I had to go to Lowe’s in another city to buy two more bags of sand-topping mix last night. Theirs was all in salable condition, which was a huge relief because having any of the cement in the bag exposed to water makes spreading it around so much more difficult.

The cashier at Lowe’s started talking before we even got to her register. Bonnie was riding on the cart, and the cashier asked what aisle I found her in. Then, she talked non-stop throughout the entire transaction and continued until we were out the door. She just talked nonsense the whole time about Bonnie being an item for sale in the store. She was riffing, but nothing she said was either funny or interesting.

I don’t make small talk. If I don’t have something to say, I will not engage with you, even to be polite. I realized last night why people like the cashier make me so fucking crazy. It’s because I can’t tune people out. If someone is talking to me, I can’t not pay attention, so when they’re talking gibberish, it becomes extremely taxing, especially when I’m trying to focus on a task.

This morning, I spread the two new bags around the patio, and it was so much easier than the first bag because it was all just powdery and soft. There were no clumps in it at all. Unfortunately, they weren’t enough. I needed a fourth bag, but not a whole bag. So, back we went to the Lowe’s in the next city. We went to the garden section first so Bonnie could get some plants, and then we went to building materials to grab a back of sand topping mix. The cashier said, “We sell plants at this end?” pointing out the irregularity of paying for plants at the building materials register. She scanned them all and was about to complete the transaction when I asked her if she scanned the bag of cement. She hadn’t even noticed it. Pay the fuck attention, I thought. Why the fuck do you think we came all the way down to building materials to buy plants?

After I paid, I held my finger over the POS machine so I could choose to have my receipt emailed to me instead of printed out because I didn’t want a paper receipt. Before I could tap it, though, she bypassed the option on her end and printed my receipt. It happens at every Lowe’s. At self-checkout, it gives you the option of a printer receipt or an email and printed receipt, but there’s no option for leaving the store without a piece of fucking paper. Obviously, I’m in the minority of people who want their receipts emailed because the cashiers automatically print the receipts without asking. Last year, my local grocery store added a prompt to the POS machine asking for donations to some charity. It didn’t take long for the cashiers to start reaching over to tap the skip button because nobody wants to donate to unknown charities when they’re checking out. That, I get. What I don’t get is who the fuck wants paper receipts?

I spread the final bag around and used about 3/4 of it. I’m glad I didn’t use all of it because now I have extra to fill in any place that I missed and make patches if need be. The fire pit remodel is basically done. I still need to make four tables to go on top of the 4 x 4 posts that I mounted the electrical boxes to, but that’s a whole other project.