Donated

  I was in the middle of helping another customer when I saw a guy walk in with a bowl in his hands. Said bowl holding three visible bags of water.

And usually if people come in holding large bags of water...it means that they have a fish return. And with lots of water in the bag that usually means the fish is still alive.

So customer wanted to return fish. Easy enough.

And as soon as I finished with the other customer I approached the dude...and immediately noticed a slight problem.

The bags of water were obviously store fish bags.

Fish bags that were clearly labeled with our competition's name.

Now. It's not that uncommon for customers to confuse the two different stores. They both have "Pet" in their name and oftentimes people think it's the same business even though the names are different.

So I was preparing to do the whole "Hey you brought the fish to the wrong store you'll need to go to the other place" speech as I approached.

And the guy was like "Hi, I don't want these fish anymore and just want to donate them." 

And like...we don't accept donated fish. We only accept fish from people who bought said fish from us within a certain time period. 

However.

The key word was donate. Dude didn't care what we did with the fish. He just wanted to get rid of them.

(It does make me wonder why he wanted to get rid of them now and how long he had had them before giving them away) 

And the fish the dude wanted to donate?

3 GloDanios. 3 GloTetras. 2 African Dwarf Frogs. 1 Blue Dwarf Gourami.

Now. 

I had no use for the frogs or gourami.

But I have been wanting to buy more Glofish for my giant fish tank. But because they're rather...pricey and I've been waiting for a good fish sale to occur in the store before buying more.

And here this guy was giving away his glofish. For free. Donating them.

So of course I took them. Took them for my own tank. 

^^;; 

I did take the other three creatures as well. The two frogs and the gourami. Though my 125 gallon tank is far too big for the frogs...I didn't really trust the competition's creatures in our tank. 

But I do have a ten gallon tank at home that has semi aggressive fish in it. A shark, tiger barbs. So the gourami went in with them. And I put the frogs in there too. So far they seem to be getting along...though the shark is once again chasing the tiger barbs around. *shakes head*

But yah. I just got like $60 worth of fish/frogs for free. ^^;;

So I call that a win for the day. :D 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Itchy Itch

 It started Sunday night.

I was chilling on the couch. Reading my life away because my motivation to do my own creative pursuits...aka writing....has been at all time low. 

I hadn't been doing much beyond reading. Occasionally taking a break outside to take a picture of the sunset.

And I just happened to scratch my arm. 

And it started itching like crazy.

That typical "Oh I just got bit by a mosquito itching" sort of feeling. 

I look down, and sure enough there's a red spot there, showing irritation of the skin.

Knowing that you can't fix an itching spot by scratching it.

I promptly set to ignoring it and going to my old tried and trued cure of placing the spot under cold water to help decrease the itching sensation.

Itching sensation did not decrease.

No for TWO days there was a constant little 'itch' on my arm. It was a feeling that was there in the back of my mind. Brought to the forefront of my mind every time I accidentally brushed something where the itchy spot was.

Definitely not a mosquito bite at this point. It never showed the typical white bump of the mosquito bite.

If anything it had more of the red shade of ringworm...though I haven't had ringworm be sooo itchy. No appear so suddenly. And the red spot ended up with some yellowish bumps that looked more like...well burns than anything else.

A quick google search shows that it looks similar to a spider bite.

What kind of spider? No idea. Probably not venomous just because the itchy spot isn't getting worse and my skin isn't dying off. Sooo yah. Probably not venomous. 

Which is good because we've had hobo spiders in the house and I do not want to be bit by one of those.

Who knows what type of spider I may have been bitten by though.

In any case. 

I'm going with that it's a spider bite. 

Though there is that slight concern that it's yet another brush with ringworm. As the center of the area is now going more white. While the outside edge remains more of a ring. 

Still...I've never had ringworm itch like this. Like I take off the bandaid and even that motion can set it to screaming "SCRATCH ME!" 

*exhales*

I've been putting cortisone cream on it and that seems to help.

But it's so irritating. It's already been nearly a week. I wish the itchiness and the redness would go away. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

On Ramps

 So I know that highway on ramps have meters.

Not sure if they're called meters.

But the lights at the end of the on ramp that turn red or green to indicate when cars can go onto the highway, usually to try and allow cars to merge more seamlessly onto the highway in the possible gaps between cars already on the road. 

And usually these only come on during rush hour traffic.

And usually I avoid these.

Because I don't work during rush hour. Usually I get off work right before or right after.

And it was barely 4:30 pm when I got on the on ramp.

To find that the meters were already on and running.

Which meant that I sat on that on ramp for a good five minutes waiting for my turn to enter the highway because it's basically 4 lanes merging into one which means a lot of cars waiting to get on.

And like...I've been getting onto that on ramp between 4:30 and 5pm a lot as my shifts end around that time multiple times a week.

And It's never been metered before.

*shakes head*

I know it's probably a precaution for Labor Day traffic as it is a Friday and lots of people are traveling for the long weekend.

So the meters were probably turned on early to help keep traffic flowing and to try and prevent the usual rush hour traffic jams.

Still was annoying when all I wanted to do was get home. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Dealing with a Rant

You know...with the pandemic getting closer to being in our lives for two years...and with the relaxing of the mask mandates in a lot of places (idk if it's just my state or everywhere) even with the increase in the Delta Variant and the increase of cases once again.....

I was kinda expecting to be over the whole 'rants against the pandemic/mask wearing' thing. 

Like yes, many places are requiring their workers to wear masks. And event places are requiring either masks to be worn, or to show proof of vaccination or a negative test.

But overall....the amount of angry antis I've had to deal with since we stopped requiring customers to wear masks in the store has dropped drastically. To practically nonexistent. 

Except today.

Today I had an old man wearing a "Trump will be back 2024" hat with a bunch of military pins on it...come into the store.

*exhales* Wished I would have noticed the hat sooner, else I would have stayed far away from the dude and sent someone else to help him. Because if someone is wearing the Cheeto's gear? They almost always cause trouble in the store. 

And this dude? Yah. 

He came in with an empty container of RepCal Tortoise Food. Needed to buy another one.

Which the packaging looked semi-familiar to me. So I figured that we still carried it.

Wrongo.

We do still have the RepCal brand in the store. But we only sell the Bearded Dragon and Iguana food. 

No tortoise food in sight.

So I tried to show the guy the other options we had available for his tortoise to eat.

He wasn't taking any of them. Because apparently the pellets were too big. The tortoise would only eat a particular size. And if it wasn't a nice small pellet. The tortoise wouldn't eat it.

*exhales*

I tried to explain that unfortunately we don't carry that particular food anymore.

He didn't like that.

Pointed out that we did carry the brand of food. Gestured to the Bearded Dragon and Iguana food to prove his point.

Which yes. We do carry the brand. But not the tortoise food within the brand.

-I looked online later to see if we do carry it. And we do...but it's an ONLINE ONLY food now. And with the grandpa age of this dude...I highly doubt he's into using the computer to get his food. Probably is one of those people who believes the internet will steal their personal information. *shakes head*

In any case.

I told him we didn't have the food anymore.

And he started ranting at me. That he bought the food from us, from our store specifically, FIFTEEN years ago. At the same time he'd bought his tortoise. 

And somewhere in that Fifteen years...he'd moved to California and then back here.

And I don't know if he's been buying the food from a store in Cali. Or if he managed to stock up fifteen years ago on the food and just ran out.

But like...he did state that it took around 2.5 months to use up a bottle.

And maybe we did still have the food 2.5 months ago. Product comes in and out of stock and gets rebranded and repackaged and such all the time.

Needless to say. We didn't have it now.

And he couldn't understand it.

If he's been buying the same bottle for fifteen years or at least fifteen years ago. Then obviously we should still have it. 

*exhales* He couldn't understand that product could go out of stock. That we would stop carrying it if it wasn't a popular seller.

And who knows. With the pandemic it gets even more tricky because it could be a production issue, it could be a supplier issue, it could be a variety of things. 

And the old man....hated that. Hated that he couldn't buy the one food he's been buying for fifteen years.

Which I get it. It sucks. A good food vanishes and you're left with a 'now what' feeling.

But then the dude just went on a rant. Like it was my personal fault that he couldn't buy his food. He started telling me that I would need to hustle for the rest of my life in my job in order to keep it.

Why? Because they're pushing 125,000 immigrants (his number not mine) over the border every single day and every one of them is positive for the Virus. 

Like it took everything I had to not roll my eyes. I was like "That's not true. And I'm vaccinated so I don't care." 

But like dude. SHUT UP. Immigrants are coming into our country every single day. From all over the world.

But you can bet he wouldn't have a problem with the immigrants if they come from England, or France, Or Germany.

No, he's just a racist dude who believes that 'third world countries' are purposely sending their sick to us. 

Can you feel me rolling my eyes? Because I am rolling my eyes.

You know why the pandemic is still prevalent?

Because AMERICANS can't freaking wear a mask without throwing a huge temper tantrum about it.

I know. I've had to deal with WHITE people. The Karens. The rednecks. The old men. It's all them who have thrown the temper tantrums. It's THEM who refuse to wear masks. Refuse to get vaccinated. Refuse to listen to science and reason and instead chase after stupid conspiracy theories and lifestock medicine to 'cure and protect' themselves instead of doing the SMART thing and getting vaccinated and wearing a mask and social distancing.

Just. GAH.

And this old man wearing a stupid Trump hat thinks it's the immigrants causing the spike in cases? HA. No. 

But he wouldn't listen. He was like "You know they just let an Afghan refugee into our state and I bet he's positive for the virus too." 

Dude. Shut. Your. Lying. Trap. Hole.

He's a refugee. Stop trying to chase him out of yet another country. 

In any case.

The dude ranted about the immigrants. How they're carrying the virus, how they're going to steal my job -hence why I have to hustle at my job- and they're the reason why I will be wearing a mask for the rest of my life. 

Like Good. Yay me wearing a mask. I like it. Because I don't have people constantly telling me to freaking smile when I'm at work. A mask lets me relax my face and I enjoy it. So boo on you.

The kicker though was the dude was like "I don't care if I get the virus or not. I'm never wearing a mask."

Which I was like. Great. I bet this guy is an anti-vaxxer too.

And it just bugged me.

Because sure. He's old. He's lived his life. Sure he might not care if he catches the virus or not. If he dies from it or not.

But what about his kids? 

What about his grandkids?

Do you think he'll be singing the same tune of they end up sick? Hospitalized? DEAD from the pandemic? 

We just had a teenager die from the virus the other day. 

How would he feel if that was his grandchild? If he could have protected them but instead could have given it to them?

*exhales*

It just irked me.

And after his rant about all that. He was like "What's corporate's number?"

Like dude. I don't know. If you want to call corporate how about you go do that research yourself? Because the reason why you're calling is completely stupid. Yes, I'm sorry we don't have your product anymore, but there's nothing I can do, and more than likely nothing corporate would do. 

*shakes head*

So yah. Been a while since I've had an Anti in the store.

I really don't miss it. It totally ruined the day.

And the day was already bad enough. There were a ton of grumpy people in the store today. So my associates and I were totally feeling the bad vibes.

Did. Not. Like.

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

Burning

 So last month my family took our first family vacation since Daddoo got remarried.

The location was Lake Tahoe. A place we'd never been before.

And a place that was surrounded by fires on three sides.

Though said fires were far away from the lake itself, the smoke made itself well known while we were there. Most of the time it was hard to see the lake fully to appreciate its beauty that it's apparently renowned for. 

And while I knew there were fires burning throughout California.

It didn't really cross my mind that they would be coming nearer to Lake Tahoe itself.

But this past week or so. 

I've seen news stories pop up in my social media feeds. About how the fire is coming closer. And closer. And closer.

To the point now where South Lake Tahoe has been evacuated as a precaution because the fire is coming close enough to be a concern

Like. 

It's weird to think.

That places I drove through...might not exist anymore. 

Like my family stayed in a condo in the Nevada side.

But we did drive into the California side to hang at the beach and to check out Emerald Bay and such.

And it's crazy to think that what I saw...may no longer be there.

And it makes me wonder.

If the fire continues. If it crosses the stateline into Nevada....

Is it possible that the condo we stayed at for our vacation could burn? It's a weird feeling. To think that we might be one of the last people who stayed in a place before it could be destroyed by fire.

I'm hoping not. Hoping that they'll be able to get the fires under control and to save any more structures from burning.

At the same time....I can't help but wonder.

What will still be there....once all is said and done. 

Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi