Nice work if you can get it

It’s raining here in New Jersey again. This always brings to mind the brilliance necesary to design almost every parking lot so that water collects in a gigantic puddle right in front of the doors to any store. Hasn’t anyone ever considered a drain would go well in these spots, or perhaps sloping the parking lot away from the door, so that only the cars have to drive through it?

While I’m on that subject, why do they always make the lane right in front of the store a main thoroughfare for the speedsters to fly through? It’s where pedestrians are most likely to be after all! Well distributed speed bumps near the entrance to stores would be a great help.

Our Lowes has an oddity as well. As you walk in the door, there is an inner door to enter the store, and another to enter specifically for returns. No matter how you walk, the ‘Returns’ door opens as you walk towards the inner door. What’s with that?  They’re both on separate sensors.

I feel better now.

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Top Ten Signs that you might be an Esperantist,

You might be an Esperantist if…

1. You think beards and glasses are chic.
2. You think of currency exchange rates in terms of International Reply Coupons
3. You find yourself using a whole lot more adverbs in English
4. When you say “Yes”, you pronounce it with a “j” sound and think you’re being
surreptitious
5. You have more frequent flyer miles than mileage on your car
6. You call the people you dislike “Idists”
7. You’ve heard the “memoru la akuzativon, filino!” Joke
8. You think William Shatner was better in “Incubus” than “The Brothers
Karamazov”
9. You’ve ever said “It’s all Volapuk to me!”
10. You use a Dvorak keyboard on a Linŭ box
11. You’ve ever wished the language would act more like “Edzperanto”
12. You think Eastern Europe has the hippest youth culture in the world.
13. You find yourself yelling “fik” and “aĉ” at frustrating moments.
14. You’ve ever skipped schoolwork to study grammar.
15. You’ve come up with a plan to reform English.
16. You have a green star tattoed anywhere on your body
17. You’ve ever asked a complete stranger “guess what language I’m speaking!”
18. You really don’t like “L’Espero”
19. You report even the smallest occurances of Esperanto in the media as if it
was the discovery of extraterrestrial life.
20. You say “Ho, mia kor” at dramatic moments in movies
21. You are angry that the computer manual contains thirty languages, none of
them Esperanto
22. You’ve stopped giggling when you say “fartas”

Kudos for Staples and Radio Shack

I had to go on a hunt for a new battery for a my tante’s cordless phone/answerer. The numbers I got off of the old battery didn’t jive with anything in the Walmarts in Franklin or Newton, so I went over to the Staples store.

No luck with the numbers there and the cashier’s only help at that time was to suggest bringing the old battery with me to compare.

Then I went over to the Radio Shack store. I hadn’t been in there in like 15 years because the last time I was looking for a battery and the salesman was trying to sell me a cell phone. So in Radio Shack a guy asked me if I needed help, so I told him my tale. He managed to cross reference my numbers with an equivalent using his magic computer. But asla, the store didn’t have that one, nor did the other Radio Shacks in the area.

I mentioned Staples and instead of being annoyed, this greatly helpful guy prints out the specs on the battery I needed including a picture!

Armed with this info, I go back over to Staples and grab the closest match I can figure out of my 3 remaining choices. At the register, I mention how I got the info, and laying the printouts of the specs on the counter to dig out the payment, the cashier sees the lower Radio Shack price, reconfigures the sale and gives me a discount!

That’s two stores I’d have no problem giving my business in the future. Kusos Guys!