spoiled with a long run-up to summer, and then yesterday and today were like WHAM! heat.

So, meh. I needed trashbags but really didn't want a long trip to get them.

So I went to the local wal-mart. (aka Mart of Wal, or also aka - especially on days like this - Voldemart)

I had forgot it was the first of the month.


The place was slammed. At least there was a smaller percentage of really loud really disruptive children than sometimes. I got what I needed and got in line. One of those "20 items or less FEWER" lines they have.

And I got behind a woman who was behind a guy who could not get his card (don't know if it was credit, debit, or EBT) to work in the machine. The cashier finally tried to help him, no go. She finally went and got ANOTHER cashier. The woman ahead of me and the woman behind me knew each other; they were also both retired cashiers from this very store. And then proceeded to talk about how poorly trained and un-knowledgeable employees there are now (I have no basis to judge other that it seems lately, when there's a problem, it's a HUGE problem and takes for ever to fix).

All of the other lines were worse (there was even a huge line for the self-check-out) so I didn't bother to try moving. 

Finally, the guy got paid and on his way. I tried to see it as a "this is water" thing - the guy was flustered (older, very thin man who used one of those cart-type wheelchairs, so he probably wasn't very well to begin with) and he certainly wasn't doing it to harm me, but I will admit to just getting a little bit cosmically frustrated. (I had said to myself, when I walked in there, "If you don't dawdle over anything while shopping, you will get home in time to see all three episodes of Ponies." Never say that to yourself; it seems to jinx you)

I didn't mention that it was very HOT in the wal-mart. I guess with weather like this, the a/c in a big building just struggles. (It was hot in my office too). I hit a point of thinking, "If this is going to take much longer, I'm going to wind up on the floor, either because I decide to sit down or because I pass out." Luckily it didn't get that far but I wondered how much of a ruckus (or fracas) a person just deciding to sit down on the floor (because they were hot, and were tired, and were done with *standing* in line) would cause, but didn't have the energy to put it to the test.

Oh, and the price I saw posted for "red cherries," that I said, "Can't possibly be the price for the Rainier cherries they have out on the shelf" - I was right on that. Yeah, I paid $7 for a bag of cherries. I'm not proud of it but by then I was too tired to make a stink, and anyway, I knew Ranier cherries were not "red cherries," and I knew they would be expensive. 

But yeah. I still hurt. If it weren't so hot I'd consider taking a bath with Epsom salt (I might still do that, with cooler water) It's alarming to me to hurt this much but I'm telling myself it's just the unexpected heat and humidity.