Tuesday, I stopped at Costco after volunteering with the short folk. It was time to pick up the prescriptions. After I had been to the pharmacy and picked up something from the deli for dinner, I made my way up towards the check-out area. I was surprised to see some of the longest lines I've ever witnessed at our Costco. The time of day I arrive is usually one of the calmer intervals, so I was assuming their card system went down or something similar.
Rather than analyzing all of the lines, because they were deep into the aisles, I decided to head to the line closest to the exit door, for a quicker escape. This particular aisle had two lines of carts nestled beside one another.
One of my favorite things to observe is how different people often behave when they're at Costco. I didn't see the impatient foot tapping, crossed arms, staring at the clerks with a scrunched brow and a frowny face, that you might witness in another store. Instead, people began looking into each other's carts and making conversation.
A young woman whispered to their mother and then took a package of chocolate-something off the shelf and put it into their cart. I made a broad sweeping gesture towards the other chocolate treats on the shelf and exclaimed, "but wait! there's more!". Then the man in front of my cart jokingly suggested it was planned for us to be stuck amongst all of the treats and then remarked on a large box on a flatbed cart. The woman with the cart replied that she had found the patio set online, but that she could save $100 if she drove to a store, "So here I am!", she added.
And about fifteen minutes later, when I had made it next in line at the register, I heard a voice behind me. When I turned around one of the employees had two flatbed carts he was trying to take through the register area. Everyone flattened themselves out of the way and then a woman who was having a communication problem asked him a question. He stopped right where he was and took the time to speak to her in her native language, before continuing along his way to take those carts back outside.
I sometimes fear that
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress
worn by grotesques and monsters
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend.
It will restore your honour,
make you feel proud,
protect your house,
give you a job,
clean up the neighbourhood,
remind you of how great you once were,
clear out the venal and the corrupt,
remove anything you feel is unlike you...
"It doesn't walk in saying,
"Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.""
Michael Rosen, 2014
“Why do I need NOAA? I’ve got a weather app.”
Is equivalent to asking
“Why do I need farms? I can go to the supermarket.”
*copied from the best social media - Mastodon
