Thursday, August 8, 2013

0716, Thu, 080813.  Rocklin.

 

I guess we are getting settled in, we actually had some time to head over to the hot tub and soak our sore muscles, ahhhhh.

I thought it was funny, some of the things that we heard while cruising.  One we joked about after hearing it several times happened in the stores.  They would run out of something that was a good seller and they wouldn't order it back in because it would just meant they would have to restock the shelves again.  We were in Wal-Mart yesterday, now that is about as third world as you can get, looking for a stool.  We found just the one we wanted but it was the display model, thus the last one.  We looked all over for a clerk since the display model was tied to the shelf with those little plastic electric ties.  Heaven forbid you would want to actually set it on the floor to see if it was the right height.  I was going to climb up on the shelf to try it out but Sue stopped me before I could get a good grasp on the upper shelf.  The clerks in Wal-Mart are something else.  They must be trained to look the other way and frown. I sympathized with the people in Mexico when confronted by us gringos who had little grasp of their language, but what the heck. The clerks at Wal-Mart are friendly enough if you can corner them and some are even on the helpful side, although it is hard to tell if some are speaking English at times.  We were told that if it is a display model and thus the last one so they can't sell it!???????  Go figure.

The guy in the phone section was helpful.  We asked the difference between two phones that looked identical but had a different price.  He was quick to point out the fact that one was more expensive than the other.  Not sure I could have figured that out on my own.  Do you think these people actually get paid to be there, I swear they are volunteers. 

We dropped by Home Depot to check out what they had to hang pictures.  Hanging pictures means we are coming to an end of our move in.  Our little apartment is nice and cozy.  At the front door of HD they had a sign looking for experienced help.  They are looking for us old geezers that spent a lifetime building houses.  Tempting, but I don't think they would like my schedule nor am I ready to give up my freedom.  Oh well, nice to know you are still wanted.

Last night's feature:  The Twilight Samurai.  This film was all Japanese.  We had subtitles of course, but the set looked to be authentic Japan at the end of the Samurai era.  The main character was a "petty Samurai" of low status.  The story showed his struggle, with an ill wife, a mother who was going senile, and two young girls.   I really enjoyed the great scenes showing the martial arts.  These guys really looked they knew how to handle swords.  Although dueling was outlawed, our main character gets put into a position of defending his friend's honor.  He shows up to the sword fight with nothing better than a stick for a weapon and ends up thumping his opponent on the head as he makes a flying leap over the bad guy as the bad guy is diving for his sword he had dropped during the struggle….more later..