LysmachiaMoon's blog: I have come to hate the self-checkout

I was a late comer to the self-checkout thing. I always feel like using one of those things is putting someone out of a job, but then a local store manager told me she can't find people willing to run a cash register so was forced to it.
The ones at Wal-Mart are great. Screen lights up, start scanning, push Pay, swipe card, get receipt, done. I've never had any problem there except once when a wrinkled wrapper wouldn't scan and the monitor lady took care of that in a jif.

The ones at our local supermarket, however, are another story. I am batting about 1000 there. They have 6 or 7 self-checkout lanes and only 2 or 3 regular lanes, sometimes down to 1. The regular lanes always have long lines because nobody wants to use the self-checkouts. This makes me feel marginally better. At least The Supermarket Doomsday Computer (The SDC) has not singled me out.

First of all, The SDC talks too much. She yammers on and on about everything. WELCOME! Please scan your Bonus Card now. WELCOME! Please scan your Bonus Card now. Please do not place unscanned items in the bagging area. Please do not place unscanned... Please scan your items now. Please scan your items.... Please do not place unscanned items in the (because I put my own reusable bag in the bagging area...). Please scan your items now... *Red alert red alert* Please DO NOT PLACE unscanned items in your cart! Please DO NOT....( because I scanned a big bag of peanuts and figured I did want them bagged so plopped them back in the cart; I'm still trying to figure out how the SDC knew I did that....). Please scan coupons now. Please scan coupons... (I press Continue). Please select payment method now. Please select (I press CARD). Please scan your card now. Please follow instructions on the key pad. Please follow.... *red alert red alert* Please scan your card now (because for some reason the scanner won't scan my card and says "Chip Malfunction") I try again. *red alert red alert* I press CONTINUE. *red alert red alert* at that point, I swear to God I expect the Self Destruct Sequence from the Starship Enterprise to begin...."Code Zero Zero Zero Destruct Zero" "Beginning self-destruct sequence 5.... 4.... 3....." At this point a monitor lady notices my sweating brow and trembling hands and steps in to help. She waves her employee badge at the SDC "Self destruct sequence aborted...." *Gasp, sigh, wipe brow*

It took me twice as long to check out with 7 items than it would have with a cart full in the regular human-run cash register line. Never again. My nerves can't take this.

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Planted my pelleted petunia seeds this morning. 15 tiny pellets for $7. They better grow. I think I'll seed my saved Coleus seed into the same flat this afternoon. Those 15 petunias took up about 2 inches of the flat.
I should probably get out the wire seed starting rack, clean it up and set it up with heat mats and lights in the kitchen. It fits perfectly against the kitchen door, which we don't use during the winter. The pantry doors just barely clear the rack and there's an electric outlet right there so it's very convenient. I'm going to get another heat mat and light bar and clear off one shelf on my baker's rack and convert it to seed starting this spring. I was sort of fretting about spending more $$ on this then remembered that one of my heat mats came to me free, so now I don't feel guilty.

I stuck some cuttings of a christmas cactus that collapsed in a jar of water and they rooted so I put them into a pan of potting soil and we'll see if any grow on. I really hope so because that was my only white flowered plant and I was sorry to see it go. I overwatered it. They are so fussy about wet feet.

We've got about 8 inches total of snow on the ground, still very very cold, but supposed to warm up drastically, with rain, this week. May reach 60F by Friday.... if it gets into the high 40s I want to start pruning my Liberty apple tree behind the garden shed. I did some very heavy pruning on it over the past couple of years to get it lower and into the proper shape and now there are masses of small watersprouts coming up all over the tree. I talked to an elderly orchardist and he advised me to start cutting these off flush with the big branches starting now. The aim, he says, is to get a gnarly looking tree with fairly short, down sloping branches, as seen in our local orchards. There's a big commercial orchard just a couple miles from my place and I've been stopping to study their trees and see what they do. I'm fairly sure I know what I need to do and I'll take pics of my progress and show them to my elderly friend as I go so he can advise me. In return for his help, I've offered to prune a few of HIS trees that he has not been able to keep after for the past few years. ( He let me have all the fruit I wanted this fall; bushels of apples, pears, cherries. Taking care of his trees is the least I can do.)

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Despite the cold, I have to say I am reveling in this weather. Winter. I began to think I'd never really see blue skies and sparkling drifts of powdery snow again. I find myself standing out on the hillside just breathing in that searing cold air and gazing up at the clouds.

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