Back to Tuesday, January 6...I am sooo far behind again. Life must be lived people, life must be lived. Sometimes that gets in the way of things like Blogging. But this particular incident struck me as just how silly life is, I remembered it so I could put it in my Blog.
Tuesday, January 6th, Claude and I finished our shift at the Family History Center. We went to check out guitar cases. It turns out Claude has a very valuable guitar.
When we were first married and very, very poor (as all newly weds should be in my book), Claude went to the guitar shop in Shreveport, Louisiana. He order a 12-string Gibson guitar and had it specially made to be left-handed. Could we afford this? No way. But we did and Claude was very happy. That guitar has brought lots of memories and good times. He used it to play in a band when we lived in Colorado. I shall always remember him singing "The Marvelous Little Toy" to our children as they danced around the room. I loved singing duets with him. Claude's voice is a lot like Burl Ives. Just mellow and very nice. I am an alto that is really a tenor. Guitar playing is the perfect way to sing because the key can be changed so easily and placed so we could harmonize well with each other. Now, we will be married 45 years in a few weeks so that guitar is 44 years old.
Claude was trying to figure out what he wanted for Christmas. He had a bee in his bonnet (or cap) to get another banjo. We tossed his old banjo when we moved from Maryland as it had used up every bit of life in it. Ever the detailed person, Claude read and studied over the Internet to find exactly what he thought was right in a banjo.
In the meantime, he took his guitar to one of two shops we know of in Lexington at the end of last year. They were to restring it and give it a general once over to be sure it was in tip-top shape. Claude came home with this 'who-would-have-thought-it' expression. Turns out this is a fairly valuable item now. Being an old Gibson is enough but adding the special construction to be left-handed (the bridge had to be made differently) and the fact Claude has taken very good care of it over the years, left the guys in the guitar shop amazed that he had it. They clean and restrung and buffed up the frets as they wear a bit over the years. Claude was very happy to have the guitar home.
Then he got to thinking...maybe I should get a new really good case for this treasure instead of a banjo. He shared this thought with me. This was to be his Christmas present and we were going to get whatever he chose after the New Year. My suggestion was we stop in at the other guitar shop in Lexington and look at their banjos and guitar cases before making a purchase. Claude agreed. So Tuesday, January 6th found us at the 2nd guitar shop.
This time I saw the joy that old guitar brings to those in the guitar playing world. When Claude pulled it out of the case the man knew immediately it was a Gibson 52-?? and it was strung left-handed. His grin was worth the trip to Lexington. He called to the man behind the cash register, held up the guitar and said, "Do you know what this is?" The guy immediately told him the make and model. Claude told them about purchasing it all those years ago. Then guy said helping us said, "May I take this to the back? The girl in our band is left-handed, she will have a dream fulfilled to play this guitar." Of course he could. We trudged to the back of the shop and she immediately lit up when she saw the guitar. She also knew immediately it's place in the guitar world. I told her how happy it made me to see others happy to see that guitar. Especially her. Most people see the 12-string and want to play and are immediately frustrated that it is strung for a left-handed person. They can't play it but they really, really want to.
This shop had the perfect case and we purchased the case and a strap for the guitar. No banjo was purchased. That will be another day. This was also our first standing in line of the day. Not a bad experience but we let a few people in front of us as Claude finalized his purchase of the strap for the guitar.
Off to lunch. Then to Staples were my standing-in-line experience began in earnest.
All I needed from Staples was printer cartridges for my printer. I get a package of black and a package of the three colors, all in the XL variety so they last a bit longer. May I just add here that printer ink is expensive. I knew where these items were located. Entered the store, went to the aisle and picked up the two items I needed and headed to the check-out counter. There was a lady there waiting to be finished checking out. There was a concerned look on the young guy trying to check her out. It turns out she was doing returns that had been purchased with coupons that were now expired and it couldn't get it to work for him. The manager was called an came to help. By this time, I was 2nd in line with someone behind me. Not bad. A manager should be able to figure this out pretty quickly...I thought. Another check-out clerk was called to handle the lady in front of me. Now another customer and her two young, very active boys, were two place in line after me. Hmmm...Wait, wait, wait.
The guy in front of me had picked up a small stack of gift cards as his purchase. Something wasn't going right with his being rung up. I did my relaxation exercises one can do while standing in line. This did nothing to hurry the process. Soon the assistant manager was called to help that second clerk with the check-out of the gift cards. Now there were three others behind the lady with the two kids. I was just chuckling to myself at the amazing coincidence of two clerks needing the hands of all the managers to get these two things done.
Pretty soon a person who works in the copy center came and asked me and the lady behind me to come and he would check us out at the copy center. That went very smoothly and I was on my way to where Claude was waiting in the parking lot for what he thought would be a quick in and out. Not!!
Next stop, Walmart. Again, an easy in and out...I thought. I picked up the few items we needed quickly and found a short line with only two ladies in it and they seemed to be together. They had almost everything checked out. However there were about 4 little items at the beginning of the check-out stand that one of them would need to pay for or they were left there in error. Now, one of the ladies was in a driving cart. It has a BIG basket on the front and her items were being taken out of it for check-out and put in bags and back into her basket on the driving cart. They finished checking out her items and the other lady walked back and got the four little items on the end of the check-out stand. She looked at me and asked if I minded if she checked those out before me. I assumed since those were on the counter before mine that was exactly what she should do. I told her no problem. She moved up to be checked out as another customer got in line behind me. As the lady's four little items were being checked out they discovered some items not paid for in the driving cart basket. The lady in the driving cart asked if I minded if she checked those out before me. Of course not. Go right ahead. This was said as the lady she was with walked past me and the other lady in line and back into Walmart. Hmmmm...The poor clerk was a nice man with Indian heritage. He just looked at me and I grinned and winked. He was clearly concerned about how this was going for me and the next lady in line. You could see him calm down as I grinned. He knew I wasn't going to throw a hissy fit. Bet they get that a lot. He checked out the lady in the driving cart for the second time as her friend returned with additional items she wanted to purchase. This lady looked at me for the second time and said, "May I check these out before you?" Of course. Inside I am just dying at the silliness of me only have two lines to stand in that day and both of them having issues. The lady in the driving cart had to move her items to a walking cart to go to the car. This was done by an additional clerk. Then she walked away from her driving cart, leaving it in the line in front of me. The poor clerk from India got on the cart and he was able to begin to drive it back at about an inch per hour, maybe slower, to where it could be charged. I was ready to burst into laughter at this point. It was just insane.
One more stop before headed home. This time I was waiting in the Jeep for Claude to do his purchasing. He had a similar experience. They had to call for help from the back. It took forever, really, about 30 minutes for him to get through.
We were both chuckling about it as we finally made our way home. Lines. I kept thinking of the movie "Michael". John Travolta plays Michael, the Archangel. In the movie he says he invented 'standing in lines'. Before that, everybody just mingled around. I laugh at the movie and I really laugh at our afternoon.
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