The sun came out today! And it was (almost) warm! That’s really all I wanted to say, because it made the horrible shopping experience this morning go away. But now the sunlight is fading, and the fog is rolling back in, and I see there’s rain in the forecast again, so I’m going to turn off the Creole dance music and put on something dirge-like. The New Age channel usually has something appropriate for a gloomy day.

What happened this morning, since you insist on knowing, is that I got stuck in a checkout line at the supermarket where the clerk didn’t speak Spanish, and the woman trying to redeem her food stamps didn’t speak English. He told me when I got in line that it would be awhile, but I stayed because all the other lines were so much longer. I waited twenty minutes while he tried to talk her into buying all the milk she had credit for. The louder he got (“What kind?!? Two percent?!? One percent?!?”) the less she understood, and the more she shrunk away from him, and the longer it took. People came and went in line behind me while the drama unfolded and my ice cream melted.

Finally a store manager, who apparently hadn’t checked in a long time, asked me if I’d like to move over to the next counter. I unloaded my cart while he tried to sign into the register and more people lined up behind me. Then the conveyer belt didn’t work, so the other customers were helpfully pushing my groceries up closer. (I don’t know if I’ll be able to use that celery, not knowing who might have handled it.) Then the woman behind me, who only had one item and should have been in the express lane, decided that since there were no baggers, she was going to bag my groceries for me, to hurry things along.

As much as I tried to keep smiling and take it all in stride, I was sort of fuming when I walked away pushing my overloaded cart toward the door. But then I walked outside, and the sun was shining! And there was Creole dance music on the radio! And I hit a couple of green lights on the way home! So all was well again, until the fog rolled in.

This being the last day of Holidailies, I’d like to thank Chip and Jette for maintaining the portal, and to the readers’ panel for naming my January 2 entry as one of the “Best of Holidailies.” Can you imagine? I wrote about cleaning my sink, and I got a nice reward for it. It gives me a warm feeling of gratitude (and astonishment).