I haven't talked about it as much as I wish I would have, but I am still in my own place and two days ago I had a series of events that were well worth writing about.
It started when I got back from Indianapolis. When I had left I set the thermostat to 62 degrees, but when I walked in when I arrived it felt much colder than that. I checked the thermostat and it had a blank screen minus a "Replace Battery" message at the top. I have never been good at knowing the difference between an A, AA, AAA, (to me, those are divisions of baseball) and the 8 volt. I also didn't know how to even get to the battery.
After a couple seconds of sleuthing around the device I noticed that it was rather obvious as there was a big "PUSH" tab on the top. I opened it, saw the batteries that were AAA's and took note. I then unpacked and wondered whether or not I wanted to go back out to get batteries.
For a while I was firm in that my time out was over. I had just driven 260 miles and wanted to do maintain my state of doing nothing the rest of the day. Then, a chocolate craving hit and I wanted a Crunchie bar (seriously, why don't they sell these in America? I had one when I was in Vancouver in 2010 and it was amazing. You can buy them by the box on Amazon.com, but still, why can't I buy those anywhere else; hands down the best candy bar on the market) but I had no milk to go along with the candy bar. And with that I went to 7-11.
7-11 is not that far away, maybe two minutes, and when I walked in I had in my mind exactly what I needed; AAA's and milk. Not that hard of a shopping list so I walked down the aisle and picked up some batteries while looking towards the milk and I was out of there almost as fast as I was in.
When I got home I got the batteries out of the package, got the thermostat open, and was then confused as to why the AAA batteries I bought were bigger than the ones in the thermostat. The reason? I didn't pick up AAA's, but rather I got AA's that had on the package "AA4" and when in a hurry that 4 on the end looked just like an A.
So I was now in a pickle. Do I go back out into the wind and cold or do I just bear with it until the next day? I'm not lazy, but after driving for so long and getting home I get to a point of utter exhaustion and because of this I chose to stay home. Besides, it wasn't that cold.
I didn't eat the candy bar due to being mad at the battery debacle and continued the unpacking process. At some point in this time I wanted to go back to 7-11, but if I went back and the lady that had checked me out was still there, would she comment on the fact that I bought two sets of batteries that day? If so, what would I say? It was this line of thought that kept me home.
Six hours after I got back from 7-11 I finally got around to eating the candy bar. I took my first bite and then drank the milk, but something was wrong. There was a sour taste and I was sure the milk was bad. Also at this same point in time I was beginning to shiver due to it being so cold. What to do? I wanted to tough it out and that was in regards to the milk and the cold. The last thing I wanted was to have any social interaction at 7-11 about batteries or milk. After driving for so long my ability to handle anything out of the norm was not there. However, after a couple minutes of staring out into the dark, windy night I decided to go.
The entire drive back to 7-11 was filled with fear. I've never returned a gallon of milk before and I didn't have a receipt. Would I be yelled at, frowned upon and cast out? It may only be a two minute drive but it felt as if this drive would be my last. I was sure whatever was about to happen would be terminal and catastrophic.
I walked in, put the gallon of milk on the checkout area and the store manager rang it and gave me a total. I tried to find the words to say I had already bought it, but they weren't coming fast enough. I heard the total again and I wanted to pay for it an leave, but then I decided that would be the biggest defeat of my life so I found the courage and spoke up for myself. I was fearing harsh words, but what I hard was, "Oh, okay. The milk guy probably left the door open again. Want to try another one?"
The next gallon I opened was much better and I picked up the correct batteries and headed home. My place felt colder than before and I quickly exchanged the batteries and when the screen came up it was a icy 49 degrees in my place. I quickly turned the heat on and settled in for an evening of nothingness.
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