Day 4671

Shopping isn't easy anymore. I had to go to four different grocery stores to find the things on my list. There was nothing exotic or rare that I was trying to find. It was just ordinary stuff. I had trouble finding shredded wheat. I had even more trouble finding distilled water for the coffee maker. I needed dishwasher detergent. Most stores just had pods. I needed the liquid kind. Same thing with Swiffer dusters. Lots of places had the wet dusters but I wanted the dry variety. 

I think the problem is two-fold. There are still supply chain issues for many common items. The real problem is how stores restock inventory though. Increasingly stores use register receipts to determine what goes on the shelves. If not many people are buying a certain item it gets discontinued. That's why all the stores had plenty of sugar coated mini-shedded wheat, but very few still carry plain shredded wheat. Variety is disappearing from many stores. People like cheap stuff, so there is lots of cheap stuff. There are actually lots of expensive status items too. What's missing these days are the plain, practical items that were commonplace twenty years ago. 

I eventually found everything I needed but it took longer than expected. When I leave the house these days, I feel like I'm entering a dystopian world. Traffic is terrible and nobody knows how to drive anymore. There is an explosion of people making u-turns in the city. You really have to watch when making a turn at an intersection. Somebody making an unexpected, and often illegal u-turn can wind up right in your lane as you are turning. Stores rarely have exactly what you need anymore. I guess that's why Amazon is so popular. At any rate, I'm glad I do this only once a week. Traffic isn't as bad when I go to the gym because I almost always go during the day when most people are at work.

The weather was nice today. It was cloudy most of the day and there was a nice breeze. Even though I didn't get my shopping done until well after noon, it was still cool enough to take a walk in the park. The temperature was in the 70's all day. If this pleasant weather continues next week, I may mow the grass again. It's finally getting cool enough that this might be the last time I need to mow. My pace was just average today. It wasn't too fast and wasn't too slow. I did get a lot of steps though. I had a rare 22,000 step day. This is probably why my feet hurt today. It's probably time to retire my worn out Hokas and start using the new pair I bought recently. Walking a little less wouldn't be a bad idea either.

We're having more power outages now. These outages usually only last a few seconds, but sometimes they happen several times a day. The short outages knock out the Internet and cause all the networked items to reboot. Like the bad traffic and empty store shelves, these power outages are just another sign of the times.  Our power grid is no longer up to the job. A huge number of people have moved to Dallas recently and they use a lot of electricity. These newcomers also probably explain the surge in u-turns on our roads.

Today was a pretty good day. The weather was perfect. I managed to stay active without doing any household chores. Dawn was a little friendlier toward me and we has a delicious dinner of Maryland Crab Cakes and bacon wrapped asparagus. Tomorrow is Dawn's day. Hopefully we will have a nice Sunday outing.

Madison is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day