Safeway Shopping Experience versus The Others

So today I decided to shop at Safeway. I don't normally go there because it's really not very close to my home. I grew up shopping exclusively at Safeway and never thought much about it. I took Safeway for granted.

Years have passed. Choice is king. Right across the street from me are two well-known grocery stores, housed in purpose-built buildings and both less than a decade old. Their ambience is the same, though. Large, well-lit, fairly wide aisles. When you enter, produce is on your right. Frozen foods are on your left and along the back wall with meats. One does not bag your groceries for you; the other is slightly more expensive but has a limited variety of foods which are mostly the store brand. The second store, the expensive one, also has more self-checkouts than ordinary checkouts with a clerk. The first store, the so-called cheap one, does not. Both stores are always understaffed. Both stores are franchises of larger, well known grocery chains. Little brothers, if you will.

My goal for both of these stores is to get in then get out as fast as possible because their ambience is vanilla. Nada. Niente. It's almost as if they really don't want us to shop there. Why do I say that? Personal service is non existent. Pretty much what you would expect since they are both understaffed. At the cheap store, most of their employees seem as if they might be students with a part time job. At the expensive store, their employees come from a wide variety of ages.

But today, friends, I was in for a treat. A happy shopper am I.

Today I went to Safeway. Before I even entered the store two friendly shoppers stopped to talk to me. They were both helping me with my shopping cart/basket. I walked in the door. Low and behold, produce was on the left (yay for differentiation). Another friendly shopper stopped to chat there.

I was feeling friendly and I had only taken ten steps inside the door. As I traversed the store from aisle to aisle I was greeted by so many employees who were stocking the shelves, checking the shelves, tidying the shelves. Without exaggeration, an employee engaged me in pleasant conversation in virtually every aisle. Some asked if I needed help (I didn't). Some asked if I had found what I was looking for (pretty much yes). Some just asked how I was (better and better as I let this new grocery-shopping ambience wash over me!). The clerk at the checkout was also very friendly and extremely helpful.

Why did I ever stop shopping at Safeway? I totally have no clue but I do know one thing. I'm going back in a few days and afterwards, frequently again.

Shopping at Safeway was just SUCH a great time. The store felt cozy and not overwhelmingly bright-white-in-your-face. It was so friendly. The employees are obviously trained in customer appreciation and they all seemed happy at their jobs. It's well known that Safeway is an equal-opportunity employer with many types of people working there. Oh, and one more thing. It was so wonderful to have so many choices and varieties of goods throughout the store. I have missed that soooooooo much while shopping at my neighborhood grocery stores (the one where you get the smart price and the one where you get extra). Both those stores are sterile and just horrible in comparison. Lack of choice. Lack of product. I could go on. The bottom line is ambience and choice. Choice is king.

I choose Safeway from now on. So happy! (Thank you Google Maps for the pic.)

I Met A Nice Young Man Yesterday!

You need to know that I'm having a little drywalling done. Unfinished basement will now be useable space (yay--it's only been 9 years and counting). Such is life: you turn around one day and you've been living here a decade. Where did those years go? So, lately, there have been a few tradespeople on the premises to give quotes for the job.

As far as drywalling goes, this job is fairly straightforward. One small bedroom, a laundry room and a hall cupboard. Ceilings. Some pot lights. A couple of bulkheads. I have been thoroughly impressed with the professionalism of each company that I have dealt with so far.

But yesterday, I met a nice young man. He was here to represent his drywall company and to give a quote.

That man has no idea that he may have changed my life from now on.

Of course he was professional. He was gentle. He was kind. He was respectful towards me. More than that, he spoke of his parents with Olde Worlde admiration and respect.

He'll never know that he got the job because he's a dutiful son. He'll never know that I admire his attitude in a life where adult kids do their own thing and try to "fit in" visits with their parents when it is convenient for all parties. He'll never know just how impressed I am with his family ethic. He'll never know.

I might add that I have not yet received his quote for the job but when I do, I am awarding the contract to him. My own dear Son #1 says, "Mom, you don't know if you really like him until you get the price." Except that I do.

Jake On Guard

Time Travel Back to the Flavors of 1960s, 1950s, 1940s

I used to waste a lot of time wishing that I could recapture the intense flavors and scents that I appreciated as a child of the 50s and 60s,  figuring that my senses have aged and dimmed. LIAR! It's not true for the most part.

How did I find out? I decided to sign on for home delivery of organic veggies and fruits biweekly. It's very reasonable. Imagine my astonishment when I realized that grapes now taste like grapes! Bananas taste like I was ten years old again. All the intensity of "real" flavors is like time-traveling back to my youth. I nearly cried with delight.

I'm not flying in the face of ordinary sensory aging that tells us that as we seniorize our 5 senses dim out somewhat. What I notice with my friends is that it is more obvious in one sense than the other ones. Hearing will become less focused but your sense of smell is still great OR you need cataract surgery but you can hear a fly land in the next room. For me it seems to be the sense of smell and taste that are less intense than I would wish them to be; however, organic foods really bring back the memories and flavors I have been sorely missing for nearly fifty years of grocery-store shopping.

For a beautiful and nostalgic trip through bygone decades, try organic food. You'll love the memories.

Tom Brokaw Explains Canada To Americans

Love it? Or list it? House Woes

 We're not talking about shopping here. Today everything stopped working. Quit. Defunct. Warranty is up so what the heck? Might as well just stop functioning and, or, break. Makes my mood muy dark.

Well, not everything.

My home is 9 years old. I moved in as its first owner. We've grown old together but man, this baby is outstripping me now! I look around and see that it badly needs painting. The cats have done a number on several walls (Please, could you just ask nicely to go outside and scratch the fence instead? I mean, really!) and baseboards are looking grungy too. How did that happen?

 When I retired I realized I would no longer be able to afford biweekly house cleaners so the job fell to me. Of course. One of us actually notices these things. But I digress. The house needs painting in every room except for one bedroom. The cats never used to venture there but just to conjure up another feline mystery, they both are loving that room lately and I know that by the time I can hire a painter that last bedroom will have claw marks on the lower walls also.

It's a litany of excuses. Predicated on timelessness while I was working and an attitude of seeing what I wanted to see, all of a sudden the following repairs need doing before my housie's 10th anniversary next year.

Aforementioned interior painting Bedroom horizontal blinds: adjustment-string is toast (ie the lift cord is frayed)
Two sinks need new drain hardware because they have rotted and gone who knows where, leaving an  unsightly hole where the stopper used to be
Cupboard, media room, garage and laundry room (ha ha--don't you love it? actually it's just extra space on the ground floor that is majorly UNfinished) need drywall specialists to finish them off, to love them, to suck out all that allergenic drywall dust and paint them
Washer and dryer are on their last legs--to be fair they both still function, sort of, but I noticed some of my neighbours are replacing theirs lately so I figure I'm next on that list
Upstairs toilet runs like a sieve. Noisily. I can barely sleep so it needs new guts
Kitchen counter needs new grout
Kitchen cabinets need new handles (thanks to Ex, that will probably happen soon)
Kitchen chairs and table need to be constructed. This living without a table nonsense is getting me down (since January)
Pergola crossbeam needs replacing (painters hired by complex wrecked it last year: geez, I thought I'd be nice and just wait for them to fix it but nooooooooooooooooooooo---I need to make a huge fuss to strata about it I guess)

And even small appliances are beginning to die!
toaster
flatiron for hair (I call it Smoking Joe but not affectionately)
fax/printer

Already replaced this year:

document scanner
laser printer
dishwasher
table and chairs (Ok, ok, the new ones will get built sometime. YOLO)

At the end of the day, this is a really nice community and I'm happy to be living here. I am merely flummoxed that so much and so many need repairs all of a sudden. Is the earth spinning more quickly this year or something?

5 Important Phrases YOU Need to Know 

We all need to converse sensibly with our offspring and especially with our teenaged grandkids whose sole raison d'etre is to "help" us with new technologies. Why not WOW them with your vocabulary? 

Personally, it doesn't matter whether I am BSing or actually have the goods, using current speech makes you one cool dude. 

1. Redact (ree DAKT) means edit

• You gather information from a number of sources on the same topic and write it in one article 
• Sometimes it means to obscure information for security reasons 
• Often used in the past tense 
• Moron et al redacted their comments on the inauguration from late night TV commentaries. 

  2. Amuse bouche -- (ah MOOS boosh)

• means a free, very small and often artistic hors d'euvre
• Free food you say? 
• At least that is the traditional meaning of amuse-bouche (these French words mean "fun in your mouth", basically)
• Now, however, it alludes to a quickie--first thing in the morning before work--that is a prelude to longer lovemaking to come! 

3. Jonesing for -- means crave, want it, need it

• I'm jonesing for a vanilla spice latte'
• probably doesn't hark back to keeping up with the proverbial Jones's

4. Cray-cray and Jelly -- means crazy and jealous

• You're going to Starbucks? I'm so jelly!
• Cray=crazy; cray-cray=really crazy (usually crazy in this sense means wild and wonderful) That movie was so cray

5. YOLO --- You Only Live Once

• Should I spend my whole allowance or save it? YOLO

My senior sources for this info were many and varied but personally, whenever I find something in print that is some new thing, I check out URBAN DICTIONARY first. It's not for the feint of heart, though.  

Call Me Phoenix

After death. Near death. Long tunnel with bright white light. Beckoning warmth and happiness. I'm not in poor health but I'm already starting to be beckoned toward a warm white light with a name. Its name is "retirement" and it seems amazing.

Long halcyon days of lying out on a lounger in the sun. Endless sunny skies with just one or two clouds. Oh, I could go on.

Finishing up that last year of paid employment prior to the huge financial challenges that retirement brings isn't really too swift if you're like me; not the best money planner in this life.

We've had fantasy dreams, you and I. Retirement beckons with its siren call and we advance willingly. Faith--we have it. Blind hope is what we've got. I know I'm not the only one who will absolutely love spending more time with my grandchildren and adult children. I have promised myself to learn how to sleep in and not feel guilty about watching daytime TV. I'll extend my computer hours with no regrets.

Remember when we were in our 20s and the we could do anything? ANYTHING. We could stay up all night and still party all day. I am going to stay up all night and sleep all of the next day. I am. How about you? Do you look forward to a retirement where you can sleep?

Sadly and truthfully most of us will have sublimated our own desires to practicalities for many (too many) years. We were accustomed to putting the wants and needs of others before our own wants and needs. So much so that it seems the norm. Call me Phoenix because I am going to rise from those selfless years and become a shimmering avatar of new discoveries.

I am starting small and diversifying from just two (I hesitate to call them goals because I hate that word) projects. First, I need to learn how to sleep in. I particularly need to learn how to wake up feeling calm. The next learning project for me will be time management on a weekly platform. You felt I might say financial management but that is just way too huge for me to attempt right now until I get the sleeping and weekly calendar into some kind of pleasing pattern.

Call Me Phoenix and watch me rise from the ashes of a highly routinized work week.

Senior Tech Tip: Online calendars really help. (I use the integrated Google calendar that you get for free when you sign up for your free gmail.) It's very easy to add events or appointments to your online calendar and you even get reminders, in your email, in advance. I admit to missing some medical appointments before I started using the Google calendar.