My Groceries Had a Wild Ride

I began my day yesterday reading about the student debt relief plan announced on Wednesday.  It's worth reading the plan itself, not just people hollering about the plan (go here to read the plan).  Throughout the day I noticed how many people in my social media feeds were making religious connections.   Maybe it's not strange--I follow a lot of people who define themselves as religious in some way.   As I said to a colleague long ago, I tend to follow lefty Christian thinkers and creative writers and fiber artists which makes my Twitter feed much stranger than that of many people.

This morning, I wrote a longer post for my theology blog about Christianity, debt relief, and structural issues.  

Yesterday's highlights include the arrival of our refrigerator from the consignment store.  When we first saw it in the store, I couldn't imagine why my spouse spent so much time with it, when we had a different fridge strategy in place.  But I'm glad that he understood the value of the fridge, and I'm glad we bought it.  Because it is a basic model, with the freezer on top, it fits in the current space for a fridge.  It may be awhile before we get to the kitchen remodel, and I'm glad to have the options a bigger fridge gives us, like having a pitcher of tea or having the ability to freeze food.

I was also relieved that the delivery went so smoothly.  We have a gravel driveway and 6 steep steps up to the door--it's not easy, but the delivery guys yesterday had no trouble.  Relief!

My grocery trip to Ingles was not smooth.  I am OK, the car is OK, but the groceries had a wild ride.  To make space for the new fridge, I started to pack my car for the trip to seminary on Sunday.  I had the front passenger seat free for the groceries, but that door can only be unlocked from the driver's side by leaning over to unlock the door manually.  I parked the shopping cart, unlocked the car, and unlocked the passenger side.  When I got out of the car and came to the back, the cart was gone.  I looked around each side of the car.  It had vanished.

And then I saw it--in the distance, past the parking lot, past the exit lanes by the gas station that Ingles runs, down by the main highway.  It had tipped over, and a guy was working to pull it up.  I went down to it, and we both stared at the mess, a bit befuddled.  

Up close, the guy appeared to be in his 20's, and I think he was acting out of good samaritan impulses, trying to clear an exit lane.  He put the groceries in the cart and handed me 3 surviving wine bottles.  He pulled the sopping wine bag off the pavement and asked if it was OK if we threw it away.  He took the bag back up to the gas station trash can and even peeked in it to make sure there were no bottles intact.  I went back and got the bigger pieces of glass off the road and swept the smaller pieces to the side with my foot.

Throughout it all, I was impressed with how calm people remained.  No one made angry gestures because they had to go around the mess.  No one yelled.  I was most impressed, of course, with the young guy who got out of his car to clean up a mysterious mess.

It could have been worse.  The cart didn't hit a car.  It didn't go out into the main highway.  I don't know if a runaway grocery cart coming down a hill would hurt a person if they were in the way, but I'm glad not to have that knowledge.

I felt frustrated with myself, even though I had wedged the cart against my car bumper.  I felt annoyed at the mess, even though it could have been worse.  I went back to the store, bought more wine, and headed home.

I spent part of the afternoon at Spectrum trying to get my cell phone to work.  In a way, it's a relief to find out that it's a strange issue, not one easily solved by me, or apparently by the company.  It's also a bit disconcerting, that no one understands why my phone was working once and now it's not.  How can I be sure it won't happen again?

I can't be sure, of course.  Poets and philosophers have told us over and over that we can only be sure of change.  So today, I'd like the phone to go from being unable to make a call to reclaiming its purpose of making a call.  I'd like the Spectrum people who have my Tier 3 problem to fix the thing.