So, I roll into Perkins about 4:15 and guess what? I got it wrong. Perkins is open 24 hours on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but not today. I have an hour and 15 minutes to kill. Ahh, there is our old friend Walmart. They are open. I will just go over there and kill some time.
As I pull out of the Perkins parking lot I notice the sign that says, 20% off with a receipt from Walmart. This is a reminder to me that if I go into Walmart, I am probably going to spend some money.
How much time can a man kill in Walmart between 4:15 and 5:30? I look at the hats. I look at the toys. I look at electronics. I see the pet section. I make my first selection, 10 lbs of cat food. That will last our cats about 4 days. By the way, have you ever had a cat that was bigger than your children when they were born? Not a safe cat to have around if you have small children.
I keep shopping. Sporting goods. Automotive. Now I am in the promised land. New wipers for my car and the magical Stoner’s [that is the brand name] window cleaner. Looking at the automotive section makes me happy. Now the garden center. I take a diet coke from the cooler. The pharmacy. I have made the complete circle of Walmart and it is only 4:56. I look in the bins at the $5 movies and cd’s.
Now I am out of gas and I have to go. I can only be in Walmart for so long. I go to the only open check out. I am scolded for drinking the coke before I paid for it. I suddenly have this fear that I am going to be tackled by store security and end up on the show, "They Almost Got Away With It". I quickly pay for my purchases, thankfully there is no line. I hurry out to the parking lot and load my stuff into the trunk. What am I going to do for the next 25 minutes until Perkins opens? Oh, I guess I will install my new windshield wipers. And, I will type a blog.
If you happen to wake up in the middle of the night and decide to go to Perkins, please don’t get it wrong. Perkins is only open 24 hours on certain days, and today isn’t your day.
It’s a beautiful day in God’s world, be sure to see the good.
4 comments:
love it... must be something in the air... i woke up early as well
Well friend, I hate to break the news, especially to someone who's going to be tired all day today. Your dillema has nothing to do with Perkins or Wal-Mart (and I want to exit both right away when I go there.)
This thing is about waking up at 3:30 a.m. It can ruin your day any way you cut it. This morning I woke up at 3:30, could not go back to sleep, got up and went to my kitchen (it's ALWAYS OPEN..ugh,) unloaded the dishwasher, made myself a grilled cheese sandwich and had it with a cup of jello and a glass of milk.
Went back to bed...asleep deeply in no time. Overslept by two hours. Woke up with a headache.and late start to the day.
Maybe we should all start staying up until 2:30 so we don't have the waking up at 3:30 problem anymore.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, if we can just get our eyes open and shake the "waking up at 3:30" hangover.
I believe it was the comedian Steven Wright who had the same problem. In the store he said the signs says you are open 24 hours. The answer was yeah but not in a row. Just find a police car the midnight officers will always know where to get coffee and breakfast.
I remember having insomnia at 4:00 am while on a cruise in the middle of the Caribbean. I didn’t want to wake my soundly sleeping wife by turning on the TV so I decided to walk the lonely deck to see if I could find something to do. Only a few workers cleaning up were to be found. In the dimly lit pool area I found a seat surrounded by a sea of 100 plus empty deck chairs. The sound of the wind and the roar of ship engines filled the darkness. After an hour I felt consumed by a strange loneliness. So I went back to bed.
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