My rant, a blessing in disguise…

Hey Y’all!

I missed a couple of days on my blog.  I had this wonderful rant to explode on you.  It consisted of my trip to the grocery store Sunday, where I spent a fun hour among many other weekend shoppers.  The particular grocery we like to go to is 17 miles away from where we live.  I could have gone to the one that is 3 miles away, but they do not offer fresh fish there.  So, I was willing to endure the long lines, the ‘no-parking-spots, the trying to find the one missing ingredient that you search all thirteen isles for, the maneuvering down and around the kiddie baskets and elderly parked in the middle of the isles…. yada, yada,  yada. ( This is normal, of course, and does not pertain to my rant.)

Well my husband and I had a big hankering for fresh salmon smoked in our smoker at home on our day off.  YUM.  So off to the store, I went. We had other items as well, so it was not a single item journey.  I got a fantastic piece of  1 1/2 lb. of fresh red salmon cut and wrapped from the meat market, as well as a basket full of other items.  I check out, walk to the car, load up the sacks, and get home 20 minutes later.   My husband was through with the mowing and helped me unload the sacks.

Twenty minutes after putting up everything, I ask him where the salmon was.  He didn’t know.  He thought I put it up.

Hmm…

Yeah, it did not take long to figure out I had paid for $20 worth of salmon, that did NOT make it to our car!  Some lucky customer behind me in line got a fantastic free (but expensive surprise “treat’ in their sacks when they got home.)  LUCKY THEM!  My husband gets on the phone.  They are obviously so busy making horrendous mistakes for each customer that there’s no time to answer the phone, or maybe they KNOW it might be an angry or frustrated customer.  After redialing  7 times( we counted), he got a manager on the line .

“Yes, sir, we’re very sorry.  Come back and we’ll refund you the original price and you can pick out some more salmon on us.”  Our ruffled feathers were soothed and soon unruffled.  Except I had to spend another 40 minute round trip to obtain our Sunday dinner, which of course I did.  What a great day spent!

::sigh::  It was really great salmon, though.  This happened on Sunday and this blog post was going to REALLY  be a forceful rant, but I missed my posting time, because of breaking news…

The Moore, Oklahoma tornado disaster hit on Monday.  I have five words…it put things into perspective.

You see the words about my trip to the grocery store above^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^just disregard them.  How unimportant that is now.  How narcissistic, selfish and unbelievably UNIMPORTANT in view of tragedy that happens daily all over the world, but really hits hard when it hits so close to home.  My husband and I have 24 close and distant relatives that escaped the squall line of that storm system. But does that even matter that it would be our relatives? Even that is a selfish statement, even though I am so very grateful no relative was hurt.  So many others were.  It was so very tragic whether we personally had relatives in the area or not. How very thankful, blessed, humble and heartsick I feel in a matter of 24 hours later (post grocery store incident)  The children lost makes me so very sad in my soul.  Being a grandma I can not even begin to feel the devastation and heartache the many families are going through.

So, Ronda, you “fidiot”, time to be humbled, and properly chastised!…Ronda, you ungrateful grocery witch, be thankful you have a family to buy for, a home to cook a meal in, a grocery store standing to buy it in, a car to drive, clothes hanging in a closet still, and loved ones that are alive and well on this wonderful ball we call earth.  Grab your children, y’all.   Hug and kiss them.  Call a loved one you haven’t seen in a while because you’re too busy.  Kiss and hug your spouse. Visit a neighbor or an old folks home, whatever!   Just do it.  Make a pledge to the Salvation Army or disaster relief.  Don’t let the whirlwind we call life take away perspective on life.

I have only one thing left to say,  I wish I could redo Sunday… I would gladly give the person behind me a pay-it-forward surprise in their sack.  Or maybe I’d just keep driving beyond the 40 miles extra I grudgingly drove, beyond the state line and personally hand deliver groceries over to a family in Moore Oklahoma.

Hindsight is perspective’s keeper.  We would do well to remember it.