Observations From a Trip to Target on a Rainy Day

I had to brave the rain today to go to Target. I needed several things...the dog needed food (his bi-weekly 18 pound bag), Kearsdad needed some stuff for Winter Retreat, and I had to do my Valentine's shopping for the girls. All of that could be accomplished in one trip to the Mighty Target. So off we went, umbrella in hand.

I observed a number of things on my outing...

• I am a much more polite parking lot driver than most people. As I made my way through the parking lot, I stopped a number of times to allow people walking from the stores to cross in front of me. After all, who wants to stand in the rain waiting to cross the road? Other people just drove on by, ignoring the people they were splashing as they passed. How rude.
• People have trouble driving in parking lots in the rain. They forget how to pull into or back out of parking spaces, how to drive up and down the rows, how to turn out onto the main drive, etc. Granted, the collective IQ of the drivers in the Target parking lot is infinitely higher than the collective IQ of those in the WalMart parking lot. But still...rain causes that IQ to drop several points.
• Speaking of rain-induced IQ droppage...There was a couple exiting Target as I was driving up. They were pushing a buggy (do you call it a buggy or a cart? I call it a buggy.) with a baby in it. The baby was in an infant/car seat thingy in the front seat part of the buggy. They had completely covered the baby, seat and all, and they were hurrying across the parking lot, worried looks on their faces, trying to shield their purchases and the baby from the rain. WHY, I ask, WHY did one of them not stand inside the store, or even under the awning at the entrance, like my children did, while the other went and got the car and brought it to the door? Wouldn't that have made more sense??
• It is, apparently, too much trouble to move the buggies from outside on the sidewalk to inside the door when it is raining. There were no less than 7 buggies cluttering the entrance/exit area just outside the doors. Between the entrance/exit doors are the little buggy entrance doors where the buggies can be pushed into the store. No one seemed able to do that today. Must be the rain.
• Finally, and this has nothing to do with rain, but it does have to do with the purpose of my trip, Target has a cruddy selection of Valentine cards. I mean really cruddy. And has anyone else ever noticed that if you go try to buy cards at the last minute, all the "To My Husband" cards are gone, but there are still plenty of "To My Wife" cards. Apparently most women do their shopping early. I usually do, but didn't have time this week. In the end, I made a call to Kearsdad, and talked with the girls, and we made a corporate family decision. No cards this year. We went to dinner as a family last night, and had a lovely time. We got "happies" for the girls. Kearsdad and I have been married over 18 years. I don't need a cheesy $5 card to know he loves me. Same goes for the rest of us. I suggested to the girls if they wanted to do something for anyone, they get creative.