And you thought I was grouchy

I was halfway through filling up my cart at the local Safeway when the power went out. It got quiet as everyone paused for a second, then I could hear the checkout registers start beeping, the annoying background music playing, and an announcement saying that it appeared the power had just gone out.

The store has a lot of skylights, so I shrugged my shoulders (and muttered to myself not to do that again since it hurt a bit), and kept on filling up the basket. The only really dark areas were by the wine and the bakery.

Finally I went up to pay. As my stuff was being scanned, an older guy came up behind me. "What, are we livin' in a third world country? Hasn't anyone ever heard of a backup generator around here?" 

Wow. I was in awe. Here was a real pro!

We were in a large grocery store with no power and yet there was plenty of light to see with, the cash registers were all working, and you could still hear a Barry Manilow song in the background. But this guy was ticked that the belt you put your groceries on was not working and you had to manually push your stuff up to the cashier.

This made me smile as I made my way through the parking lot, past the people heading in to the store, and listening to cars struggling to get through the intersection with the no-longer functioning stop lights. 

As grouchy as I am, there are others worse than me. And I still have something to shoot for.

That's it - move along...

PS: It is really cold here today. The hills around us are covered in snow. There is a new front coming in tonight that is going to add to that snow. I welcome the rain - we need it desperately - but does it have to be so cold? Why I remember back in my day when the weath...