THE POP-UP CARWASH

So we were on our way home from work just driving along and we drove by the ghost area of Independence Dr., where all the stores used to be but are now just vacant buildings, and we saw a guy sitting in a lawn chair with a sign next to him for car wash. Behind the guy was a big white van with no windows and a trailer with a couple hundred gallon water tank on it. We did a double take and weren't sure what to think about it. So, the next day we drove by and this time, to our surprise, there was a car getting washed by the young fellow. Now, I wouldn't trust my little toy cars to this guy but seemed like he was doing okay for himself.

As it got closer to summer we started to notice more of these. It didn't matter what parking lot it was there was always a van/trailer/car wash in every lot. Finally, this phenomenon came to my works parking lot, only this guy was way smarter than any other guy we saw because he parked underneath a tree, so he was in the shade.BRILLIANT.

I think Charlotte might have more entrepreneur's than any other city I have ever been too. If your lucky, you can even find a pop up car wash that has a generator and a vacuum so the guy can vacuum out your car for you. I guess when it comes down to it, would you rather go to a reputable business car wash or would you rather help stimulate the economy by going to a mom and pop car wash...you make the decision.

Snow Day?

Since we moved down here, when we tell people we are from WI they all say brr you must be used to the cold and snow. Just wait until we get snow here, everything shuts down and all of the stores will be out of milk, eggs, and bread. We weren't sure if people were just over reacting or what, but we were excited to see what was going to happen when we got our first snow.


We woke up on a Tuesday morning and didn't realize it had snowed until we looked outside. There was probably about a half inch to an inch of snow on the ground. We started watching the news and schools were closing left and right. We were curious to see what the roads were going to be like. After i got done scrapping the ice and snow off of the car (glad i kept that snow scraper) it was time to see how the roads were. Not surprisingly people were driving really slow. This was expected, but contrary to popular belief, we did see a snowplow on the road. That was funny, in WI people pass snow plows because you don't want the salt to bounce onto your car and snow plows just don't drive fast enough. Here, there were people slamming on their brakes so they could get behind the snowplow. I have never seen people ride a snowplow the way these people did, unbelievable.

THE BIG SNOW!

At the end of March, we got the big storm. This was the storm of the winter...we got about three inches. But it was the things that led up to the storm and the aftermath. About an hour before the snow was supposed to come we went to the store to get some food for our shrimp soup bread bowls. Now, before we got to the store we had kind of forgotten that people freak out about snow here. We got to the store and didn't think anything of it, then we walked down the bread aisle. The only other time I have ever seen a bread aisle that depleted was when our other local grocery store went out of business, and I walked in there the day before it shut down. People had apparently come and stocked up on the essentials due to the threat of three inches of snow. People down here seriously thought that if it snowed Sunday they might not go out until the following week. Obviously, schools were cancelled the next morning and my work was even on a two hour delay. While I was at work a girl from down here told me I was crazy because I was going to drive to a restaurant during my lunch break. There was still some slush in the intersections, but that was it...I am sooo crazy.

Bankruptcy for Circuit City

Flick and I heard Circuit City was going bankrupt, so we decided to take a trip to the store to see if there was anything we would possibly want at a good price. Well, if you have any questions as to why they are going bankrupt, here is a story for you. We get to the store and there are signs everywhere stating up to "20% off everything". It seems like a pretty good deal. However, as we walked around we noticed that TV's, cameras, printers, etc. are all still WAY over priced. Circuit City is obviously taking advantage of their business going "out of business". We and the rest of the smart people in the world can just figure out that they set their prices HIGHER than they originally were, and have now just put "marked down" price tags on their appliences, making it look like you are getting a good deal.

But that's not even where this story was going. As we wondered through the store a little more, we came to the PC games. Flick has been looking into movie making programs, so we decided to take a closer look. He found one that seemed to be what he was looking for and decided with the 10% off, it would be a good deal on a $50.00 program. As I continued to look around I found something I wanted to purchase also. So we made our way to the cash registers. Now you should know, with all the people in the store trying to make a GREAT purchase on all these marked down store items, they have ONE register open...ONE.

Flick goes first. He sets his item on the counter and the young man scans the game then proceeds to get out a calculator and mannually figure out the discounted price. Now recall that the original price was $50.00. The young man says $37.50. Now, $37.50 is not 10% of $50.00 but by the looks of the man behind the counter he did not know what he was doing, so we went with it, considering his "screw up" was in our favor. So surprised at the low price, Flick just gave the guy his credit card and went on his way.

Then I stepped forward, placed my item (I'm not going to say what because it would be way too embarassing) on the counter. Again, the young man scanned my item ($9.99) then got out the calculator to figure out the new price. My total comes to about $8.50, which would be about right. So maybe this guy isn't as big of an idiot as we think.

At this time I look over at Flick and he is standing near the door surrounded by about eight (I don't know how to put this in a nice way) huge technology losers. You know the look: Big bellies, dark hair, balding, big glasses, un-shaven faces and arm pit staines on their nice collard white button ups. Anyway, I see one of them look over at Flick and say, "HELLO!! How are you this evening?". At this point I just want to laugh, as Flick just turns his head, with a WOW look on his face, and doesn't say a single word back to the man.

Laughing inside, I look back the the man behind the counter as he says here is your change ma'am. He gives me the 50 cents first then what he thought was $11.00. I look down and see that he actually gave me two $10.00's back instead of a $10 and a $1. In my head I am contiplating...do I tell him or no...do I tell him or no...well being the good person I am I say, "you gave me the wrong change back" and I hand him back a $10.

After doing it, I never thought if I were in that type of situation I would be honest. I always thought about me being on a hidden camera show and I would be the one person that looks like a cheapskate, but I guess I just under estimated myself. I sit there waiting for him to open up the register and just give me a $1.00. The man in line behind me says, "you know I saw that in a movie once, and the guy behind the counter was an angel." So I say, "well I must have done a good deed for the day then" and he says "yes you did." So I am actually starting to feel pretty good about myself but as we are talking the guy behind the counter takes the guy behind me's things and starts ringing them up. I'm kind of in shock for a moment because he still owes me a $1.00, I look over and Flick who is still being surrounded by the technology losers, and I just say "F#%* IT" (pardon my french) Lets get OUT OF HERE!!

Now, I realize that the store is closing and all of the employee's may just be reacting especially since the announcement came only three days earlier. But come on, people just standing around, one line open, and the guy behind the register being a huge idiot. If you say you didn't see this coming, then WOW!

AND I AM STILL PISSED ABOUT NOT GETTING MY $1.00 BACK AFTER BEING SO HONEST!!!!

-Hammer

NASCAR lives on

So today I was watching the news during my lunch break and I happened to catch one of the best stories of the year. Normally when I watch the news it is very depressing to see how many criminals are out there and the messed up stuff they do. Every once in a while those messed up people will surprise you with a funny story even though it may not be that funny.
So the big news story for the afternoon today in Charlotte was that some man had something stolen from him. The item that was stolen from him was a NASCAR Championship ring. This nearly brought me to tears because I was laughing so hard. Now, I will be the first to say that yes I did jump to conclusions and I also stopped listening to the rest of the news story.
Here's what I think, first of all how does the guy know he didn't just lose it???? Well, odds are if someone broke into this guys "House" aka trailer, there must not have been too many valuables around. I mean who breaks into someones house and only steals a ring...maybe if it was a ring that was really valuable say maybe a princess or queen had I could understand. But someone broke into a house (trailer) and stole a ring. Here is what I think happened. Some guy decided to break into some other guys trailer home...(big mistake first of all, you'll either get shot or won't find anything)...after ransaking all of the Budweiser from the fridge he looked around to see if he could find some valuables. After not finding any authentic NASCAR gear in the closet he looked towards the dresser and saw the most beautiful ring he had ever seen. He took the ring and got away.
Now the news reports this story but they leave out some details...they leave out the trailer and call it a house, they don't interview anyone because the mullets would give it away, and they don't repeat anything the owner says because he drank too much Bud the night before to remember where he actually put the ring.
Anyhow, that is about it, I just got a kick out of that being the top story of the afternoon.

-Flick