Checking Out the Fast Lane

R.a.n.t. of week 12/16/12

Let's suppose you went to a Nascar race, only to find out the cars in the race were a soap-box derby type, using pedal power. The roar of the cars zipping past replaced with a deafening sound of nothingness from the derby cars. Probably not an event you'd write home about, unless to r.a.n.t. and complain. Even if you were a soap-box derby fan, you'd have to admit compared to the Nascar you were hoping to see, the derby cars were not very speedy. Keep in mind, being speedy is relative to how fast you expect something to go. A snail racing along at 10MPH could hardly be called slow. Why then, do grocery stores put monikers on their 'self-serve checkout' lines such as "Speed Zone" or "Fast Lane", when they are anything but. Have you ever tried using these lanes and actually watched the people in front of you? This weekend I was entertained with a three act show. With four checkouts, only three ever work at any given time. The first customer is a lady who ignores the 12 item limit and proceeds to self-checkout her cartload. I've also noticed the more a person has at the checkout, the slower they move. The next checkout is a lady who has a stack of coupons. I won't bash coupons if they work for you, but most machines require the attention of a checkout clerk. So every coupon the lady scans, the clerk has to come over and approve it. If she's going to be seeing the clerk that much, why not just use a regular lane? The final customer is an older gentleman who has his grandson along. First of all, the gent has a 'not so bright' look on his face. Everything he scans puzzles him and he tries to scan other items before putting the previous into a bag. This sets off the alert and the clerk is called over to find out what the problem is. His grandson keeps telling him to put the item in a bag, but for reasons unknown the grandfather doesn't listen. After a few more items being processed this way, I literally hear him say, "Maybe I should have used the other lane". Sir, you took the words right out of my mouth.

Really Getting Flighty

R.a.n.t. of week 05/25/08

I'm not quite sure what's going on but lately I've been really bad at little simple stuff. Forgetting things I should remember, correctly assessing a situation and responding accordingly, co-ordination and other stuff that I'm probably forgetting.

In the first situation, I had a big problem this weekend with forgetting small but essential bits needed for trying to get set up on my laptop. I wanted to do some writing this weekend and was updating windows with a new XP OS. However I forgot to bring along the code needed for registering it. But the fun didn't end there. I tried to input the files I brought along, saved on my phones backup flash drive. I put the card in but it didn't read. So I was upset again, and couldn't figure out why it didn't work. So I gave up on it. In the morning I realized I didn't put the save disk from my phone into the drive and thus was the reason it didn't work. I was really worked up about that.

In the second situation, I was having coffee at Highland Park when one of the staff trips and falls while coming up the steps. I just sat there and kept telling myself to get up and help, do something, anything. I didn't and felt stupid myself for doing nothing.

As for my co-ordination, I keep playing dominoes with everything. I'll brush up against something on a table or my desk and as I go to catch it, something else will get in the way and I'll knock that over and then something else. It really gets frustrating at times. I thought I was past that awkward stage in my life. Next thing you know, I'll be popping pimples again.