As Promised

At 4:00 today, after a harrowing defeat in an online game of 7 hand poker, I left for the gym, and then went to Loblaws to go grocery shopping. I chose the worst possible route to drive to the gym. I hit every light red. I seriously could have walked faster. Driving to the Loblaws from the gym, however, went smoothly, and the parking lot was easier to navigate than usual. I was even lucky enough to get a drive through spot (technically there are no drive through spots, but that only matters on a road test). The walk from my car to the store was uneventful.

I usually follow a set route through the grocery store. This week was no exception. First I hit the produce section. I grabbed the usual apples and bananas. I wanted to visit the leafy green section, but passed the tomato section first, where I picked up three plum tomatoes. In the leafy green section, I looked around for the spinach. While I was looking, I came across something called "Mache", with a hat over the "a". The box said it's pronounced like "mosh". I don't believe the box. Maybe the box has another dialect of English in mind. Eventually I found the spinach. I've never bought fresh spinach before. The only thing I needed now was an onion. I picked a white onion. I usually pick white onions. It's easier to tell when they've been bruised or otherwise damaged. Sometimes I wonder, though, if I would be better served by one of my other onion options.

That was it for the produce section. Yet, something didn't feel right. It felt like I had forgotten something. I looked around, and looked at the little grocery list that I had written for myself. I had everything I needed. I moved on.

I picked up a loaf of bread, then headed for the meat section. I needed some chicken. I always feel like I'm getting hosed when I buy chicken at Loblaws. I suck it up, and figure that it would cost even more at A&P nearby[1].

I grabbed the smallest carton of cream that they sold. The recipe I'm using it for called for 1/4 of the amount that I bought. I guess I'll have cream in my coffee this week. I feel like such a spoiled brat.

Now it was time to buy yogourt. I ended up buying the cheapest stuff they had, which cost about half as much as everything else. Yeah, sure, it's No Name brand, but it's an ingredient in a recipe, and again I only needed a fraction of the amount that I bought. I won't be putting the extra in my coffee.

I bought a jar of jam. I thought I had enough jam for this week, but I wasn't sure, and I'm going to need it next week anyway, so I bought some. It was strawberry jam, by the way.

That was it for groceries.

In terms of the usual route through the grocery store, I finished rather early. Nevertheless, I proceeded through the remaining four aisles of my usual route, in case I had forgotten something. I did not see anything that I had forgotten, so I proceeded to check out.

There was only one checkout lane open other than the 8 items or less lane, and the lineup seemed rather long, so I decided to use one of the check yourself out machines. I think I would have spent less time in line at the one checkout lane, mainly because the product code for the plum tomatoes was nowhere to be found in the menu options, and I eventually needed the help of the attendant. The total cost of this week's groceries was $29.79.

The traffic on the trip home was not as smooth, in part due to the chosen route. This way used higher traffic streets, with more stoplights, although it's a more direct route. There was an especially bad (relative to Kingston) blockage at one point because someone decided to stop their car in the left lane of the road (the lane that I had chosen). Someone driving in the right lane decided to slow down to let me in, although this only became apparent after she had been driving slowly for a while. She probably would have saved us both time if she had just exercised her right of way, and made me wait until she had passed[2].

When I got home I realized that I had bought cracked wheat bread instead of whole wheat. I'll get over that. But I also noticed that the yogourt is fat free. What does that mean? Was it specially produced to have no fat, or is yogourt naturally fat free, like pretzels? Now I could be stuck with a much too large quantity of some low quality yogourt that has been made even worse by removing the fat. I also realized that I forgot to buy pasta. This could have been found somewhere in one of the last four aisles that I walked through without getting anything from them.

[1] Why don't I go to A&P if it's closer? Because I have a car, and I can go to Loblaws, and the prices are lower at Loblaws, and the selection is much better.

[2] Giving up your right of way to do somebody a favour usually has this effect, mainly because it's not clear to the intended recipient that a favour is being done until a fair amount of time has elapsed.