But Baby It's Cold Outside…

I currently live in Texas. In Texas we are conditioned to deal with one type of weather- hot and dry. Anything else tends to throw us for a loop. Especially snow and ice. We cannot, as a general rule, drive well in cold conditions. I had days off of school because of a CHANCE of snow.* I tell you all of this to give you some background on the insanity of the people I am about to rage about.

A few weeks ago we had a week of incredibly cold, icy, snowy weather. Schools shut down, the government shut down, mail was not delivered, trash was not picked up. The roads were literally deadly. The used book store I currently work at actually closed down on the first day of the great ice storm of '11. The second day was still dangerous, but we decided to open for a shortened day due to the number of complaints we got the day we closed. (There were more than 20 angry messages on our answering machine.) That's right folks, people were mad that they couldn't risk their lives to come buy a used Nora Roberts book.

In that spirit the few stalwart employees who lived close enough to the store to make it in kept a list of things people were willing to risk car wrecks, injury or death to come to our store and purchase.

So here it is. Things people HAD to have, despite the personal danger involved:

• Two Nicholas Sparks books (This woman called twice to make sure we were holding these for her. She actually tried to come in the day we were closed.)
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
• Eat Right 4 Your Type diet book
• Two Kevin Trudeau books (It's always a good time to support a convicted fraud!)
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• a GED test guide
• 7 - $1 romance novels
• a 2007 issue of Architectural Digest
• the DVDs Cocktail, SWAT, 21, and Apollo 13

And- for the ultimate idiot crown- seven people came in just to browse.

I watched people skid across the parking lot in their cars, fall down while walking in to the store, and bring their babies out in 20 degree weather to shop for the sake of shopping. It's things like this that make me truly concerned for humanity. 

 I hope watching The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was worth it, jag.

* The first time it snowed when I was in college in New York was a bit of a culture shock. I assumed class would be cancelled because of the several inches of snow. My northern born roommates laughed at me as I realized I would just have to walk my happy ass to class through the snow. I then learned the practical application of cute winter boots.


BookWench is currently reading Catherine of Aragon by Giles Tremlett