“Oh my God, she’s got a machete!!”

I’m on my lunch break, and I take advantage of the sunny, beautiful day to walk down South Pearl Street.  There are several discount variety stores along the Pastures neighborhood – that area between the arena and the DMV – and I look through the various items and products for sale.  Hmm… some Friday afternoon, I could really stockpile my kitchen and bathroom with supplies for a fraction of the cost if I bought the stuff here.

My walk took me to this little delicatessen on South Pearl Street.  Yep, the hunger pangs were starting to kick in.  I stopped inside, and purchased a couple of pieces of fried chicken – along with a bag of chips and a diet cola.

As I purchased my lunch, I noticed that behind the counter, hanging up on a peg, were several packages of old camera film.  And when I say “old,” I mean it was branded Konica Minolta VX 200 Super 35mm film.  Expiration date – 2007.  Yeah, by comparison that’s not too old, but I can still use it for split film and sprocket hole photography, and maybe for some cross-processing.

“I’d like to buy three rolls of the camera film,” I asked the cashier.

She nodded.

At which point, she turned around to get the camera film – but the packages were too high for her grasp.

Next thing I know, she reaches for – and I kid you not – a sheathed machete.

With the machete, she slides the films off the peg, one by one, until they fall to the floor.

“That’s a real machete, isn’t it?”

She smiled and nodded.  “That’ll be ten dollars for the film, sir.”

Mental note.  Do not anger this cashier.  If she can carefully slide rolls of film off of a peg that’s a couple of feet away from her reach with this knife that would make Crocodile Dundee envious, then it’s probably not a good idea to rob her or threaten her.

Not that I would ever consider such a thing…