Year-End Fogs

Monday, December 30, 2019

Yesterday afternoon and evening, our local environment was lost in freezing fog with low visibility. We who drove vehicles progressed slowly, and I, coming home from work and peering into the evening’s dim, couldn’t see my usual roadway exit onto my property.

Yesterday, a farrier was scheduled to trim hooves while I worked at Costco, and so, I dropped a casual plan to leave the horses on my neighbor’s pasture. My idea was to walk the horses home after work. Maybe it would be dark but I’d wear a headlight and put blinkers on the horses, and so, even with little light we’d get home okay. But leaving work and entering a fogged-out world, I felt thankful that my horses were home.

Of course, customers had been mentioning that outside was very cold with freezing fog, but actual experience landed the impact. Before leaving work, I more than usual enjoyed my shift, perhaps because a week had passed since my last time in the store, and maybe because Christmas finally is past, and we’re in a brief pause before New Year’s.

Today, I’m scheduled to work during hours more hectic, as shoppers do last-minute gearings-up for celebrations. As usual for New Year’s, our samples will consist of “pick-ups and eats”, or finger foods. We’ll hand out variations of chicken wings and thighs, pizza products, cheese and crackers, and yes, more candy.

In holiday seasons, sample servers see carts loaded with wine, and often cases of it being pushed toward checkout stands. When Oregon finally changes its liquor law and allows for sales of hard alcohol in non-state-owned stores, we will witness in grocery carts a massive increase of alcoholic beverages. In states where it’s allowed, Costco is a major supplier of hard alcohol and ultimately will be in Bend.

Today’s shoppers will be more intense, but anyway, my good mood might hold steady. If I don’t feel up-tight and harassed by the customers, I can have fun with them. It’s a two-way street for everybody, servers and shoppers. We’re under the pressures of commitments, resources, time, and weather, and traditional celebratory holidays test to the max everybody’s ability to withstand pressure.

Dear Friends: I look forward to today’s action, and hope for a very short shift. Diana