Storm In A Light Bulb

I heard this story third-hand, so I don’t have all the details, but you’ll get the gist.

We were at the peak of Winter Storm Fern. For those outside the USA, this storm was bad enough to send half the country into lockdown for a day, and many people were without power for several days afterwards, so make of that what you will. I was spending the storm warm and safe in my parents’ house when my father, a manager at a grocery store, got a call from a fellow manager.

Whenever that store is closed for the day, somebody always drives down to make sure everything is in order. Because of the snow, only one person – we’ll call her Kiera – was able to drive down, and only because her husband had a pick-up truck and snow tires, and they live right down the road.

When Kiera got to the store, somebody was outside trying to get in. Kiera tried to tell the man that they were closed, but he insisted that he just needed one thing, that it was an emergency, etc. Of course, Kiera knew better than to let him inside, but he was absolutely insistent that he had to buy this one thing right now. He wasn’t actively aggressive, but that could have been because Kiera’s husband came out of the truck when he saw what was happening.

Soon enough, the police were called, and the hopeful (read: crazy) customer was hauled away for trespassing and resisting arrest, because of course he did that too. Kiera was shaken up but otherwise fine, and nothing in the store was stolen or broken.

Now I’m sure you’re all wondering, what was this one emergency thing that the guy just couldn’t live without for one day? Medication? Diapers for his infant child, perhaps?

It was a light bulb, my friends. The man needed a singular light bulb.