Taking Shit

Life is all about taking shit.  Now that I'm employed again, this is clearer than ever.  I've had to take shit from coworkers: but mostly from customers.  My coworkers have also had to take massive amounts of shit from customers.  Perhaps society is breaking down.  Some think that America is headed for a major fall.  Perhaps this is part of it.
I'll give you an example.  I was working, as a cashier, in the outside lawn and garden area of the store where I work.  A man was there with his woman.  I rang up the purchases, and he paid for them with his credit card.  When one uses a credit or debit card to pay, one approves the purchase amount first, so that's what he did.  After he did that and paid for the merchandise, he had a problem with the price of one of the items.  According to him, it had been put in the wrong place or the price was wrong.  According to him, it should have cost a lot less than it did.  But here's the problem; he approved the total purchase amount!  And now that it's gone through, there's nothing I can do to right this supposed wrong for him.  Returns must be done at customer service.  I told him that, and it made him very angry.
"You mean I have to go all the way over there?" he asked.  He said it like it was a mile or so away.  It wasn't.  It was much less than that: just a little bit of a stroll, which, considering his fat-ass physique, he wasn't very used to navigating.  Then he said, "Fuck it.  I'm not going there.  I'll hold up the line too.  I don't care."
I knew what to say to that, but I didn't say it, because it could have gotten me fired.  I would have said, 'Why did you approve the purchase amount if you had a problem with it?"
Here's another example.  A woman, with an English accent, approached me while I was manning a cash register.  She was a little bitchy, which turned out to be foreshadowing.  The store I work at has it's own credit cards.  We allow our customers to use them even if they failed to bring them to the store for their purchases.  We can look them up on the computerized registers.  That's what the bitch wanted to do; she wanted to use the credit card she failed to bring to the store.  So I looked it up, and the computer said, "no account found."  I told her that, and she got very bitchy
"I have an account here!" she yelled.  I double-checked all the info she had given me: no dice.  My memory is a little fuzzy, cause I've been drinking, but I think she requested the assistance of a manager.  She arrived and assisted. 
The manager, Trixie, asked "Could it be under your husband's name (which I had asked)?"
"No!" was the response,  "It's under both our names.  I think he (me) typed it in wrong."
It turned out that it was under her husband's name.  She had been a bitch for no good reason and fucked with two people who couldn't retaliate unless they were OK with losing their jobs.              

Woman Stung by Scorpion on Plane in LA

 
From the NY Times (2/15/15)-

LOS ANGELES — A scorpion stung a woman on the hand just before her flight from Los Angeles to Portland took off.

Flight 567 was taxiing on the runway Saturday night when the passenger was stung, Alaska Airlines spokesman Cole Cosgrove said. The plane returned to the gate, and the woman was checked by medics. She refused additional medical treatment, but she didn't get back on the plane.

The woman stomped the scorpion to death, and flight attendants checked overhead compartments for any additional unwanted arachnids, Cosgrove said. It's unclear how the scorpion got on the plane, but the flight originated in Los Cabos, Mexico, where scorpions are common, he said.

The flight then took off at 8:40 p.m., about an hour late.

Members of Oregon State University's men's basketball team were on the flight, Cosgrove said.

Oregon State Coach Wayne Tinkle told ESPN that the woman was sitting two rows in front of him.

"The woman was a real champ," Tinkle said. "She acted like it was a mosquito bite. They got it off her, but the needle was stuck."

Holy Hell!

Lucinda

Today is the worse of two bad days in a row.  Yesterday, I realized that I lost my cell phone Saturday night.  Then I went for a walk and got bit by a dog.  It was ridiculous.  I was walking past a dog grooming shop.  To my left, I saw two dogs.  One was being walked by a woman, the other by a young girl.  The young girl let go of the leash, the woman yelled, and the dog approached me.  She was a cute small dog, and I love animals, so I was kind of like "hi."  Then the dog sunk her teeth into my right leg.  Holy crap!  I was shocked.  I started running down the street with the dog chasing me.
Unbelievably, the woman yelled to me, "Don't worry; she doesn't bite."
"She already did!" I yelled while running away from the biter.  It, again, was ridiculous.  The woman was trying to get the dog on the loose, Bella, while holding on to the leash of the other dog.  Bella had broken my skin in 4 places, and now I have at least 1 bruise there. 
She kept yelling, "Bella!" but it didn't seem to do any good.
Meanwhile, I became concerned.  This dog was off the leash right next to a busy street.  I was worried that she would get hit by a car.  So I ran into a parking lot: hoping she would follow me.  She did.  I was a little shocked, I was angry, and I decided I'd had enough, so I continued my walk.  Then I started to think about things like rabies.  If an animal, that's infected with rabies, bites you, it can kill you.  So I walked back toward the woman.  She was still yelling Bella's name, and she was still on the loose.  I yelled to her, "Does she have her shots?!"
"Yes" she answered.
So I walked on.  I got to my destination, turned around, and walked toward home again.  I don't have health insurance, but I have been to a free clinic around here.  They will treat you, but they ask for a $10 donation.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to die.  I got the idea to go into the groomer's and see if that woman was there.  If she was, I would ask her for money.  Why should I have to pay to make sure I'm not gonna die from rabies?  I went in there, but I did not see her.  By the way, she didn't even apologize to me.  I did think to write down the phone number of the groomer's, which was on a sign in front of the shop.  When I got home, the first order of business was to call the groomer's and ask if they make sure the dogs have their shots before grooming them.  The nice woman on the end of the phone insisted that they do.  She pretty much put my mind at ease.
Today, I went to pick up my cell phone from where I lost it.  On the way back, my car overheated and started belching smoke.  Then it did what it never did before; it failed to get me to my destination.  I didn't have my AAA card on me, so I walked home (from the highway).  It took me 40 minutes to get home.  I was at home, on the phone with AAA, when someone rang my buzzer.  My first instinct was to ignore it.  Then I thought, what if it has something to do with my car?  Sure enough, a NY state trooper was at the door.  He asked if my car broke down.  I said yes, and that I'm trying to deal with it.  Then he let me know it had already been towed.  It turned out to be $150.  It would have cost nothing, or a little more than nothing, if AAA had towed it.  I called a nearby garage and told them what happened.  The mechanic on the phone seemed to think it might be an expensive problem.  I asked the towing company to tow it to this garage.  This has been a pretty difficult 2-day period.