Knowing that Hurricane Sandy is on her way, even though I felt as though it wasn’t going to be THAT big of a deal, I took a little ride on Saturday to see what I could pick up in lieu of supplies. I went out for batteries – mainly cause my wireless keyboard was dying and needed them anyway. I headed down to the Dollar Tree (because it’s a shame to spend $10 on a pack of batteries that die just as quick as the $1 ones) and saw a gentleman holding an ice pack on the side of his face while waiting in line. The cashier was nice/curious enough to ask if he was OK and then preceeded to ask “What happened” which was on my mind being as I’m so nosey. He went on to note that he’d just gotten in a fist-fight in Lowes over the last package of D-Batteries (apparently the last in the state of DE). Some douche pushed this mans wife out of the way (practically throwing her across the isle) to then rip this package of batteries out of the mans hand. That turned into a full blown fist-fight and that’s pretty much where the ice pack came from after the charges for assault were placed on the other man. The woman, typical fucking woman, was crying about how its the most traumatic experience of her life and how the husband shouldn’t have come to blows. He simply responded “Another man placed his hands on you, what else did you want me to do?” A few people said “Damn right!” she continued to cry about it and he said “Fine, next time I’ll let your ass hit the floor, heaven forbid I protect my wife from harm.” An older man standing in line behind me whispered to himself “If she was my wife, I would have left her on the floor”. I laughed because he spoke what everyone else was thinking (based on body language and how everyone kind of stared at each other . It just blows my mind how people would seriously get into a fight over batteries!
Then heading over to Walgreens I witnessed a younger man screw over a 90 year old woman who just asked for help getting a case of water into her shopping cart. She said to him “Would you mind putting those cases in the cart for me?” He said “Sure, no problem.” put one in the cart and then picked up the remaining two and rushed to the register. She said “Hey, my carts over here”, he said ‘Fuck off, I need water too” and continued to attempt checkout. Thank god the cashier saw everything and refused to ring him up. The kid got frustrated and left the store. (I saw this guy get out of his truck, he’s stocked up on water for the next ten years!)
The thing that’s most shocking to me, throughout all of this, is the fact that I’m in Delaware – not New York. In NY you can expect to be treated like shit and walk away from it unscathed. Delaware is supposed to be nice caring people, and for the most part it has been. Apparently though, when a storms a-brewing, that’s not the case. It breaks my heart to know that some guy needed to get into a fist fight and then to witness a poor old woman getting screwed over by some dumb 17 year old piece of shit with two fucking teeth in his mouth – is where the world goes during times of ‘chaos’.
The more amusing aspect to my afternoon outing was in Kmart. I knew that with the potential for no power, it was time to pick up a few things to keep me busy. I’d already gotten coloring books and a word-find from the dollar store but you can’t find any puzzles in the dollar store that contain more than 10 pieces. Kmart always has a stock of puzzles so I figured that would be the best place to go. That and the fact that I love walking through toy isles. So I walk into the isle and there’s a lady standing there with her two screaming children. They don’t understand why they aren’t in the electronics department picking up a new video game. She explains “If there’s no power, you can’t play a game – you’re gonna learn what a puzzle looks like!” I’ve never seen a child hit the floor in a tantrum that fast IN MY LIFE. You’d think their puppy was being taken away from them with this tantrum.
This is proof that how I intend to raise my kids is going to be the lesser of the evils. I don’t believe in spoiling a child, primarily because I wasn’t. I didn’t have every brand new game console or toy as soon as it came out. Hell, I had to beg for a furby and I was 18! They came out when I was 12! I wound up buying one for myself in a second-hand store just cause there was one that kind-of-worked on the shelf!
I’m just dumb-founded on how things happen the way they do.
For those looking to ride out the storm, just know that I’m doing the same thing and my little candle and word finder are at my side to keep me company!