Author: Rene

When summer arrived, my hours as a grocery clerk increased, giving me the opportunity to substitute for senior employees who took vacation. The meat department scared me.

“Harley” was in charge. He was fun, always kind, and encouraged me to approach the slicer with respect. I only had one week to help in that department, but I avoided that implement at all costs. (Remember, I had already learned how to saw my fingers quite nicely under my dad’s watch. Well, you may not remember, but I did!)

I think it was fortuitous I helped Harley take a vacation. He returned the favor my senior year of high school.

Little did I know he was the man on duty at the country club after midnight. When a group of my friends and I hopped the fence to swim in the private pool, Harley was just as surprised to see me as I him. He let us all go without incident or report.

Thanks to the meat department I have no arrest record and have successfully retained my digits. Good times.

Aside from driving a school bus for detassling crews, my primo job was that of grocery store checker. My neighbor and best friend, ”Pann,” worked at a competing store. That in itself was amazing, as our town supported two grocery stores! I guess we were the county seat, so we had to have something special.

This little thought came to mind with the photo. I had to enter every price manually, make change and count back the return, and ensure I wasn’t accepting a check from one of the ”bad check offenders” posted by the register. The kicker – we had courtesy checks for people who didn’t bring their checkbook with them! ”Counter checks” from banks in the area were available, and we required no identification to write one. I guess everyone knew everyone, and if you wrote a bad one, you were posted for all to see.

Truly a different time and some crazy memories! Tomorrow – the meat slicer.

At least ”Wordle” isn’t a rabbit hole…you only get one game. Well, you could get another if you paid for it I assume, or if you waited long enough for the reload, but mostly, you play one simple word game. Then, you may get on with your day. Unless you have a NYTimes puzzle awaiting, too.

Well, I did not miss the news at all while treasure hunting. This comes to mind as I spent last evening binge-watching five episodes of ”The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.”

Total spoof! I’m not a binger, but 30-minute installments of sarcasm and wit were irresistible. Ooh – and the jibes at all varieties of poor mystery writing and audience gullibility – I like to think I didn’t miss too much. (I’m sure I missed too much.) Anyway, I finished the whole darn season. Unfortunately, I turned the news on after that and found it was too close to the humorous exaggeration I had just viewed

I’m returning to vacation mode.

It’s always good for the soul to head out on a ”Jewelry Junket”. It’s hard to imagine there are even more gems and minerals out there in the earth when you’ve been to the Tucson Gem and Mineral show. It’s phenomenal. While I did support the economy in my teensy way, I mostly admired this vast display.

The photos I took aren’t even of the most spectacular items we saw, just little snippets. Jewelry is excluded in my “portfolio,” mostly because I couldn’t possibly capture the amount of gems and the scope of sellers in the multitude of venues.

I return home without the giant quartz bathtub, the monstrous minerals, and the stunning fountains for the garden. My finds were smaller in nature and will be adorning my neck.

The source chooses to remain anonymous, but this one is apt for our beautiful snowfall, the snowfall which my husband managed to escape, leaving me to plow the driveway and shovel yet again, and have the plow harness break on me yet again.

Anyway, we have moisture!

This one comes from my husband, who probably gets tired of me correcting the grammar of local newscasters who often have “irritable vowels.” It also reminds me that I need to ask my personal IT guy for help with my computer.

Which also reminds me – if you didn’t get an email response from me regarding anything you to which you thought I should be responding in the past month – I did respond. It’s just that the missive did not go through. Thus, computer assistance is required.

Thank you for this reminder, spouse ‘o mine.

Isn’t this cool? Some of you find the most interesting stories and tidbits out there, the “quirky and mundane.” This quirkiness comes from a college friend. It also makes me want to seek and find this elusive “theme of the year!”

Kudos to “Guest Contributor Week” participant, “Paroline.”

The distinct sound of my son clomping downstairs roused me from my early morning routine. I knew he was here to retrieve his packages from the Amazon locker he rents for free – our front hall.

To my surprise and joy, my Christmas present was in that delivery. It’s a beautiful painting of a lake walk, and my son knew just where it was supposed to go. So, within the span of two hours, I redecorated my family room. As you know, you can’t hang something without moving all of the furniture around and sending something off to another room, which entails moving something else from that room to another, etc…

If you give a mouse a cookie! This is a lovely cookie.