Grocery shopping, again! Clearwater question, Presidents trivia

Wouldn't you know it, there is another holiday coming up in a few days and guess what? We need some groceries to get us through the celebration. Thanksgiving and Christmas have been labeled by some, as the one or two times a year people who don't like each other get together. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, and I guess depends on the families involved. Regardless of the motives to get together it is a fact that people use it as an excuse to eat, and eat. So, that involves going to the grocery store to buy and buy!! It was my thinking that going on Monday would miss the crowds that will be going on Tuesday and Wednesday, therefore making my shopping life a little bit easier. WRONG!! Everyone else thought the same thing plus it appeared to be the same crowd that was there for Halloween. What was encouraging was I had a short list and it was not complicated, but as I progressed to the last items on the list I got stumped. Of all things I could not find the canned cranberry sauce and turkey without cranberry sauce is like chips without salsa. Yea, I know about the real cranberries and not that sliced stuff in the can? Well, finding the can was presenting enough problems and I imagine the real thing would be more of a challenge or next to impossible to find, besides my list called for "canned cranberry" not the real thing. I had ask one of the employees where it was and he shrugged his shoulders and pointed, "just around the corner on the next aisle, just down a little bit." Following instructions to the T I went where he said to go and I'll be damn if the canned cranberry didn't become invisible, since I couldn't see it. Now I had to take drastic action since I couldn't go back to this guy again. He would think I was totally stupid and would probably ask, "who let you out of the looney bin to come and shop?" I did the next best thing, as a lady I had never seen before in my life started to pass my basket I reached out and grabbed her basket and said, "if you don't tell me where the can cranberry sauce is I will not let you pass me!" Well you can imagine the look on her face and wondering who this goof ball is. I even had my Ironman jacket on, hoping that would kind of snow her a little bit but to no avail she said, "hey buster I don't know where it is but I am sure it is in the store somewhere, and let go of my basket NOW!!" And all this time I thought West Texas people were so easy going and nice. Then I had to go back to the original guy and I said, "dude, someone painted the can cranberries invisible, HELP!!!" He then walked me right up them, pointed straight downward(they were on the bottom shelf) and said, "how many do you want?" At the same time the woman that I had taken hostage of her basket was standing on the other side of the aisle and she says, "there is the canned cranberry." I said, "thanks but where were you when I really needed you?" Bottom line is I got my canned cranberry, but I ask the simple question, "for thanksgiving shoppers couldn't they put some kind of bright lights up or something and not put them on the bottom shelves?" I am sure that this product only sells two times a year and it makes turkey eating great, so move it where we can see it or maybe move it closer to the turkeys. In grocery shopping I have found that people are really committed and seem to be in never never land most of the time, almost to the point of being kind of weird(re-read my above story again if you don't believe me). I had found the canned sweet potatoes without incident and I was feeling very good about myself, especially since the list called for two LARGE cans. What I didn't realize is that there are three size cans available, yep, small, medium, and large. So, I took my two LARGE cans placed them in the cart(near the rear, important fact to know as you read further)and moved on down to look for the walnuts and white bread(yea, I know it is not healthy but that is what the list called for). As I was picking up the walnuts I walked back to my cart and noticed the two cans of sweet potatoes were now SMALL, not LARGE as I had picked up. I then proceed to pick up the two small cans and look them over in amazement of how they shrunk. As I studied MY two cans a very nice elderly couple(I am sure they are older than me, since they had gray hair)looked at me like I had lost it. The gentlemen very meekly said, "this is our basket, can I do something for you?" Well, hell yes you can, "where are my two large cans of sweet potatoes?" Of course I didn't say that, I just looked at the rest of their cart and looked down the aisle and found my cart and this nonsense was over. I also commented, I didn't know that grocery shopping can make you kind of crazy!! Everyone around me agreed and I went to checkout. Yep, I found everything, yep, I want plastic, yep, I have had a good day, yep, I have done the Ironman Triathlon(remember I had my jacket on) and yep, I am ready for Thanksgiving, that time of year we are around the people we love but don't always like!!

The scary part about this blog site is that I have had nearly 40,000 hits over the past 12 months, while I didn't think I had but a few loyal readers. Well after my Clearwater 70.3 race report I got a call from a very important kind of guy. This guy is a diplomat for the United States of America and he actually reads my site. He even calls my cell phone and says,"just read your report on the Clearwater thing about your unfortunate accident you had before the swim start and I feel you left something out." He continued, "just out of curiosity, how did you get all that mess cleaned up?" Well this kind of took me by surprise and now I am wondering, what kind of people read this stuff and take the time to call? Confession time, I helped raise 4 babies(all grown and real gone now) and I was not like some men I know of, I changed diapers quite frequently. It really doesn't take a lot of skill but it does take some patience and ability to overcome that ungodly odor! Notwithstanding the fact that in those days we had to wash them, fold them, and pin them without sticking the little baby. So, it took a real man to do it right. I am very proud to say I did it, so I was experienced in cleaning up poop. I even remember our first born, a handsome, strapping boy with beautiful blonde hair who use to lay some magical eggs for me to take care of. On top of the regular going in the britches he also had to drink soy bean juice instead of milk, because of an allergy, so he was even more prone to leave me with some real cleanup work to do. The good news is that I took care of the cleaning with what I had to work with in a porta john, any more detail than that is not necessary. Oopps!!! I forgot to mention, that call from the USA Embassy in Germany was from my son, who is serving as a Diplomat for the United States of America. He says that he hates soy beans for some reason!! Keep up the good work cleaning up the messes of the Bushman and Rummey, we are proud of your service in the military and for the US of A.

Presidents trivia answers: 1. Abraham Lincoln, 2. John Adams, 3. James Buchanan, 4. Thomas Jefferson, 5. Ulysses S. Grant

Movie revue: "A Good Year", Russell Crowe, ****, probably a five star to some, but left some vital information out of the story that most people would want to know. But, story very good, acting very good, supporting acting very good, scenery very good. Well worth a full admission. Some Californians might disagree!!

greerman