I have had a number of conversations with late-night cashiers about the things people apparently get in their cars and drive to the store to get :) It's pretty interesting actually. For instance, your oldest guy sounds like he was planning a trip. Business? Or Leaving town for good? Your middle aged guy -- was he hungry or had his skin become so dry he just couldn't stand it? Your youngest guy probably came for the toothpaste but felt he needed to relax... wonder why? Screaming kids at home?
As for the mother, sigh. Hard to know what to make of her without more information. Maybe she had just picked the kid up from day care? If the kid actually had someone at home who could have watched him, and the family is on a day schedule, there is no question that WalMart at midnight is *way* too much stimulation..... On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 11:56 PM, Jim Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > As per usual since our massive reorg at the office I've been working all > weekend. A few hours ago my router seemed to crap the bed... kept shutting > down/rebooting every 30 seconds or so. > > So after some frustrating debugging (it's hard to debug a device that's only > active for 20 seconds at a time) I decided to hit up the local 24-hour > Walmart and pick up a cheapy one until I could order a decent one. Got > there at a little after midnight. > > Walked in... the place wasn't packed, but there were a hell of a lot more > people than I expected (I'm in Scranton, PA... not exactly what you'd call a > nightlife). Four registers were open but there were at least 20 people in > each line. > > So I make my way to the back of the store, grab up one of the many LinkSys > WRT54G's they got and head back up front. On the way I passed the Blu-Ray > rack so I treated myself to the "Blade Runner" 5 Disc collector's edition > (only $25!) and a bag of Reeses' Miniatures (on sale!). I get in that > surprisingly long line. > > I had a lot of time to people watch in my nearly 30 minutes in line. > > At least seven people had children under 5 with them. One kid started > crying and throwing a tantrum... tossing stuff out of the cart and > screaming. The mother kept saying "Stop this right now!" or "I'm not > bringing you here again" and I kept thinking "Serves you right for bringing > a four-year out at midnight you silly bitch". > > The entire time I was in line I heard no English except from the cashier... > the three latino guys in front of me were all looked disapprovingly at the > mother with the screaming kid so I mentally branded them "Okay". The two > asian kids behind were openly laughing at her so I mentally branded them > "idiots". > > The idiots were apparently shopping on the "I gotta get me one of them!" > plan... they had (among many other things) a Guitar (because we all know > that if you want a guitar Walmart is the place to go), several packages of > "Justice League" underpants and a reading lamp. > > The group in front of me were more enigmatic. Each member of the group had > two items: > > +) Oldest guy had a paperback book and a large rollaway suitcase. > > +) Middle-age guy had a giant (at least half-a-gallon) dispenser of > "Dove" hand lotion and a small box of frozen fish sticks. > > +) The junior member of the group had one of those super-cheap CDs > of "nature sounds" and a large, "family size" tube of Crest toothpaste. > > As I was leaving I entered into a minor argument: apparently somebody had > stopped their car to let a woman with a baby carriage cross into the parking > lot. However that woman didn't actually want to cross. The woman in the > car was waving her over and the woman with the baby was waving her away. > > All told it was a truly surreal little trip. Next time I get insomnia I > might just drive to the Walmart, find a nice quiet corner and people watch. > > Oh - good news is that my router is actually fine. It was the transformer > that went. Using the transformer from the new one with the old router fixed > everything. To my knowledge this is the first time I've ever had a > transformer go... > > Jim Davis > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:271163 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
