Best time for grocery shopping, USAT Board Meeting, Movie review

Now I have this grocery shopping thing figured out. The best time to go shopping is around 2:00 p.m., but the time of day is not as important as the condition of your mind and stomach. I have always been told that you should eat real big before going shopping, then you would not over buy and/or impulse buy. Now I have found another condition that prevents the potential problems, go to the store with a full stomach and be pissed off at the same time. What this does is put you up and down the isles in a very fast mode and the impulse potential is just not there. The other day I went to the store on an empty stomach and then added the pissed off mode to it and did I get in and outta there!! Now this was not planned and I had no clue it would be so effective. So, I went in, got my stuff, and got the basket to the check out in record time. The only problem is that when I put my basket in the pathway to have it checked, the young lady made the mistake of asking me "if my day had been a good one?" I replied, "well as a matter of fact it had not, but if you want me to say it has been a great day I will!" While I know that is what she expected and my negative reply was a total surprise I just couldn't pass on the opportunity to express my true feelings. I also know that these young people are taught the lessons in trivial, meaningless small talk to make the customers happy, it was just not the day to hit me with this gibberish. Then when the young man was taking my food to the pickup he had the gall to talk about the weather and whether or not it was going to continue raining. Boy, what they teach them in "check out and carryout 101 is amazing!" After all of this I finally got my groceries loaded, and I was headed for the canyons. How dare these young, energetic, caring, great employees, idealistic, young people ruin my miserable day, by being friendly, courteous, brave, clean and reverent! I was being a grumpy old man, for whatever reason, and they did everything they could to bring me out of it. They must have done the job, since I recouped the day and moved on to better things. I have also noticed that if I smile just a tad bit, it makes all the difference in the world!! Duh, after all these years and I finally get it!!

This past weekend was National USA Triathlon Board meeting time, in Colorado Springs. The meeting turned out to be a very positive meeting and lots of good things were accomplished for the big picture of triathlon. We only had a couple of verbal fights(I really think they are called friendly debates), and everyone left shaking hands, hugging, and acting like the end of a family reunion. The sport is in good hands and is in a tremendous growth mood. My only concern is that in the future the cities are not going to welcome our sport because of the increased population, traffic and selfish attitude about sharing the space. Time will tell!!

Movie review: "Spider Man 3" **+, Ho hum!! First of all this movie is way too long, and has many boring parts. Tobey Maguire, Dirsten Dunst and James Franco are very good, but the whole theme of the movie is to illustrate how perfectly good Peter Parker is, and how Spider Man has become the ultimate hero around town. Of course Dunst and Franco do their part to epitomize this image. Then after we do all we can to stay awake, we are thrust into the dark side of Spider Man. Now he is man about town, hip hopping, new hair style(black hair now), cool clothes, some dance steps, and just really a jerk. Guess I will leave the conclusion to your imagination or you can to to the discount movie ticket time of day, or wait for the DVD. It is still leading the list for dollars spent for movies this past week, but I believe that is due to curiosity.

This weekend is Buffman & Squeaky triathlon weekend. The B & S t-shirts are ready for the little black dogs that this event is named after and they are ready to strut their stuff.

greerman