I try my hand at shoplifting

Today was a repeat, weather-wise, of yesterday: a little cool in the morning, party cloudy but in the mid 70’s by the end of the day. Still no rain, though. In fact, the next forecasted rain is for a “light rain” next Tuesday. Both the grass and the gardens are feeling the effects already and the temperatures are supposed to get into the 90’s over the weekend.

I had a number of errands to run at lunch. The third place I stopped at was Home Depot, where I picked up another painter’s knife, a four-inch wide putty knife, some paint-able caulk and two new pairs of gloves (all for the tile project). I also bought a hole saw and a new carbide-tipped blade for my Skil saw (for another project I’m contemplating).

I was using my walker basket as my cart and when I got to the check out, I unloaded everything. The cashier rang me up (can you still say that or do you have to say “scanned my purchases?”), the final price was agreeably lower than I thought it would be and I paid with my debit card.

I braved some of the dreaded construction on Plymouth road to stop at Jimmy John’s and got a turkey sub to eat at work. I went down an alley (avoiding Plymouth Road) to get to Farmington Road, got on the freeway and made it back to work just under one hour.

But...

When I got the walker out of the back seat, the hole saw was still in the basket! I never saw it under the walker seat when I was in the store and neither did the cashier! I checked my receipt and it wasn’t on it. Shit! Now I’m a thief.

I sent a text to Jake, explaining what happened and asking for bail money if necessary. He suggested taking it back and paying for it tomorrow at lunch. I replied that my boss’ farewell luncheon was tomorrow so I couldn’t and he said “Well, then take it back Friday.”

I thought about that for a while and realized taking something back two days later does not sound like you were exactly “innocent.” It sounds more like you were thinking about keeping it! So, I told my boss I’d be gone about 25 minutes and drove back to Home Depot.

I explained the situation to the woman at the service desk and she thanked me for being so honest. Then she charged me $17.99 (Honesty may be the best policy, but it ain’t cheap). I walked out to the parking lot and drove back to work.

On the way home after work, I stopped at CVS and picked up my new pain meds. I am not all that hopeful they will work, but we’ll see.

Before I changed clothes, I went out back, watered the new herb garden, the new garden in the back of the house, and carried two buckets of water back to the new peonies. Then I set up the sprinkler to water the vegetable garden for an hour.

While that hour was ticking by, I hand-watered the front container gardens, the mailbox garden and the begonias I planted in front of the porch.

I retrieved the end of the hose from the veggie garden, took off the square sprinkler and stuck the hose in the reflecting pool. I turned the water back on, but only half-strength. This not only cleans out the pool itself, but the overflow waters the Japanese maple. Back inside, I set the timer for 20 minutes.

I finally finished up and had the hose reeled in at 8:45 PM! Then I changed my clothes. I had the last of the cold pizza and a cup of coffee for dinner and watched TV until I fell asleep. When I woke up, I made the bed go flat, climbed under the covers and shut off the TV and the light.