A Day at Wal-Mart

I've decided.

I'm finished with school for the year. I can't do it anymore. The weather is nice, we're going to camp all next week anyway, and co-op ends on Monday. Three perfectly good reasons to be finished with school this year. I'm just going to pat myself on the back and not think about all that we could have accomplished. Instead, I'm happy for all that we did accomplish. We went stronger this year than any other year. Phew. End of the year par-tay tonight. We're making sloppy fries. For you who have been to Buffalo Wings & Rings, you know what sloppy fries are: curly fries with Wendy's-style chili over them with a light sprinkling of cheese. Oh, and we are having salad, so it's cool. Last day of schoool!

I love our Wal-Mart. It's like the ones in the old WalMart commercials, complete with happy little old people greeting us at the door. When we lived in Delhi and the Wally World in Western Hills opened, I had these images of little old ladies pinching my boys' cheeks on the way into the store and being helped by people in blue vests throughout my trip. Wrong. That Wally World was horrible and we made every effort to stay away from there. Especially after my fight with the manager, which we shall save for another post. But Lawrenceburg Wal Smart is great. They have this section of dog and cat food where the package has been torn and repaired with tape. They said it usually happens with a knife when they are opening the cases. Anyway, the food is way marked down and lets us buy food for our animals on the cheap. Good thing too, since raccoons seem to like our animals' food.

We were in the McDonald's in WalMart today getting a drink (you can refill one drink for the whole day there!) This lady with one leg was in a motorized cart while her grandson was on the floor having a tantrum. He was running and screaming and hitting. It was painful. I walked up to the counter, turned to the old lady to talk to her and the cashier said, "Don't look at them, look at me." I said, "Why, what's going on?" She told me that this screaming, hitting, kicking and biting had been going on for the past half hour. All of the people in McDonald's were sitting there watching. Mind, the McDonald's is tiny. It's just a little sitting space. This little boy was crazy wild. The cashier and all of the workers were livid. I must admit, it was hard to stomach. So I asked the cashier if anyone offered to help the old lady. She said, "I'll help her pull down his pants and turn him black and blue."

It was food for thought. I'll leave you to ponder that one, but it was unsettling at best. I went back into McDonald's for my refill and the cashier said, "I hope my kids never act like that." Kids have tantrums. It's part of their independence. This was different. This kid knew nothing different and from what I overheard, this was going to be his life. And I felt sad. It was as if everyone loved hating the drama of it but nobody wanted to help. I don't know.

We went to the skatepark today and the boys spent an hour being thankful that dad makes them wear pads and a helmet. I'll post a video later. Jack has a tendancy to draw a crowd and lots of comments. Although it's cool, it sort of leaves the other boys out.

We think we are bat-free. Jon lit a fire and we haven't heard screeching. It was sort of anti-climatic if you ask me. Now we need to cap off the chimney, but I think we are out of harms-way.

I've started walking and exercising and I felt a kinship with Steve as I took my walk today around the skatepark.

On to the sloppy fries.