Bad Jujubes

Despite the rain yesterday, I headed into Salem to run errands. Right off the tee, things weren't looking good.

My first stop was the Styrofoam recycling center, which was closed for Veterans' Day. What, veterans don't recycle? I'd hauled a trunk-load of Styrofoam all that way for nothing. At least it's light.

Next I went to Target, only to learn A) the candles they have on sale are only certain (gross) holiday scents and B) the cool Mr. Potato Head Spud Buds they were rumored to have aren't stocked at the Salem store.

Given my crap luck thus far, one would think I'd be discouraged. One would be wrong. Instead I thought: "I'll go to Toys R Us! The website said the items are in stock; maybe my luck will turn around!" Yeah. Maybe not. They had one item out of eight I was seeking, and you needed seven to earn a gift card and make it a good deal.

Curses.

I looped around, picked up lunch, and came home. As Cary and I were eating, the sun came out. A sign, I wondered? I decided to try my luck with Dallas errands.

Once again I trusted an on-line site's claim &mdash this time by Coinstar &mdash as to what's available in a particular store, so I knew I might be setting myself up for disappointment. But as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw lights. I saw an OPEN sign. I saw the Coinstar machine just inside the door. Things were lookin' up.

Taped to the front of the Big Green Coinstar Machine, however, I saw something else: a hand-written OUT OF SERVICE sign.

"Oh come on!" I said.

A young woman watched me, wide-eyed, straightening nervously as I approached.

"Do you know when it'll be repaired?" I asked her, motioning to the machine.

"Sorry," she said.

"Do you think it will be done within the week?" I asked.

She smiled apologies again, and then offered, "Wal-mart has one."

"Yeah, but theirs doesn't offer gift cards; just cash. I was hoping to do the gift card thing."

"Oh. Sorry," she said, then added brightly, "Maybe you could call between 9:00 and 5:00, ask someone on the day shift?"

(Which I did, only to have it go like this:

"Hi! I came in last night to use the Coinstar machine and found it's out of service. One of your employees said I should call during the day and ask when it's expected to be repaired?'

"Just a second," the woman said, and held the phone a few inches away. "Someone wants to know when the Coinstar machine'll be fixed."

"We don't know," a man said.

"We don't know," the woman repeated into the phone.

"Do you have a ballpark?" I pressed. "A week? Two weeks?"

"We don't know," she said again. "Try back in a few days."

Okey doke.)

By this point my bad luck had become amusing. How bad could it get, I wondered. Cary's grandmother turns 85 on Friday, so I stopped at the Dollar Tree to get her a card. They had cards for an 80th birthday, and they had cards for a 90th birthday. But apparently an 85th birthday doesn't rate.

I went next door to Safeway. No special "85 and Glad to Be Alive" cards there, either.

To the Soda aisle! Where Pepsi is 88 cents a two-liter! Where... they had exactly one Diet Mt. Dew (Cary's flavor) and zero Pepsi One (mine). I was on the verge of Charlie Brown-worthy "Arghh!" when I decided to check the end cap. There I found an entire shelf of Diet Mt. Dew. Saints be praised.

Sue and I are planning another Goodwill Hunting outing for next Wednesday, so fingers crossed I've worked out all of my bad shopping juju.