That will be $20, please

I had a couple of hysterical and exciting experiences today, while in town.

We popped in to Frys so I could look for a tape to clean my camcorder. Successful, I headed to the checkout where a friendly young lady rang up my purchase. It was 9.99 plus tax, and she said, "Would you like to put this on your Frys card?" I replied, "No thank you, I'd like to pay cash." So I handed her a $20 bill for the $10.81 charge. She said, "I'll be right back, I just have to validate the bill," and off she went. I stood there thinking how ironic it was, when, I had just handed her good money, declining to pay with a card that would have no money on it and she had to verify the bill!!! Maybe there is a reason why the economy is in crisis!

At Winco we had another exciting experience. We'd just gotten our carts and started into the store, when suddenly the lights flickered and then went out immediately! Someone shouted, "all the food is free!" and everyone stood there, frozen, sort of in shock, and then someone got out their cell phone to give some light and I suddenly thought, "what a good idea" and the lights came back on. Except not all of them, the electricity to the freezers and coolers and vegetables and the phone lines to run the credit-card machines all stayed dead. So we heard several muffled announcements over the intercom saying that people would have to pay with cash or check. Thankfully I'd brought plenty of cash with me, so I continued on my way, undisturbed, as I pinched and prodded the green peppers to find a firm one, bent an English cucumber almost in half to make sure it wasn't squishy and going bad, and scooped up a bagful of fresh green beans. After locating the least wilted bunch of beets, sorting out the freshest mushrooms, and tearing open several ears of corn to make sure they looked good, I headed to pick up a couple of cartons of rice milk and headed to the cash register to check out. The young lady took my cash and did not have to verify any bills with a fancy little machine. I happily reloaded my bagged groceries and we headed home.