And we are off again. In a rush, so to speak. The problem now is that I had a series of humorous ideas for this entry, while still thinking about TYSON and BENEDICT (didn't mean to use all caps, but i'm in a hurry here). I also had just stopped weblogging long enough to get an evening snack. The snack was instant Quaker Oatmeal, apples and cinnamon, which I delight in, especially with fresh blueberries or fresh raspberries or even chopped up apple, but I was in a hurry, had only apples, so I went "full montie" with the oatmeal and didn't "dress" it with fresh fruit.
The good thing about oatmeal with the two berries is that one need only rinse and dump. It is fast, if like me you are in a hurry. Being in a hurry grocery shopping when buying my oatmeal got me in a spot of trouble. My wife as usual was driving; she let me off at Walmart with a dire warning. "Get what you have on your list, and get back here! Ten minutes! I want to get home! No lingering over the apples." After fifty-one years, she still doesn't know me.
But that is for another entry. Then, I shuffled slowly into the electric door, found a cart with four good wheels, and set off. For the deli. I love their Prima provolone, green label. None of this smoked stuff, which I bought by mistake once, in a twelve slice pack, where the "smoke flavor added" was in tiny letters hidden beneath other descriptive admonitions. But that time I was in a hurry too. Now I read everything on those packages. However, at the deli this evening I got my two one pound packages of provolone, green label, plus a free slice which the woman behind the counter was glad, or so it seemed, she wasn't in a hurry, to hand over. I was hungry, the cheese was just right. "Yes," I said, "That's it. Perfect. Thank you."
Well, one of four, but I am running (no pun intended for I am still shuffling) slightly behind on my ten minute maximum. I grabbed the milk, 2%, checked the date, almost two weeks, and as Brandon McMillan on Lucky Dog (CBS Saturday a.m.) says, "Good, good, good!" I dashed for the oatmeal, saw the large box with twenty packets of instant for people in a hurry, grabbed it, and headed for the fruit. Fruit counts as one item (my rules in the fruit section, in case anyone asks): banana, blueberry, raspberry, and apples, honeycrisp, of course. So good, no lingering, except to find the right ones, so expensive. Really. Three something a pound. (The same rule works in the deli, add six thin slices of Kahn's bologna. Thin. #1 slice where the provolone is #2. Still on one item at the deli.). Actually I added 9 cups of Chobani raspberry yogurt, whose case is right next to the deli. Still one item.
Walmart always puts the Chobani raspberry yogurt on the top shelf. I can reach the first stack, but all those behind the first stack are out of reach. Fortunately, a taller than myself young lady saw me struggling to get the raspberry cups with my cane, and she easily plucked them down, called me "honey" and disappeared into the mysterious Walmart passageways. "Thank you!" I said hurriedly to the dissipating air.
Except for the checkout, "Done," as my iPad always offers. I made it to the car in sixteen instead of ten, but herself was talking to a friend and didn't seem to notice that I had broken curfew. Only several days later did I notice the consequences of rushing through the cereal aisle. My Quaker Oatmeal box said, "Great Value." I was taken aback. I held the box next to my Quaker Oats box and saw the same pictures, almost, on each box. Same pictures, same colors, same writing, same diagrams, almost. In my hurry, it seems I had grabbed a knockoff Walmart brand. It was probably cheaper, but I do not buy groceries to save money any more; I buy them for deliciousness, so to speak.
I was just going to return the Great Value Walmart brand, confess my haste, and exchange it. Then I decided today that I should give the knockoff brand a chance. What if it is better? Though I much doubted that and really enjoy Quaker, I tried Great Value. I dumped their pack into my bowl, fixed it accordingly, and ate. When I dumped it, it seemed to me that there wasn't as much in the bowl as there is with Quaker. And while the oatmeal wasn't bad, it truly wasn't as good as Quaker's, so, if I can find the time, I will call the number on the bottom of the GV box and ask for a refund.
Now I know that there is a moral here somewhere, but at the moment nothing occurs to me; thus I shall fold up my tent and steal away silently.