Why I never seem to get anything done.

I thought we might go to some technology-ey event this weekend. But - after seeing the weather forecast - I decided to stay home an prepare for the plague of locusts, and the apocalypse.

Normally - people in industrialized countries think if you own air conditioning, there is no need to worry about hot weather. That is what air conditioning is for - right?

Yeah - but this is California. You can't really count on having electricity. After the heat wave of last summer - a little fear runs through me when excessive heat starts coming so early. Bunnies are really vulnerable to heat.

Today I thought I might go and get supplies to put up giant fabric shades in an effort to stop some of that heat from getting into the house. Plus - this kind of weather makes everyone flood into stores. While my meltdown quota is high - it isn't something I really like to do.

I thought I was being smart to shop while the stores were relatively empty.

I wasn't being my typical shopping self. I wasn't in a hurry. I had to get some paint, so I was fully prepared to browse and just be zen. I'd gotten my shades, and went back to the paint department. No one was in line.

So - I'd made sure to tell the older gentleman how much I appreciated him getting my 4 cans of paint ready for me. He was on the third label by this point. We chatted about how it would suck this weekend, and that everyone would probably be in to buy air conditioners. It was a nice day at that point. Even though some of the conversations I overheard made me really happy I was getting this stuff done early. Peoples nerves already seemed a little frayed.

When the paint guy went to put a sample dot on the can - they weren't coming out the right color. Frankly I didn't notice, because they were just test colors. I figured they might dry the color of the swatch. It didn't matter to me anyway. As long as they were close.

Now he had to redo two of the cans - because the colors are not coming out right. I'm still fine at this point. There is no one behind me. So I'm not stressed.

He was redo-ing the 4th can when another set of customers walked up. I decided to get out of the way and hang out on the other side of the counter. For about 5 minutes he worked on my order, without saying anything to the waiting customers. Since he was an older guy - about 70, I kind of understood he felt he needed to stay focused - but I dont really like to hold other people up either. I could see one of the customers biting a hole in his cheek. Which is probably what I would have been doing. He wasn't rude - but you could just tell he was freaking out inside.

I thought he had 3 cans done, and went over to be ready to pick them up. Plus, I was trying to get away from the woman who was talking me up. She was bitching about her rental properties. She landed on my radar earlier because she swooped in and yelled at the paint guy to see if he had any brown paint.

Note: I may melt down all the time on this blog, but honestly - I am exceedingly nice to people in person.

So - the paint guy tells me he had to redo all the paint over. All four cans. The machine wasn't putting out the appropriate mix. (Fuck). What I thought would be a 30 minute trip has now turned into over an hour. So - I offer to come back in so he could take care of the other customers, and not worry about my paint. While I'm annoyed, I can't be annoyed at him because he was working his ass off and it wasn't his fault.

An hour later I go back to the store to pick up my paint - there were like 10 people in line.

Also super annoying? People who don't walk any faster when they are crossing a street. I mean - you'd think they were walking out to check their mailbox or pick up the morning paper. By all means - hold up traffic.