Occasionally, you meet someone on a very casual basis and you recall them, even if it isn’t necessarily with fondness.

So it was for me today as I ventured into our local Wal-Mart store in Princeton, Texas.

I burrowed through the crowd to pick up a couple of items I would need to take tomorrow morning to see my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. All the manned checkout stations had lengthy lines of customers; and all the stations had staffers working them.

So … I lined up at the end of the long line waiting to check my own groceries. I had only about four items. Hey, no sweat. The guy in front of me was bitching up a storm about the length of the line.

“It’s weird to take 15 minutes to find your stuff and then take two hours just to check out,” he grumbled. “I should have gone over to Farmersville, to Brookshire’s,” he said. I told him all the manned check-out stands here were up and running. He didn’t believe me. I also reminded him that Brookshire’s likely was a madhouse, too.

Good-humor guy that I am, I kept laughing, partly to keep my own frustrations subdued, but also at this dude’s constant carping. I tried to remind him that if he had done this shopping a day or two earlier he wouldn’t have faced this madness. He was too busy griping to hear what I said.

The lengthy line was moving rapidly toward the front. He yammered and blathered every step of the way.

Then … presto! Before he and I could catch our breath, he proceeded to an empty self check-out machine. Then he was gone.The time it took for him to leave the store from the time I sidled in behind him? Oh … maybe 10 minutes.

The time in line flew by mainly because I was so enthralled by this guy’s frustration, I paid no attention to the massive crowd inside the store.

Then I was gone, heading for my house around the corner and down the street.

So, to this Grinchy-like dude, I want to offer him — wherever he is — a Merry Christmas.

And to you as well.