Not fast enough

  Sometimes no matter what you do, things don’t happen as fast as they need to! This is what happened to me today. Kadin is with me at work today (long story about a “fake” sickness that snookered me into picking him up at school, only to result in a rowdy kid that could be learning something right now), anyway, we went to lunch at the McDonald’s down the road, it is connected to a gas station. We had a little lunch with my friend Lisa, and as we headed out the door, we each picked out a candy bar. I chose a chocolate payday, Kadin picked a Rolo, and Lisa a 3 musketeers. I told Kadin to wait until we got back to open his (I am sooo glad I did), so back at the lab, I open my candy bar, only to discover…..MAGGOTS, yes, you heard me right, 5-6 of them crawling all over my candy bar!! I grabbed Kadin’s, and opened it…upon a close inspection….a maggot crawling between the rolos!! I called Lisa “DON’T EAT THE CANDY!!”  I practically yelled into the phone……now, I am not a person who takes something like this lightly!! I immediately get on the horn…I call information, they give me the number for the health department….after the automated blah blah blah, I get a person…..who gives me a phone number for the agricultural and dairy association…..after calling them, and the blah, blah, blah of automated crap, I get a person……who gives me yet another number!! By now, I have told my story several times, and am losing patience…..”DO YOU REALIZE THAT KIDS MAY BE EATING THIS MAGGOT FILLED CANDY AS WE SPEAK!!!!”  This gets me no where, so I patiently call the last number, and finally get to log a complaint. “Is someone on the way???” I ask, to which the operator calmly says, “The Wayne County Inspector will get a copy of your complaint, and contact the service station in 10 days.”   Your joking, 10 days??? Do you know how many candy bars could be consumed in 10 days????!!! She has no answer for this, so I hang up and call the gas station. No one answers, I let it ring and ring, but no one answers, so I drive up there. I hand over the candy bars (safely sealed in plastic baggies) and the clerk, actually acts like he can’t see the 1/2 inch long maggots!!! I assure him that they are there! He argues for a minute or two, then gives me a refund. I say, “what about the candy???!!!” He comes around the corner, and takes out the box of Rolo and Payday. He assures me he will tell his manager. So I leave, what else could I do? I can’t stand outside with a sign that says, “DON’T BUY THE CANDY HERE, IT IS INFESTED!!”  I head back to the lab and call Hershey, Pa, they also take down the information, and promise to launch their own investigation. “Poor storage conditions, often cause an infestation of the candy.” she tells me. Again, I am thinking of the mother in line at the BP who is “treating” her 3 little kids to a candy bar, for being good. Who has time to inspect each product?? I see it going down like this, “Hurry and pick something, now get in the van, and buckle up, that’s nice Susie, just hurry and eat it, we will be at Grandma’s soon……”  I promise, I wouldn’t have noticed the maggot on Kadin’s if I didn’t do an up close inspection!!! Yikes, my kid almost ate it!! The lady I work with suggests I call the local non-emergency police line to see if they can force the manager to remove the candy…so I call and give my story 2 more times, but it turns out it is up to the Health department, who, sadly has 10 days to act. I tell the officer, “Just be sure you don’t stop there to pick up some candy for your kids on the way home!” He laughs, and assures me he won’t.  So what can I do??? There is wormy candy being sold down the street….did I mention that the maggots are alive and crawling??…..AH-HA… “RUTH TO THE RESCUE”  Channel 4 news. I call, and inevitably get transferred to someones voice mail in the news room….sigh, I think it would make a great news story, and maybe someone would do something. Well, this blog is the last thing I will do, I don’t want to think about it anymore!! I am not sure I will buy candy ever again……ok, that’s not true, but I will most likely get it at a grocery store, where the food is monitored a little closer.  It may seem extreme what I am doing, but how mad would you be, if it was your kid who almost ate it??