On the Fourth Day of Xmas ...

 

(or download the WMV file here, 1min 32secs, 5.6 MB)

--------

I can never arrive and leave Walmart in less than 15 minutes. I'm always thwarted by trying to find parking or waiting in long-azz checkout lines. Well, today I had it all planned out. Get there, go get my soymilk, go get two photos printed, check out AT the photo center because SURELY no one would be as smart as me and do that, and leave. Could I execute this on at Walmart on a weekend? [dun dun dun dunnnnnn]

Got to the parking lot. Parked in the first spot I saw, start timing. Walked briskly into the store. Dammit, couldn't find closer parking, 3 mins already. Beeline for the soymilk (2 mins). What, where's the soymilk at? It was HERE last time ... oh THERE it is (1.5 mins)! I confidently headed for the photo center (1 min) ... this shouldn't take more than 3 mins and then I'm outta here!

There was a lady already at the instant photo printout station, selecting photos. I helped her complete the checkout process - oh noooo - FORTY-ONE PHOTOS!!!!

Exasperation! Fine. So I waited, cursing all the while to myself. At least I was able to place my order while her photos were printing ("PRINT FASTER DAMMIT!!!!" as if visualizing this would speed up the per-print time). Her order took like 7 mins.

OK. "Gimme my photos you stupid machine ... I already placed my order ... what's taking so long?!" I wanted to bang on the machine but restrained myself. Nope, there's a 1 minute waiting time so that people's orders don't get mixed up. Oh how thoughtful. But not on this day when I was in a rush to get outta there!

Checkout. Three items (I picked up some batteries while waiting for the lady and they were right there in front of my face), I got my cash out to speed things up. She scanned item one - beep, scanned item two - beep, scanned item three (the photos) - no worky, scanned item three again, nope, scanned it again, still no luck, keyed in the code, code invalid, keyed it in again more carefully, nope, scanned it again while waving the barcode scanner around at different distances and angles - beep. 4 mins. AUGGGHHH!

Walking (almost running) back out. Darned slow people on their carts walking so slowly, soaking in all the Xmas marketing. Almost got run over by an old lady and her shopping cart by darting out from between the displays too fast. Made it back out to my car in 4 mins probably. Driving to destination. OK slowpokes outta my wayyyyyyyyyy ... got there just in time. Whew. Too stressful though. Will never do Walmart-on-a-limited-time-schedule again. Ugh. Cuz this was Walmart, the Two Weekends before Xmas edition. Yuck.

PS - "ISO HI" mode on my Canon SD600 is gross. SO noisy.