Walking To Pre-Lunch At Sam's Club Before Getting Soaking Wet

Woman Escaping Sam's Club Under Bumbershoot

Today, during my regularly scheduled walking/hiking time, rain was raining down. I was in no mood to shield the rain with a bumbershoot, so I went to Sam's Club and let Sam's roof keep me dry.

At Sam's Club I had a tasty pre-lunch of chicken-fried steak, sausage, kolaches and blueberry muffins. The pre-lunch helped fuel my Sam's walk.

About the time I was ready to leave Sam's, a downpour started pouring down, with extreme velocity, causing an almost concussive effect. A very loud throbbing.

Shoppers trying to escape Sam's waited under cover for the rain to abate. I got tired of waiting for the abating and made a run for it. Got totally soaked, but the running got me some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation.

Now, hours later, it is no longer raining, the sky has partly cleared, the temperature is only 68, I've got my windows open, birds are chirping.

And I'm dry.

Changing the subject from being dry to something else.

You know how some old people are set in their ways and get all crotchety when someone does not agree with some foolish thing the old person believes? I've had that type experience today. Only the person with the erroneous beliefs is not all that old. It occurred to me that this person spews what this person thinks in the same manner that a hyper-religious sort proselytizes their beliefs with absolutely no consideration of the possibility that what they believe may not be believed by others. Or just simply wrong.

No, this person I am referring to is not Elsie Hotpepper. She is crotchety though, currently refusing to go kayaking with me in the Trinity River.

Heavy Rain Sends Me To Sam's Club Where I Was Accosted By A Large Woman With Eucalyptus Oil

Sam's Club Hibiscus Under A Stormy Sky

Even though there was some rain that hit the ground in the middle of the night, last night, my plan was to go hiking the hills of Tandy today.

But then around 11 this morning the rain returned, so I nixed the Tandy Hills and went to Sam's Club to walk around Sam's Hibiscus Tropical Garden and push a cart around inside Sam's.

As you can see, via the sky view, we had ourselves a bit of a storm of short duration today.

Now, hours later, blue sky has returned.

I imagine the rain was wreaking havoc with the Fort Worth Main St. Arts Festival til it abated. I don't know if I'm going to go ahead with my plan to go to the Main St. Arts Festival tomorrow.

Changing the subject back to Sam's Club. The last couple times I've been in Sam's I've noticed that the people hawking samples have gotten way pushier. Barely in the door today there were samples of bread doused in olive oil being hawked. Along with dipping sauce.

I barely got past the oily bread when a large woman with big red lips accosted me by handing me a bottle of cleaner. She told me that, unlike other cleaners, this one smelled good because the main ingredient was Eucalyptus oil, not something nasty like bleach. She shoved an open bottle under my nose. It did smell good, but I acted like I'd just been sprayed by a skunk. I told her I like how bleach smells. Then she started a demo showing the cleaner in action while asking if I had kids and pets. She was still talking as I walked away.

By the food area I came upon a guy pushing green olives. He was giving his spiel to a lady in a wheelchair who seem fascinated by the olive tale. I picked up a cup with 2 olives in it and was mortified to pop them in my mouth to discover they'd been spiked with some hot pepper. Habanero maybe.

Next I was accosted by a woman pushing a cart and hawking little pieces of a Clif Bar. The time previous, at Sam's, I was accosted by a woman pushing a cart with a cooler full of some new Coke product she was hawking. The mobile hawking carts is a new wrinkle at Sam's.

There were multiple others aggressively pushing products, but I did not get accosted by any of them. It all reminded me too much of visiting a Mexican border town. But I like visiting Mexican border towns and getting accosted by all the product hawkers.

I don't like products hawked at me when I am at Sam's Club.

My Wal-Mart Supercenter Super Car Stopping Posts

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my nearest Wal-Mart Supercenter getting attacked through the entry doors by a car heading to the McDonald's inside.

The destroyed doors were replaced within hours. The inside seems to be taking awhile to fix, though the damage was slight.

Last week heavy duty car stopping posts were stuck into the cement outside all the entries to my nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter.

After seeing the car stopping posts at the site of the attack I was surprised to see the posts added to my nearest Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market.

Is Wal-Mart adding these car stopping posts to Wal-Marts all over? Or is just my neighborhood at risk for car attacks through Wal-Mart doors?

One car going through the doors incident and this sort of rapid response? Something seems ridiculous about it. Right next to my nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter is a Sam's Club. Sam's Club does not have the car stopping posts. Then again, Sam's Club does not have a McDonald's inside.

It's perplexing.

Wal-Mart Really Does Suck

I do not really understand how Wal-Mart overtook all other retailers to become the planet's #1 store. It's based in Arkansas. One would think that would be a cautionary sign right there.

What perplexes me is how does Wal-Mart do so well? Yes. I shop there. Why? It's convenient and many things are cheaper in price, yet, unfortunately, also often cheaper in quality as well. And there are other issues.

In the D/FW Metroplex, in which I am currently incarcerated, there are dozens of Wal-Marts, mostly Super Wal-Marts, which is your regular type Wal-Mart after a steroid injection. And then there are the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets. One of those is almost walking distance from where I live. Very convenient. 3 miles from my abode is a Super Wal-Mart. Adjacent to my abode is the carcass of a dead Wal-Mart, killed when that new one opened 3 miles away. Oh, I forgot, most of the Super Wal-Marts here have a Sam's Club next door, Sam's Club being this sort of downscale copycat of Costco.

I like Costco's $1.50 hot dog and a drink deal. It's a good hot dog. If you are vacationing in Maui it's a cheap lunch to eat at Costco's Cafe 150. Sam's Club totally copied the Costco cafe concept. And then totally yucked it up. Example. I was in a brand new Sam's Club in west Fort Worth. I ordered the $1.50 hot dog deal. The Sam's girl brings me my dog and asks for $1.27. I said "huh?" I want a drink too. She tells me the drink machine is broken. I see people getting drinks. I ask for a cup. She tells me she'll have to charge me for it. I'm thinking I clearly asked for the $1.50 hot dog and drink deal. Then she decided to just give me the cup. I went over to the drink machine, hit the ice dispenser, causing a geyser-like eruption. I tried to just get water, but did not like the color. I tried one of the soda dispensers and quickly realized there was no carbonation. I gave up on the drink and concentrated on my hot dog. I pumped the mustard dispenser, but it just passed gas, no mustard. I cranked the onion dispenser to see onion juice, I assume it was onion juice, come out of the grinder. I gave up and resigned myself to trying to eat a mustard-less naked hot dog on a soggy bun. And resolved, as God was my witness, to never sit foot in a Sam's Club again. That resolve lasted a week or two. I needed a printer. But no more hot dogs.

More on Wal-Mart in future blogs. I have other issues with Sam.