Brain Dead at the Mall

• Had a real nice round of golf with two of the guys I played with last week. It's nice to have a semi-routine round like this.
• When I got home Grinnygranny wanted to go to the mall. Since I only played nine holes instead of eighteen, we went. I found an item I desired, but it was hanging up too high for my reach. I went to the sales clerk there and asked for him to get it down for me. He handed me a metal pole with a hook on it to get it down myself. I turned around quickly and noticed the pole was waist high. All I could think was, Am I really lucky there wasn't a small kid standing behind me. Then it dawned on me. This was about the stupidest thing anyone in the retail business has done in my life! Maybe a little hyperbole here, but had I injured someone with that hook I could have faced a lawsuit potentially devastating to me financially, and the store (which has bigger pockets) would have been taken to the cleaners. I know that there are many people wanting tort reform, but putting myself in the person's behind me shoes, that say had a small child whose eye was poked out by something this irresponsible, what other way do they have to recover damages incurred by someone else's stupidity. When I went up the escalator to meet up with wife and daughter there was a guy with a walkie talkie greeting customers. I said a few words to him about the sales clerks needing a few safety lessons. He was quite polite and agreed with me and quickly went down. I do hope he didn't fire the two men behind the register, just scared them as I was when I turned around and it dawned on me what I could have done.
• Next we went to a different department store. We've decided that after 30 years of marriage that some of the towels we were given as wedding presents need to be replaced. They had some really nice plush towels on sale for half price (about ten bucks each) When we went to pay for them they didn't ring up at the sale price. Okay we didn't read the sign above the sale prices that said to RESERVE the sale price. What this meant was that if we purchased them today with the store's charge card (which we have) that we could then come in and pick them up next week when the sale is official. LAYAWAY IN REVERSE? Pay now pick up later? Needless to say we passed on buying the towels. And when the sale does start and if the towels are all sold out before we get there, so be it. Maybe they were thinking this was a way of getting letting their card holders get a jump on the other shoppers, but I'm sorry when I pay for an item in hand I take it home and don't waste another four bucks in gas three days later to pick it up.
• Good to be home. Going to mall can literally bankrupt you these days.