Days Off

Look up Sloth in the dictionary. You'll see a little litho print of TruckeeDave beside the entry!

I just couldn't work up any enthusiasm for digging in the garden or doing the heavy lifting of the plumbing project, so I lounged about all morning surfing the Web.

I did take the time to Chat with the HDMI Switch people, and in about ten minutes of hunt and peck, back and forth, they e-mailed me the Printable RMA Shipping Label.

After I couldn't work up any enthusiasm for watching the local Noon News, I headed downtown to ship my defective HDMI Switch back for re-grooving.

When I walked into the local UPS Store, the proprietor was helping another customer.

Behind the counter, a small HDTV was displaying a soccer game from the World Cup in South Africa. The TV set had the Sound OFF, and the Closed Captioning ON, and the play by play scrolled across the bottom of the "Made In China" 19inch LCD screen...en Español.

The franchisee is a Ukrainian Immigrant, and doesn't speak any Spanish!

When he wrapped up with the other customer, we made some small talk about the World Cup...the game on his TV was Uruguay vs Ghana...Ghana beat the American Team, eliminating them from the tournament. The UPS Store guy cracked that Brazil got beat earlier in the day. I said: "I knew something was up because Twitter was 'Over Capacity' for 45 minutes this morning".

He handed me my change, and I said: "The Internets were reverberating all around the World today" We were both laughing as I smiled and walked out to do the rest of my errands.

Next up, two hardware stores didn't have the little plumbing parts I needed.

So, I braved the local Safeway, and was glad to see my favorite checker, Hamish was working.

Poor Hamish was dealing with a crabby and preoccupied customer while I put my groceries on the conveyor belt.

I felt a bead of sweat rolling down my nose when Hamish said: "Hello my friend, how are you?"

"Hot" I replied, "But I'll be hotter tomorrow" We made small talk about the weather, and Hamish asked me: "Do you know where Mount Atlas is?" "In Lebanon?" I asked.

"No, in Algeria. I'm from Algeria, and I spent some time in the snow up on Mount Atlas" Hamish continued: "I've seen it snow in June on Mount Atlas".

"Did you know that it snowed on Mt Washington in New Hampshire yesterday, Hamish?"

"No" he replied.

I told him that up on Donner Summit, I've seen snowfall during every month on the calendar, including a three foot storm one September back in the 90s!

I was smiling as I pulled out of Safeway's parking lot...I'd just had a Genuine American Melting Pot Moment...twice in a half an hour.

Ciao!