I bring the bag to the checkout and the lady looks at the numbers I drew on the bag – 2 of xxxx, 4 of yyyy, and 4 of zzzz.

Even though I tagged the bag, I guess they make the cash people double-triple-quadruple check everything.  She spent a while scrutinizing the bag from the outside, flipped it and recounted from the other side, stuck her hand in and felt around, scrutinized again… Finally she pulls everything out, lays it down on the counter, sorts them into groups, compares against the bag list again, considers for a while, and ONLY THEN, finally like forever minutes later, types it in.

Pop Quiz: Can you count to 10?

I’d have to be just about the worst, most desperate shoplifter ever to sneak a washer past a cashier -in- the bag I presented to her. They cost literally pennies and must be the cheapest single items in the store.  Imagine the paperwork if they inventory their washers and come up one short!

As I was playing with them at home, I saw that there are teeny-tiny numbers printed along the edges of all the hardware – maybe she was actually trying to read every individual nut to verify? I don’t know what she gets paid per hour, but there’s probably some economic benefit to actually trusting the customers.

Incidentally, the clamps work great. If you’re ever looking for a bolt that fits your camera tripod mount, it’s a UNC 1/4-20. With a washer and a nut you can lock your camera down to just about anything.

I got to witness a really cool Model T Ford meetup at Monkey Joe’s, there were about 10 of them lined up facing Carling in the parking lot, and a bunch of old guys comparing wooden wheel diameters. Beautiful paint jobs and excellent restoration work on all of them. I hope it’s a recurring event, I’d love to get some detail shots of all the chrome and custom metalwork.

Then I saw someone dressed up in a monkey suit outside of Mark’s Work Wearhouse dancing around and trying to get people to come into the store – not really picture-worthy but odd enough that I wished Natasha could have seen it. (It turns out she saw him too on the bus ride home.)

So I’ve learned my lesson – I’m going to fuse my camera to my arm somehow. Meanwhile, here’s a 7-minute sketch of the dancing monkey guy… EXACTLY as it happened. In black and white for maximum artistic effect.