This morning's trip started with this set of carts. My neighbors have, for the most part, started lining the carts up, which is good because then it's easier for me, but it's also a bad sign that they now expect me to take the carts back.
I mentioned in a previous post that one cart had been thrown on top of some others to make room for a car, and it was still there. That was annoying enough, but then I discovered something...
It was injured. Crippled, even. Somehow, it's front two wheels had disappeared. Whether they were broken off accidentally or deliberately, stolen or thrown away, I don't know. I couldn't find them anywhere.
I still managed to take the cart back. I was able to nest it with another of its kind, and they still rolled smoothly like that. I took them into the grocery store to which they belong and pointed out the injury to the first cashier I saw there, so I hope it's going to get treatment. Unfortunately, this means that the store has either replace the cart or pay at least a little something for a repair, and that certainly can't help keep prices down.
This cart was hiding in the bushes almost as far away from its home store as it could get without crossing a major street or freeway. It had a weatherbeaten flyer from that store still in it, and the sales advertised were good from September 20 through September 26. I pass this spot about every other day, and I didn't see the cart there until yesterday. I wonder where it had been all that time.
These carts were all on the south end of the shopping center. The one green one was just a few feet from its store, so I didn't count it as a rescue. The three blue ones belonged to a store in the center of the shopping center. The bent and dented steel one had come from the far north end. It had been there for quite some time as well and was beginning to rust in places. Pushing it to its home was a bit of a challenge.
And finally, I found this curiosity. It was in the cart return at the grocery store three parking lots and a street away from its store. That wasn't any more annoying than any of the others. What I want to know, though, is this: Who thought that would be a good place for a lost hubcap?
