I took these pictures when our friends’ rose bush bloomed last September. I love the pink contrasting with the green.
*If these look familiar, I had actually posted them last September. I have about three projects on the needles/hook right now, and nothing ready to post today. Enjoy these intermission flowers.*
We’ve all seen that one cart that seems to have lost its herd. Worse yet are those times when the whole herd seems to have lost its way back to the pen.
The problem isn’t even limited to those giant megastores with miles long parking lots, either. Be it a tiny craft store, local grocer, or the ever-present town megamart, those meandering carts will find their way into the parking spaces.
Placing the cart stalls closer together may seem the most obvious, easy solution, but the length of the walk from the car to the cart return doesn’t matter. Inevitably there will be that one person who parks next to the return stall and leaves the cart in the space on the opposite side of the car.
There is only one real solution to the problem: self-returning carts. If all the shops would install a “New New York” (you’ve all seen Futurama, right?) style interwoven system of tubes below the parking lot, the carts would just have to be placed into holes in the ground and it would take care of the rest.
Then again, giant gaping holes might be a glaring safety hazard ripe for lawsuits. And of course there would be that one jerk who pushes the cart right to the edge of the hole and leaves it.
Maybe the carts need to fly instead…
What slight daily annoyances would you want changed? Anyone have a better idea for how to take care of the rogue shopping carts?
I have never felt homeless; I always hate when my mom tells people that we have been for the past year. We have always had a place to stay and haven’t had to sleep in the car or on the streets like typical homeless people. But we haven’t had a home since last December.
I had just graduated from college and my mom had just moved out to live with me because she liked it better out here than back with my grandparents she had been helping. Neither one of us had been able to find jobs. We were answering questions for ChaCha, trying to make a little money to get by, while paying rent with what little savings we had and trying to borrow from family without borrowing too much. We were buying only the food we could get at Kmart because we had to use the Sears card instead of cash.
We each applied to every job in every grocery store and retail store in the area we could find, but never got called for any interviews. We lived like this for 4 months, and finally had to leave our apartment because we couldn’t afford it anymore. We lived in relatively cheap motels in the area (We were in the San Fernando Valley, there is no such thing as a cheap motel.) for about a week before a friend at church found someone we could stay with for a while.
She ended up letting us stay so we could get back on our feet. I started working for a friend with a quilt shop a few hours a week so we could buy food. I also found a MOPS group to work childcare for which lead me to the nanny job I currently have once a week. My mom got a job at a non-profit home for pregnant women in the area and we were able to trade in her old car that pretty much broke down in the parking lot of the car dealership and get her a new(er) car. I was able to get my own car so I could get to and from work more easily, too.
We had so many bills to pay down that most of our money was gone as soon as it came in at the beginning. As we paid things down, we were able to have a little extra money and quit using the credit cards (as much, I still have to buy gas on mine, but pay it mostly off each time).
Then the lady we were living with kicked us out of the house. She went psycho one day about splitting the bills (which we had offered many times to help pay before this). We didn’t have the full amount to give her immediately as we had just paid all of our bills for the month and didn’t get paid again for about a week or so. She assumed we were trying to get out of paying and flew off the handle. So we moved in with a very loving friend of ours who had an extra room for the month.
We already knew we were going to be moving into a house at the first of October, and tried explaining that to the lady we had been living with but she was completely irrational by that point. We have been staying with our friend for the past three weeks, and it has been a good time.
We are finally getting to move into our own place tomorrow. It’s such a relief to know we have a place of our own and we don’t have to worry about psycho roommates anymore. It’s good to know that we are finally going to be settled for a while.
It’s good to finally move home.
Have you ever experienced a crazy roommate who would not think rationally? Have you ever had to live on friends’ couches while not having your own place? Got any ideas on what color I should paint my new room?
Casey Kay B 