First there was the pink and purple My Little Pony in the middle of the street looking as if it had been ridden hard and put away wet, or, at least, tossed from the window of a moving vehicle and run over a few times. I like to think it was thrown by its owner: perhaps a young girl in the midst of a tantrum over gender stereotyping, or a future physicist working out the finer points of Newton’s second law. More likely its demise was the work of a bratty sibling over the objections of owner. For a moment, I thought I should stop and get it as some sort of objet d’art, perhaps I should have — there’s something about abandoned toys that makes me feel wistful.

Then, closer to home, there was the half-squished cucumber which was strange, but not perhaps as strange as my first thought upon seeing it, “But cucumbers aren’t in season.”

The price of a can of soda pop from the vending machine in the basement has gone up 10¢. The pricing of vending machine stuff interests me because one is expected to pay a premium for the convenience of it, but the operators of the vending machines are bound by the mechanics of payment (which is to say, because the machines do not accept pennies, the prices only increase by multiples of five). The result is that vending machine prices do not reflect inflation very well and so gaps in time are created during which one can buy things from a vending machine for less than one would buy the same item from say a convenience store.

A can of soda can be purchased as part of a case from a grocery store for less than what it would cost from either a vending machine or a convenience store, so it isn’t as if the operators of the vending machines are ever losing money on the deal, but the surcharge they are able to impose for the convenience of being able to buy a can of soda without going to a grocery store fluctuates wildly.

I am a bit curious to see how this phenomenon will be affected when using ones credit card to purchase food items from vending machines catches on in the States. The key will be, of course, whether the consumers will still want these things to be priced in the way they are now and how often the operators will be willing to adjust their prices. I envision a gas station like scenario with the price of a can of soda fluctuating a cent or two every couple of days.

Personally, I think this is a brilliant series of Play-Doh ads, but I am not likely Hasbro’s target audience.

Last night I was approached in a parking lot by a young and very pregnant woman driving an SUV. She began by tearfully telling me she had already called the police, and I immediately began trying to remember precisely what the EMD cards say about childbirth. So I was relieved when I realized she was telling me that the police had refused to give her any gas money and that she was low on fuel and needed to drive back home to Pennsylvania. Frankly at that moment I was happy to give her ten bucks.

Almost immediately I began to wonder if I had just enabled a pregnant woman to get high, but there remains an issue of weighing the possible scenarios against the one presented. I believe that in many situations one must give the person the benefit of the doubt just in case, even at the risk of my being an easy mark as a result.

I discovered this morning, after a cup of water consumed “upside down” and a spoonful of sugar failed utterly, that a combination of adrenaline and aggravation stops hiccups cold. Which, in all likelihood, also explains why someone sneaking up and scaring the living daylights out of one works so well.

Last night in the grocery store parking lot there was a Smart Car parked near mine. The surprisingly loud panic alarm went off as I approached my vehicle. I jumped. The driver of the Smart Car appeared, coming from another lane over, and as he approached he said, “Sorry for startling you, Miss.” I replied, “That’s okay. Your car is so small I can see how you might lose it.”

I celebrated Labor Day with a morning trip to Walmart. Having recently become acquainted with the website, People of Walmart, I had a brief moment of wrenching terror when I realized that if you are in a Walmart, but you do not see any Walmart creatures than you are the Walmart creature. As a result, I was strangely relieved when, in the office supply aisle, an elderly man approached me with a pair of full-size scissors to ask whether or not he could use them to cut his toenails. I said that wasn’t really adviseable and lead him into the cosmetics department where I endorsed my particular toenail clippers of choice. I can only hope he made the right decision.

Speaking of office supplies, I decided that I was fed up with the dictionary at work and its crumbling pages, destroyed cover and the fact it keeps wandering off only to return more damaged than before. I also decided it would be a good idea to buy some Post-it® flags to mark entries that are the most often looked up. I found it odd that those turned out to be more expensive than the dictionary.

That wasn’t as odd though as some DVDs I saw while waiting for a friend who was searching in vain for a 110/220 Volt AC adapter. These were “double features” (i.e. two films on one disc); the strange thing was the combination of movies available. Granted both “Castaway” and “Master and Commander” feature large bodies of water, but I have no idea what “Bull Durham” and “Something About Mary” have in common.

Last night I went looking for this ‘blog by way of a Google search. I was terribly amused by the “Sponsored Link” which appeared on the right:

After my bridge game ended early, I went to Target to buy some more of a particular style and brand of t-shirt that I particularly like and is currently on sale.

This entire Target was redesigned about a year ago. They stopped only just short of tearing down the building and starting from the foundation up which allowed them to stay open throughout. There were many months of the story having taken on a completely different layout every time I went there. Tonight one corner of the store was cordoned off for yet more renovations. Perhaps they are adding a swimming pool or some tennis courts.

It is 21¢ cheaper to buy boxes of Kleenex individually as compared to in a four-pack. My only explanation is that they are attempting to take advantage of those who are made to purchase several boxes for their child to take to school in the Fall.

Near the area that was under construction, there was a trail of gummy bears on the floor. I followed it until it came to a halt in a small, gruesome pile of bears. No explanation of this was forthcoming.

This morning at the grocery store I saw a pack of napkins emblazoned with this image:

I don’t know what bothered me more, the fact that they wanted $5.00 USD for twenty cocktail napkins or the fact that the company producing them has reason to believe a market exists that consists of women of legal drinking age in this country that are not offended by being called, “Princess”.

I was at the store, in part, to buy a new automatic shower cleaner as otherwise the death of my old one left me with two ugly choices — either I could let my bathtub host the war to end all wars between soap scum and mildew or I could start cleaning it myself the old-fashioned way.

I had noticed a few months back that there was a “new and improved” version on the market that had not just one, but two sprayers. The package promises that the second sprayer targets “the grime zone”. Imagine my dismay to find that I had let my grime zone go unmolested all this time. I was tempted to upgrade then, but I decided instead to see how long the original one held out. Now I suspect this might have been a scheme to keep us early adopters from feeling bad about shelling out $14.95 USD for a new unit when our old ones went off to the big shower stall in the sky. Still I feel better knowing that when next I step out of the shower and activate the new unit the grime zone will face the fury of the scrubbing bubbles.

Under an overpass I drive by on my way home from work, there is a fairly extensive camp site. This morning I distinctly made out the silhouette of an upright vacuum cleaner.