[By Nic Lindh on Tuesday, 27 August 2013]
I’m exhausted. Been going full burn for a while on this year’s News21 investigation into the experiences of post-9/11 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan which launched this Saturday. (It’s a solid project with excellent reporting, photos and videos on a hugely important topic. I encourage you to take a look. And note that I had nothing to do with the content—I just kept the trains running on time. Or as close as possible.)
But as I said, I’m exhausted. So after a brutal Saturday of launching and a Sunday dealing with mopping-up issues and then a long day of work Monday I had to make a quick Albertsons run.
At checkout, the cashier looked at me—somewhat funny, I thought—and asked me if I used to be in the military.
Which I was. The Swedish military. But I was so foggy all I could think was, “Does it show? Why is he asking me this?”
“Yeeeees?” I said.
“Because we have a 10 percent discount for veterans on Mondays.”
At which point of course I should have clarified that it was the wrong army and no, I should not get that discount. But I was so frazzled I couldn’t even figure out how to explain that.
Walked out so embarrassed and guilty.