I had an extraordinary day yesterday.
Three customers shared personal news with me yesterday.  The first was a woman whose first name I don't know (although I know her daughter's name - Tina).  Mom told me she hadn't been around for a while because her husband died Jun 1.  I listened to her talk about the process, when he went to Hospice, when he ( Read more... )

A young man got a job offer while waiting in line to be cashed out.  A mechanical engineer, he'd been let go from his previous job under circumstances that left a bad taste in his mouth.  I found out the good news when he called a friend while within earshot ( Read more... )

I got to work a little early yesterday, because my last pair of cheap reading glasses had broken, and I needed to get new ones.  I picked them up, along with a couple of things like coleslaw mix, which we sell out of quickly before summer weekends.  The front end was explodingly busy, so I got cashed out at our customer service counter.  I threw ( Read more... )

Monday, as I already noted, I did an upper-body workout before going to work, then walked all over hell's half acre doing the reshops.  Luckily, I kinda knew I'd be sore, and I took a tube of Ben Gay into work with me.  By my break time, my legs were screaming, so I went into the ladies' room and greased myself up.  Shortly thereafter, I was ( Read more... )

Ray hates cilantro.  I understand this.  It's genetic, in fact, as I understand it.  So I've made do with parsley for a couple of months.  Finally, after starting to put my own interests ahead of almost everyone else's, I said screw it.  I bought some cilantro.  I will make salsa with it.  I will put it in my own salads.  I'd almost forgotten, ( Read more... )

I called the manager at the apartments where Alice live yesterday morning.  She is okay.  She has a UTI - that's why she fainted.  The manager was going over with her to Wegmans yesterday to help her retrieve her car.
The phone number for the apartment offices is now in my computer address book.

I don't know his name, although I'll ask for it one of these days.  Young, slender, African-American, he once worked as a cashier for Wegmans in the city, so he knows what my job is like.  And I think  I know a little of what his is like.  He is part of a team of people who operate a group home for the disabled.  I can't, at the moment, remember ( Read more... )

A friend noted,

I'm thinking that any job these days will leave us a bit jaded about humanity once in awhile.
I said that's true.  Then I thought about one of my regulars who came through my line yesterday.  When I first met Vince, he jokingly hassled me about going faster.  A man in his seventies, I'd guess, he said that he was "the house boy for ( Read more... )

Perhaps it's because of the new birdfeeder out front, but I'm noticing the bird life more than usual this year.  I cut down almost all of my perennial grasses.  Of the three I haven't done yet, two are little bluestem.  The dried stems leftover from last year are a soft peachy color and fairly strong.  I've watched birds land on them, bounce up and ( Read more... )

I've been back on the front end cashing, a lot lately, and it feels great.  Great to not feel like I have to watch my back against arbitrary nonsensical attacks from a boss.  Great to be back to relating to customers the way one does on the front end.  Much more immediately and with a lot of humor.

Most of the time, I'm laughing with customers.  ( Read more... )