Category: Uncategorized

Why I don’t like to go to the grocery store

I bring you this illustration with images that I’ve stolen from the Internet to show you why I don’t like to go to the grocery store.

During daylight hours, I usually turn into the first lane as I enter the parking lot. This is not a particularly popular lane for parking, as most people park closer to the main entrance.

Every parking lot lane is one way. There are always drivers who go the wrong way on this lane because it’s the lane closest to the exit. Which means when I’m pulling in or backing out, I have to watch for wrong-way vehicles as well as put up with hateful glares and rude gestures from IMPROPERLY EXITING drivers as if I AM IN THE WRONG for blocking their getaway route.

Then there are the people who treat parking spaces as if they are cart return locations. Today was the most amazing. The woman unloading her cart into the car next to mine walked across the lane to put her cart IN THE MIDDLE OF A PARKING SPACE. As you can see, she could have walked about the same distance across the MAIN lane to return her cart to the line of carts in front of the store.

Because neither she nor I could leave anyway (thanks to the line of cars going the wrong way), after I returned my cart to the front of the store, I walked to her abandoned cart and did the same with it. She pretended to be fumbling through the contents of her purse rather than meet my eyes.

Ack

I can’t really afford it, but I have to do something about The Compound trees. In fact, it’s way overdue. So finally I bit the bullet and started calling the referrals I’ve received from friends.

Here’s the way it’s gone so far:

This mailbox is full and can accept no more messages.


You have reached the residence of…

[ring… ring… answer click… disconnect click]

The number you have reached is no longer in service.

[ring… ring… ring…] Infinity. No answer, no machine, no nothing.

Sometimes, five strikes and you’re out.

The good, the bad, and the ugly


Starbucks rises “bold and stark/kids are huddled on the beach in a mist…” *


Aaron, first lured into a life of crime by Lynne, gets a leg up to score some pearl beads for his Aunt Debby.
I promised Aaron not to publicize his more lawless acts. For now.


Palm trees in the dust
No one has confessed to this message rudely scrawled on Jellybean, member of The Compound Limo Fleet.

*Lyrics lifted from Bruce Springsteen.

A thank you to friends

Growing up, my family was not one who had desserts all the time. But we did have them occasionally, and everybody had their favorites. I’ve mentioned before that I planned to make my brother some chocolate bread pudding like our mother used to make when he was here last fall–then I forgot to do it.

The recent visit from my siblings fell between my sister’s birthday and my late mother’s, and I decided to lay out, along with meals, some of our favorite desserts as part of the celebrations.

For my sister, it had to be a coconut cake (that’s what my mother always baked for her). Some of you may remember the last time I made her a coconut cake and the dire consequences. There were no catastrophic repercussions this time, but as you can see, there’s also another cake in the photo. Since some of us are wheat intolerant, and some are downright allergic to wheat and gluten, I snagged a Betty Crocker gluten-free yellow cake mix and some Duncan Hines gluten-free dark chocolate frosting. It was an experiment and it worked; the cake was delicious. It just didn’t rise the way I’m accustomed to cakes rising.

Along with the two cakes, my sister made banana pudding–another of my brother’s favorites that my mother always made for him (and I don’t make because bananas are something I can stand in only small doses). And he finally got his chocolate bread pudding (which I overcooked, but it was still good).

My family’s all safely back in their homes now, and for Craft Night, I decided to try the Betty Crocker gluten-free chocolate cake mix. Everyone thought it tasted good, but again, it didn’t rise very much. If any of you use this mix and know a secret for getting fluffier cake, let me know.

Tom asked if the Craft Night cake was for a special occasion, and I said no. But of course, as I mentioned earlier, March 4 is my mother’s birthday. And it was kind of cool to realize, as I sat around the table with Tom, Lindsey, Rhonda, and Kathy, while we drank coffee and had cake and ice cream, that we were all together with my mother on her last birthday, when we took chocolate cupcakes to her hospice room.


Photo by Lindsey

I figure it’s time to mention again how much I love my family and friends, who are here with me through the fun times and the sad ones. You’re all great.

A day of peace

On Facebook, a young man–possibly a high school student–created “A Day of Peace” for March 4. So far, 1.7 million Facebook members have agreed to try to make today as peaceful as possible in their lives.

Nothing wrong with giving peace a chance.

If my mother were alive, she’d be celebrating her eighty-fifth birthday today. It’s also Timmy’s birthday–though he’s much younger than 85. In fact, in Aries World, I believe he’s 24. It’s also rain_wolfe’s birthday.

I wish them happy birthdays, and I wish for all of you a peaceful day in which we treat one another well.

Now I plan to do the most granola thing I can think of: go to Whole Foods. Of course, I’m only buying for the dogs. They get the best treatment on The Compound.