not as helpful as they could have been

My room-mate asked me to go to Lowe's to pick up some dirt for some minor lawn repair - the deal being that if I got the dirt, I wouldn't be obligated to do any actual work. Seemed like a good deal to me.

I headed over to Lowe's and grabbed a shopping cart, then headed back to the garden area. The instructions were "two large bags of cheap dirt" - which I found in the non-roofed section of the area. One of the bags had broken open and with the recent rains, all the bags were pretty much covered in mud.

I'm not a strong person. I can swim forever, but I'm just not physically strong. So, it required a great deal of effort to get the first bag up onto the cart - and I ended up covered in mud.

A sales clerk came over and offered to get me a flat cart. I said that would be great and he wandered away to find it - then brought it back. And then he - this much taller and obviously stronger guy - watched while I struggled to move the bag from one cart to another, then add a second bag. He took the first cart away and I headed to the front of the store.

I got in a short line at the checkout and waited, I think, .5 forevers as the cashier struggled with the transaction. Eventually, I gave up and moved over a lane. The cashier there was very friendly, but a little daft. She blamed it on the cold medicine when she inadvertently did a split transaction and I had to run my card twice. While the second transaction was processing, she reached down and got a tissue. I thought she was going to offer it to me since my hands - and the rest of me - was covered in dirt. Instead, she blew her nose.

I finally got out to the car and struggled again with the bags to get them in the trunk.

Plenty of opportunities for the crew there to really make my day better - but instead I got the minimum and it ended up being more work than my room-mate had when he dumped the dirt onto the lawn.